Hot Rods Steering Box

Seen where LarryT put a vega steering box on his 55 chevy in his build thread, does anyone know how this worked out? I have a 57 and I would go the 525 like off an S10 if I did mine like that and I would also cut the stock column and use it. I messaged him but he hasn't got back, he may have sold the car already.

 

If you use a Vega box on a Tri Five be sure to buy a quality Vega box. I put a Borgeson on my '39 Chev coupe and love it. But inexpensive Vega boxes wont hold up to heavier cars.

 

For sure, as 1971BB427 says. There are several Off Shore Junk look alike out there.

 

Hotrod wise, the Vega box works in cars with comparable front end weight as the Vega.
A 74 Vega 2 door hatch back has a curb weight of 1341 while a 55 Chevy 210 two door post is 1805.
A Model A or a 32 might not get past that 1341 on the front wheels. That's almost 500 extra pounds on the front tires.
I've run into guys who thought you could stick a Vega box in anything no matter what the weight because that is what the guys in the car magazine were using on the hot rod they were building. Their argument was that "that's what the hot rod guys use, it has to be strong enough" . My whole T bucket only weighed 1500 lbs with 283 and cast iron powerglide and If I had gone to an aluminum glide I could probably have dropped 100 lbs. Maybe 800 lbs on the front end of that car. I only had it on a scale once and that was to get a weight for the dmv but didn't think to do a front and rear weight on it. It was built before Vega boxes and had a VW bus steering box.

 

Use the 525 box. You will be glad that you did. The Vega box just doesn't cut it on a heavy car for very long. Be safe about it.

 

Borgenson recomends not using a Vega box on heavy cars

 

I don't want a Vega box, it'll be a 525. As for china one's, when I built my 33 plymouth, I bought a lot of stuff starting out while I had the money, a Speedway Vega box was one of them. You could not hold the car on the road, I didn't put a 1/4 mile on it before I ordered a 525 from Borgenson, 1st one of them was almost as bad, called them and they sent out a 2nd one right then, it was fine. Since I had it to long Speedway wouldn't make the vega good. I took it a part and it looked like a drunk 10 yr old done the machine work. Back to the question, anyone put one on, 525, on a 55 to 57 using the stock steering linkage? I shouldn't have used Larry t's as an example since it was a vega, I had a really hard long day yesterday and wasn't thinking to good.

 

OK, I've been doing some research so tell me if my thinking here is right. I could install a 525 steering box, set it up at the same angle as the idler arm, I'd have to install the ball for the draglink to attach to and cut the column and use 1 or 2 universals, whatever it takes, to attach column to box.The 525 is 16 to 1 and Speedway sells a pitmam arm that is 6.5 in center to center, stock one is 5, and that also should quicken the steering some and make it easier to steer. Also I'm rebuilding my idler arm with the bearing kit. Does this all sound good? The 57 box is 25 to 1 I'm pretty sure so I should end up with a quicker ratio and it should steer decent. I installed upper tubular A arms so I could get more caster for handling.

 

Quicker ratio steering boxes add to steering effort, as will a longer Pitman arm. That's why cars from the fifties, that generally didn't have power steering, had numerically high ratio steering boxes and large diameter steering wheels. It increased the mechanical advantage and lowered steering effort.

 

I know but I was hoping with skinnies on the front and a 15 in or so steering wheel it wouldn't be to bad.

 

I was thinking wrong on the pitman arm, I'd be better off using the 5.5 one.