I've never been happy with the steering on the coupe because the travel of the vega box isn't enough to turn the wheels to the stops. What I'd like is a longer pitman but I really don't like idea of cutting, lengthening, and welding it back together. Does anyone offer longer Vega pitman arms?
P&J's is 6 inch's CC. I have another brand I've used on a few ch***is that is 6.25 CC. I've never had any trouble getting my ch***is to turn lock to lock. I also use only the US Vega box made from the original OEM patterns.
I've dealt with that issue. The problem I found on the cars I've reworked was, they had aftermarket bolt on spindle arms. The bolt on arms were longer than stock Ford spindle arms, which slows the steering down and reduces the travel, (making the stock vega pitman arm think it's to short!) I've done both, - lengthen the pitman arm / or change to stock Ford spindles with orginal arms. Either way, it will make things better. On my own builds I use only stock Ford spindles with orginal arms, and OEM Vega pitman arms ! Both are great quality forgings and can be carefully heated and reshaped as needed.
Not sure but aren't factory vega pitmans 6" center to center? Ford spindle arms aren't an option as this isn't a Ford. It's Pontiac with a Chevy front axle. You hit the nail on the head about the aftermarket steering arms. I could always drill another set of holes closer to the spindle for the tie rod, and move the drag link up to the hole where the tie rod was previously. Probably what I'll end up doing but I thought if a longer pitman were available it would be a lot simpler.
Just remember that longer pitman arms and shorter steering arms will increase steering effort while making the steering quicker. If you go too much, the steering will get too tough. Don't ask me how I know that.
I would guess you set your caster to the 7 that nobody seems to question? You cannot build a proper front end/steering setup without factoring in the proper caster to work correctly with what you have built.
Can you put up more info on the whole setup? Just some stuff I ran into with my 32 cross steer with a very fast ratio Ross box that is 2.5 turns lock to lock, a large dia 41-48 Chevy steering wheel, proper front wheel offset, and using the (35-48 Ford style) steering arm on the right side with the 2nd hole for the cross steer... My setup would hit both stops if I put a floor jack under the I beam to take weight off of the tires. Drop it down, and it would not hit the stops, due to the heavy early Olds engine, and too much caster. I took a lot of caster out, and now it will hit the stock Ford stops with the jack removed. It felt like a stone before I did the caster change, when trying to steer on the shop floor. Now it feels great. -If I could still not quite hit the stops with my caster change, I had planned on using that special Jeep right tie rod end, that has a 2nd hole on it for a cross steer attaching point. That will change the ratio, and get more movement of the main tie rod, with the same exact pitman arm length.
It's been some 11 years since I built her so the numbers are a bit foggy but I think I ended up with less than 7. Around 5 comes to mind. This is a way different setup than a ford. I relocated the mounting pads from the top of the axle to below to move the axle above the spring. When I welded the new pads on the axle I dialed in my caster. Here's a picture from the first HAMB drags so you can see the basic setup. I really don't have good pictures of the steering. The issue is the Speedway steering arms with holes drilled to far away from the Chevy spindles.
I should add that it drives nice, straight and true. My best in the 1/4 now is a 12.10 @115.10 and have no steering or driveability issues. I just want to be able to make tighter turns.
Updating my post. My references are for my repro ch***is using Super bell steering arms and axles and P&J Vega pitman. I like Pete like to use original spindles and Vega pitmans on my own ch***is if possible.
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