I suggestion for a steering gearbox for my 1929 model A roadster full fender car that will let me still run radius rods.What are you guys running. I saw a VW bus box in a coupe looked good,what else.
others may disagree...depending on how your chassis is set up and the style of your build , a Vega box in cross steer can work great
I used a '46 to '48 Ford passenger car box, the cross steering is nice and those boxes are still pretty cheap. It fits right under the Fenton headers on the flathead.
....I would****ume that the engine swap(?) will not allow you to use the stock bones and thus the hairpins?
the F-1 to 1956 F-100 pickups were popular in the '60s, I used it in my '29 tudor back then with split wishbones and a 327, and that is what I am using in the Model A I am building now.
So that takes you pretty much back to the F-1 stuff with the "A" end mount. As others have said, the Vega will work well with hair pins. A problem with the VW box that arises is that the pitman arm points up instead of down. With hairpins or split bones that makes you steering geometry almost impossible to set up correctly. Early Mustang boxes were used lots back in the seventies and eighties, but were commercially paired with a four bar front end for the same reason as the VW would work in the same situation, the pitman pointing up. Once again as others have said, time for some pictures of what you have.
Post #10 says "hairpin is cut to clear"? Not sure what you mean here. Where/how do you cut the hairpin??
Gemmer III F1 boxes work great, if your lucky enough to find a 37 hudson box it's the same but puts the steering column at a lesser angle as it comes out of the top of the box as opposed to the f1 which comes out of the bottom
Yip they sure are, I was lucky enough to pick one up, a guy sold one to me sight unseen as a f1 box, when it arrived he had it wrong and it turned out to be the elusive hudson number, to say I was stoked would be an understatement as I'd been looking for one for ages, also have a 37 Nash box which is the same but has a different mount. You guys think they are thin on the ground in the U.S try finding a r.h.d box over here in little old New Zealand..
I have an f-1 box with 46 passenger car gears in it, the ratio is a little quicker and it seems they see less wear than the truck gears.
Take a close look at this pic...(Can't for the life of me remember where I got it or I'd PM the O/Poster.)..anyway ,does this look like an F1 box,just mounted up and in the cowl/firewall area...I like the way the steering rod is nearly parallel with the hairpins...Trying to gather info/parts for my next build...just want to get the right stuff the first time...
All well and good ascetically, but when you run hairpins and a drag link parallel like that you are inviting the demons of bump steer into your life. In a perfect world, your hinge point for the radius rod and the hinge point for the pitman arm should be at the exact same point. That way the whole shebang is traveling on the same plain and same arcs. As you raise the pitman arms hinge point, it creates a situation where now the hairpins are traveling on one arc, and the hinge point of the pitman arm are on another entirely... not good. I know we all see the cars running around with the cowl mount steering systems. You do have to know that with that look goes some negative. That type of steering was popular in mostly go straight kinda cars that had very little suspension movement or steering input, or roundy round cars that really only went one direction and had a whole 'nother batch of tuning built in for various other reasons - mostly to keep the car traveling left. About the only time the drag link running parallel is considered a virtue is when a four bar type front end is incorporated into the deal. You then go from two arcs converging on a single plane to three arcs on three separate pains, but all operating in a complimentary fashion.
I know it is not a steering box, but have you considered a unisteer setup??? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=732709
31Vick: That is a very clean setup.. NeedLouvers : I was planning on 4 link setup and I do understand different arcs of travel. I was just interested in the type of steering box. Thanks for the input.
I see the arcs of travel being really close on a straight road. Certainly not a drastic problem causing set up. It will be Identical turning right and off when turning left.
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