<VV> Steering box question - adjustments ? Now, Quick Steering Box

[RoboMan91324 at aol.com]

Robert,
 
You ask if the quick box is that much of an improvement.   That depends.  
If you want quick steering at speed as in auto crossing, the  quick steering 
box could be valuable.  However, if you merely want to do  everyday driving, 
you may want to keep standard ratios.  A quick steering  box will require 
more strength to turn the wheel which will especially show up  at zero speed 
when parallel parking.  If more than one person drives the  car, consider 
the effort required for the weakest person.  Of course, with  the Corvair's 
light front end, this may not be a big issue.
 
When changing ratios, always keep in mind that an increase in  output speed 
compared to input speed is always accompanied by an increase in  required 
input force compared to the output force and vice versa.  There  are other 
things to consider but in general, increasing the output speed by 25  percent 
increases the input force required by 25 percent.  This holds for  steering 
as well as transaxle ratios.
 
Doc
 
1960 Corvette, 1961 Rampside, 1962 Rampside, 1964 Spyder  coupe, 1965 
Greenbrier, 1966 Canadian Corsa turbo coupe, 1967 Nova SS, 1968  Camaro ragtop

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
In a message dated 8/11/2010 5:48:10 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes:

Message:  8
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:25:24 -0400
From: "Robert K. Henry"  <robertkhenry at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: <VV> Steering box  question - adjustments ?
To: "'Virtual Vairs'"  <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Message-ID:  <004c01cb3950$468ffec0$d3affc40$@net>
Content-Type:  text/plain;   charset="us-ascii"

Thanks to all who replied,  both online and off.

For quite some time I haven't worried about the  box because...well...it 
was working. However not too long ago I took the car  out, after new tires and 
a wheel alignment, and the car was all over the road.  I adjusted the box 
to tighten it up (I don't know how it suddenly got so  loose.) and it helped 
a great deal, but it's still looser than it used to be,  and looser than it 
ought to be. I'm sure the car is capable of much better.  That got me 
thinking about taking another look at the problem. After my  initial efforts to 
find parts years ago I more or less gave up. Apparently the  options have 
changed since then.

I hadn't seriously thought about a  quick box. Would it be that much of an 
improvement? One of my mission profiles  is to take the car to the 
mountains. I noticed I was flailing madly twirling  the wheel around corners, 
especially on "The Dragon." Otherwise the car  performs so marvelously in that role.

Robert Henry
'65 Corsa  Convertible Turbo
Knoxville,  TN