I wanted to post this since a lot of people have made the Saginaw 670 (Jeep) steering box conversion. Hopefully it will be useful to someone. I have the Corvette Steering modified box and a TC pump with stock GM plastic integrated reservoir.
The car steered ok, but it is obvious that the parts are not engineered to work together real well. At higher RPMs the steering was very touchy and created a 'disconnected’ feel. At any speed it seemed ‘overboosted’. In addition, I would always end up with air in the system after longer driving sessions at operating temp despite good lines and no leaks.
I sent the pump and box to the best in the business at Lee Manufacturing to match up the components. They rebuild/blueprint the pump and box, flow check the units and match them up to what type of driving the vehicle is used for. Total cost for this service was @$210. On top of this, they were very nice to deal with and would answer all of my stupid questions. There is not much that they have not seen with steering systems in 40 years.
The result has been amazing - much better road feel and centering. A lot of the higher speed jitters are gone and once I get around to do a thorough realignment it will make it even better.
The cause of the air in the system was the stock GM integrated reservoir - no internal baffles and not enough capacity with the fast ratio box and hydroboost. Lee proved this through testing my pump and replaced the stock tank with one of their aluminum ones which is a 'race' type of part. KRC and many others make similar versions as well.
Picture below shows updated steering pump and reservoir.
Phil
The car steered ok, but it is obvious that the parts are not engineered to work together real well. At higher RPMs the steering was very touchy and created a 'disconnected’ feel. At any speed it seemed ‘overboosted’. In addition, I would always end up with air in the system after longer driving sessions at operating temp despite good lines and no leaks.
I sent the pump and box to the best in the business at Lee Manufacturing to match up the components. They rebuild/blueprint the pump and box, flow check the units and match them up to what type of driving the vehicle is used for. Total cost for this service was @$210. On top of this, they were very nice to deal with and would answer all of my stupid questions. There is not much that they have not seen with steering systems in 40 years.
The result has been amazing - much better road feel and centering. A lot of the higher speed jitters are gone and once I get around to do a thorough realignment it will make it even better.
The cause of the air in the system was the stock GM integrated reservoir - no internal baffles and not enough capacity with the fast ratio box and hydroboost. Lee proved this through testing my pump and replaced the stock tank with one of their aluminum ones which is a 'race' type of part. KRC and many others make similar versions as well.
Picture below shows updated steering pump and reservoir.
Phil
