Quick Ratio Steering Box
 

Is the steering box in my 63 Catalina the same as the ones in A bodies and Firebirds, Camaros?

The boxes from any A-body will fit. 69 GP's and 70 Up GTO's and cars all should have the Quick box.

Do you need the pumps from those cars also when you switch to the faster rate steering boxes?

Thanks,

Tony

Lee makes one just for our B bodys. I had a Firebird box in my old 64 Bonneville in the seventies, it wouldn't make a full turn, the stops are wrong.
The 12 to 1 Lee will transfer that car into a canyon carver!

The 12 to 1 B body Lee will transfer that car into a canyon carver! I also has the stops in the right places for a B body. The steering box dictates the car's handling personality don't skimp here.

I do not personally know how good they are, but Autozone usually stocks quick ratio boxes. They may be A-1 Cardone rebuilts, which are a decent product, for not much money. Tell them that you want one for a 1970 Bonneville or GP or look it up yourself on their website.

Olds site
 

There is a lot of information at the 442 site about steering boxes.

http://www.442.com/oldsfaq/ofstr.htm

Here is the link, hope it helps,
Greg

You can hook up the Quick box to your stock pump. The last install I did was a 69-72 Quick box on a 62 GP with a rebuilt stock pump. Worked great.

I put a Lee box in Wayne's '66. It's awesome. period. I may put on in my '64 when I get to it.

Ron

What is the cost difference between a Lee's box and say, a stock '70 GTO box? What would be the advantage of going to a Lee's box and do you need to have different fitting? Would there be less slop in the steering due to the age of the used box and what exactly is the improvement? Thanks for any information you might offer.

Tony

I think that a Cardone rebuilt box from Autozone is about $150.00.

Gear boxes
 

I still think the way to go is the junkyard route from the Olds site. I brought mine to a shop in East Los Angeles and they put a quick turn gear in there for 40 bucks.

The Lares Corporation makes a lot of these parts. Here is their website and there is an ebay tab on it. They list some as buy it now for 150.

http://www.larescorp.com/

The same rebuilder just rebuilt an AC compressor for me for $40. It was for our 1992 Roadmaster. I love filling that one up at todays gas prices.

You could use a local rebuilder, or just by the kit from Lares.

Good luck,
Greg

The biggest difference going with the Lee's box is changing the torsion bar so you have a more modern "feel". Any of the boxes discussed will give the quick ratio, but I don't think many reman boxes will give you a custom feedback like Lee's will. I had my 65 Catalina box done with a 12:1 ratio and a custom torsion bar for more road feel. I dislike the 60-70's light tuning. Lee's is more expensive, but I believe it is better. Just my .02.

Dredging up this topic again.

Does anyone have a part # for the 70-72 GP quick/variable ratio box?

I am going to go this route since it bolts right in and I can do it cheaper. Might do 2 at the same time. Would rather get a parts store box, but neither NAPA or Autozone list the part on-line anymore. Need to be armed with the most info if I am going into the store due to the 'human factor'.

If no deal, I will do a junkyard box from one of the many cars, but seems like I should be able to get it from a parts store. Please don't say Ames.

interested in this as well, my stock box has decided my garage floor should enjoy the touch of ps fluid on a regular basis

For my '66 Catalina, I bought a '69 GP box here on the forums, a new rag joint from Lares and it bolted right in and made a world of difference. Same pump, same lines. I did also added a tilt column at the same time too! :)
While a Lee box is probably even better, I'm happy with the improvement and feel. I don't intent to road race it, just wanted a tighter feel and less turns and that's what I got.
JMO, Rob...

Yeah, I am just looking for a little improvement that will bolt in as well. Much easier when everything is apart.

I would be a little careful about purchasing a reman unit from anywhere other than Lee's. I looked into some of the reman units and asked what the ratios were along with several other questions and they were not able to give me any real info. I did read somewhere that they were all basically the same rebuild and not exactly the same as the way they were as OE applications. Not sure if that is true or not. I ended up with a used Grand Cherokee gear box based on its ratio, turning effort and turning angles. I have not had the car on the road yet, but form what I have been through, it appears to be the right one for my 65. I have a post in the thread below #38 with several links with some good info to look at.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=597089

I will also be purchasing a '69 Grand Prix or '70 GTO faster ratio steering gear for my '64 Grand Prix soon. I've looked at Lee's and though they have an awesome reputation, I can't afford to spend $350-$400 just for the steering gear. For what I'm going to do, a later Pontiac gear will work fine. I just don't want a steering box that is like 6 turns lock-to-lock :).

I've looked at steering gears at RockAuto, AutoZone, NAPA, etc. and the corner parts store like NAPA or AutoZone seems to be the way to go. RockAuto has great prices on steering gears, but I don't want to have to pay for shipping my original steering gear to them to get my core cost back.

As for info on steering gear swaps, there's a great article in Car Craft magazine that will answer many of the questions. I'm not sure if it's been linked in this forum before, but it's worth the read. Here's the link:

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...e/viewall.html

I have a quick ratio 605 box and the matching pump form a 86-87 IROC-Z (crashed in with 40K on the clock)... Would I be better off selling it to a circle track racing guy and buying a Lee box (not familiar, is there a URL/Website?) or just using it?

It's been in my stash since the late 90s.

Steering box.
 

I bought a steering box for my power steering 64 Catalina. It has been awhile but I am sure it was from a 65 GTO.
It made a new car out of the old girl.
Thanks.
Mike.

So a 1969 GP steering box same as 69 GTO ?

Had some correspondence with a former Saginaw Steering Gear engineer from GM (retired) who suggested the '96 Grand Cherokee box as probably the ideal choice for a big car. Ratio is good, stops are in the right places, only twitch is adapting to metric fittings, IIRC.

Don't recall what the pump output requirement was.

Interesting tidbit: '66 Pontiacs had their own box that had more in common with the Cadillac and C-Body boxes. It is a unique piece, even though it appears very similar. Think they did it for the weight of a fully optioned Bonne/Stawag, and then just assumed the overbuilding would trickle down in the rest of the line as zero warranty cost.

I'll try to dig out his comments and post here soon!

Crap: nearly forgot the '66-70 Riviera GS box (GS only calibration) is supposed to be pretty good, too. If you are close to a place like Memory Lane, etc, where there is a chance one will turn up, you might see if you could yank one.

I have an 2.5 Lares quick ratio gear box in my 65 Bonneville and Parisienne convertible ...perfekt for highway ..very sure handle feeling but if you drive in the city you need much more radius to turn ..i think for the big B bodys you go better with an 2.3/4 ratio or 3.0 ratio

I bought the one for my 1964 GP from NAPA was very happy. It's been in about 5 years.

If you want a good box for your car all you have to do is go to your local junk yard & get a box from an 86-89 T/A or a Z/28 or Rally sport or any 96-99 Jeep Grand Cheroke. They have the same turn radius & same stops. Most will cost you about $ 50.00 & the only thing you'll need is to take YOUR P/S hose to your local Napa store or any shop that does fittings for hoses & thay will put the correct end on your hose for the new box , the o-ring fitting, & go home & install it. The hose fitting will cost about $ 20. 00 & some new fluid & your on your way. The boxs I listed I had on my 68 Firebird & they work like any new bird on the road. Made my Bird drive great.

The Jeep box was mentioned in the "scrounger's guide" in a recent Hot Rod Magazine. They recommended the Jeep box over the T/A or Z/28 box because they're 10 years newer, and most of the time big Jeeps were pretty well taken care of.

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/1...ring_box_swap/

I was just revisiting this thread to find a steering box. The difference now in prices is crazy. What was $150 is now $600~900 at parts stores. Can’t imagine what Lee’s must be charging. Headed to the junkyard!

Bruce, get a rebuilt 1996-1998 Cherokee box at O'Reilly etc.
You will need to get a Lares 200 rag joint and the hose adapters from Lee Power Steering or another source.

I have done this swap many times and it's not expensive.
'

I used a box from a junk 69 Firebird. Direct bolt in of course, variable ratio, 3.5 total turns. Also it does not cause wheel turning to stop before the steering arms contact the lower control arms, as they should.

Steering box questions
 

My 63 Grand Prix steering box is leaking pretty bad. The engine is out of the car so I figured I’d pull the box and rebuild it. I can get a rebuild kit from Rock Auto for about 60 bucks. The car currently has 3 1/2 turns lock to lock, and I’m pretty sure it’s the factory box since the car only has 85k miles on it.
I was reading in this post that people are suggesting the use of a steering box out of a 96 to 98 Jeep Cherokee, but it sounds like those have 3 1/2 turns locked lock as well. Can anybody tell me what the benefit is of the Jeep steering box if it has the same number of turns lock to lock?

You want a Saginaw box from a late 92-98 Jeep GRAND Cherokee. The Cherokee has a different box than the Grand Cherokee.

The ratio is 12.7:1 in the JGC rather than 17:1 in the Grand Prix. The internal torsion bar is thicker in the JGC which enhances road feel

Be aware the jeep boxes will have metric threads for the hydraulic fittings, though adapters are available.

Just for the heck of it I checked my local pick and pull for the Jeep Grand Cherokee steering gears being discussed. They had two of them in the yard that fit the bill. $56.00 each. So they are still out there.