I did the jeep gc steering box on my 70 chevelle. I did notice it was a tad better in the steering its still real real easy to turn, still not much road feel at all. I wasnt please with the jeep box at all. Is there anyway to tighten it up more?

Was this a used box or reman? Per Jim Shea's steering pages, all 70's have the same T-bar size as the GC box. Therefore the effort should be comparable?

I'm about to do this swap on my 70' and hoping for more effort at the wheel.

Was it an actual Jeep Grand Cherokee gear from a salvage yard or was it a remanufactured gear that was specified for a Jeep GC?

Jim

it was from a salvage yard. I pulled it myself...

All 1970 Chevelles had power steering gears with valve efforts set at 15 to 21 inch-lbs (a 6 inch-lb tolerance), overall a quite light steering effort. The 1992 1/2 through 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee power gears had valve efforts set at 20 to 26 inch-lbs (a fairly light to moderate effort).

It is possible that you originally had a power gear with the valve effort around 20/21 inch-lbs and now you have a JGC power gear with efforts in the 20/21 range. As you can see, both gears would be to specification yet the valve efforts would be the same. It is possible that you just prefer power gears with valve efforts in the higher ranges of say 26+ inch-lbs.

You probably don't want to compromise your turning circle by swapping a Camaro performance power gear into your Chevelle. (Many of them are in the 24 to 34 inch-lb range.)

Go to: www.corvettefaq.com
Click on: Jim Shea's Steering Papers
Click on: A & F-Car Steering Papers
At the very beginning of the paper listings you will find this paper:
"Chevrolet A & F-Car Upgrade to a Fast Ratio Power Steering Gear"
Also you will find a series of charts in Excel format that lists years, models, gear ratios, and valve efforts for a large number of Saginaw manufactured power gears.

The next alternative would be to send your fast ratio JGC gear to someone like Tom Lee or Jeff Roethlisberger and request a special valve effort. (They would also be able to test and tell you the original JGC effort and you would be able to judge where you wanted to go with a customized effort.) This route isn't cheap but it saves you the effort of going out and purchasing other salvage yard gears and just blindly trying them.

I don't think that there is a real easy answer (cheap or not requiring pulling gears out of your car) to your problem.

Turn One Inc.
Jeff Roethlisberger
P.O. Box 64
Frankenmuth, MI 48734
Tech Support: (989) 759-4206
eMail: info@turnone-steering.com

Lee Manufacturing
Tom Lee
11661 Pendelton St
Sun Valley, CA 91352
(818) 768-0371

Jim,

In your steering papers, all 70's have a .195 t-bar with 24-30 effort. GC's have a .195 t-bar also with 20-26 effort.

Jim I did notice a change, but it was very small. Having a 15" steering wheel and then the ease to turn makes it fairly hard to drive. almost makes me want to put the manual box on but I hated the ratio. My 71 chevelle is the same but my 73 SS drives and steers awesome. I have another 73 box buts from a malibu.

As Jim stated, Turn One can easily modify your steering box to give you whatever steering effort you desire. The cost is $150 to change the effort. Depending on the condition of your box, you may also want to rebuild it, which would cost an additional $150. Turn One also has a replacement steering box for the original Chevelle box. It doesn't look exactly like the original, so if you are concerned about originality, then it wouldn't be appropriate. Feel free to call me.

Jeff Roethlisberger
President
Turn One, Inc
(989) 759-4206

I bought a fast ratio box from a late-model Xtreme S-10 pickup based on an article in Hot-Rod magazine on a 67 power tour Chevelle buidup. I don't have mine on the street yet, so I don't know if it was a good choice. Anybody else using the S-10 box? Also wondering what size T bar it uses and steering effort.