My 72 seems to have a very wide turn radius. I have noticed this more since I stopped driving it everyday in the early 90's and I have since rebuild the front end. U-turns, for instance are impossible unless there is alot of room like a two lane road with a shoulder on the other side. I could not make one if there is no shoulder without having to back up to complete the u-turn. Also, when backing it into my driveway, I have to pull way past the entrance in order to swing it in.(My buddy even made a comment yesterday of how wide the front end swung!) I guess I'm just wondering if I changed something during the rebuild or if its just the way these cars are. Otherwise, the steering is responsive and steers fine under normal turns, etc. The tires will turn lock to lock until they just scrub the sway bar on each side. Maybe its just that I have gotten used to how newer cars handle and its ruined me graemlins/sad.gif

I would say that something just doesn't sound right. A stock 1972 has no problems in tight parking situations. The stock steering gear box has an output shaft travel of approximetely 43 degrees. This should be enough to get that car turning. Did you use a different steering gear box? Perhaps you are just used to driving a small car that can really turn in tight areas.

Did someone swap in a "quick" ratio steering box?

As ElCamino72 said, some steering boxes are different... The "popular" Monte Carlo SS and Camaro boxes have less internal travel, and therefore might restrict the turning radius...

Originally posted by 1966_L78:
Did someone swap in a "quick" ratio steering box?
As a matter of fact, I put in a steering box I bought from NAPA about two years ago that is for a 1984 to 1986 or so Monte Carlo SS. This box does allow the tires to barely touch the front sway bar when they are turned to the max each way. I have 245/60R15 tires. It steers and handles great under normal driving around but when you make u-turns, it feels like the wheels don't turn enough to make a tight turn. How far should the wheels turn at their maximum travel?

Originally posted by elcamino72:
The stock steering gear box has an output shaft travel of approximetely 43 degrees. Perhaps you are just used to driving a small car that can really turn in tight areas. How long should the arm that attaches to the output shaft be? I guess one loger or shorter than it needs to be would cause problems.
Actuall, I an driving a FxxD Ranger 4X4 and it turns alot tighter in u-turns.

I didn't realize that you had two similar postings on this topic. If your tires are hitting the front sway bar at full lock, the limiting factor is NOT your MC gear box.

I have posted answers to gear travel questions many times on this forum. My charts that are posted at www.corvettefaq.com/A-car.asp (http://www.corvettefaq.com/A-car.asp) allow you to compare the production design travel of the steering gears for the Chevelle (and many other GM cars) versus other gear boxes. I knew that modern tires are wider than the original production tires. However, this is the first topic that I can recall that specifically mentions that your tires are hitting the front sway bar.

When your Chevelle was originally designed, Chevrolet Engineering used the cross section of the largest production tire (at the time) to determine at what angle the side wall of the tire would hit something in the front end of the car. (They even swung the suspension through its full jounce and rebound travel to determine the worst case condition.) This established the travel limits for the steering gear box that was released and used in production.

There is no question that modern tires are wider than the 60s and 70s production tires. Therefore, it could be expected that wider than original tires could affect the amount that your steering knuckle can be rotated to full lock.

I might suggest that possibly the offset of your wheel rims could also affect how soon the side of your tires contact the sway bar. Is it possible that you changed rims at the same time as your front end rebuild?

Jim,
I posted incorrect info when I stated the tires are hitting. The sway bar has slight rub marks from the OTHER stock steering box I had. I checked last night and the tires are 2 to 3 inches from hitting the sway bar on each side so the internal stops are the problem. I did notice that there is a slight amount of play in the gear box so maybe I can take it back to NAPA for an exchange(I think the box has a lifetime guarantee). The output shaft on the box has a slight rock when the input shaft is turned and I notice some looseness when I drive and the rest of the suspension links are tight. Is some looseness acceptable in a box or should it be tight? Also, would the 92-96 Impala SS box's internal stops be correct for my car? I might be able to get them to swap it at NAPA.

Good News! They said they would allow me to trade up to another box if I pay the difference but I need to know if: 1) The output shaft wobble/play should be there as I must have a defective box and 2) If the 92 to 96 Impala SS box would have the correct internal stops. Otherwise, I will just order the 2.5 to 3 turn box they have for my car.

There wre two different travels listed for 1992 thru 1996 Caprice (87 degrees and 81 degree 30 minutes). Since the 1972 Chevelle had a travel of 83 degrees, you would be safe with a Caprice gear with travel of 81 1/2 degrees.

I would bet that the NAPA Caprice gears only come with one travel. To be safe, I would think that they would have used the 81 1/2 degree gear for all applications.

The amount of side to side play of the pitman shaft should be very minimal. I can't give you an exact number. You might be able to actually see a slight movement side to side with the car sitting stationary and the car steered right to left. With the gear out of the car, I would suggest that you shouldn't be able to apply hand pressure to the shaft and detect any movement.

I do know that any side to side movement of the pitman shaft will definately translate to actual "lost motion" when steering right to left and back.