Yesterday I took the internal quick ratio parts and installed them in the 77 Nova steering gear housing. Like the rest of the car it is compiled from parts off of several models. The rack and pinion are from an 89 Camaro, the housing from the Nova and the spool and input shaft from a 99 Suburban. This allows the use of stock hoses, has the 12.7:1 steering ratio and the spool/input from the truck will provide a stiffer steering than stock and has a nice upgraded seal assembly that is not exposed to the elements.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j199/64elcamino/77%20Nova%20project/front%20end/P1010017.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j199/64elcamino/77%20Nova%20project/front%20end/P1010018.jpg

Now you gotta blow it all back apart again and have Johnny label which parts are original and which parts are of the later years that offer more feed back (no more steering the car with your left hand's pinky) as the newer model parts offer more resistance to movement of the steering wheel (not so much you have to pull into a truck stop every four hours and have one of the waitress' sign your log book for you). Just enough where you can feel the effort needed to pull a 0.92 G turns on the slalom course.

And of course explain yourself nicely in a tech article explaining why GM finally woke up and stop catering to grey haired grandmothers driving their land yachts to church on Sunday needing power assist to the point of your steering feed back matching that of your computer joystick while playing Grand Theft Auto. I'll give you a clue it has to do with the Germans and this time it had nothing to do with the war (wink, wink, nudge nudge) but everything to do with the three letters that scared GM straight, er twisty, I mean Philip will explain it all! I hope because it is his post and I don't want to hijack it. :D

Big Dave

I was just getting reading to search quick ratio steering, actually I did earlier, and see what would fit a 71. Is there one the just bolt up or do I need to blow it apart and do what you just did? I've never done that so I have no clue about it.

John The later model steering gears use a smaller spline on the input shaft and O ring fittings. For my car since the column was changed to a double D shaft nothing stock would fit anyway. The whole build on my car has involved adapting parts from other GM cars to get what I wanted.

AGR makes a bolt in unit for your car. Same splines and inverted flare fittings. For the price it is a good deal with no hassles.

As I understand it you can use any mid-eighties (1985) and up box from just about any car (even Fords and Jeeps) as they all will bolt up to your frame. The problem with a late model box in your earlier ride is the fact that about 1985 GM changed over from a S.A.E. compression flair fitting to an O-ring sealed fitting. Your options are to use an adapter (Brass, and noticeable if doing a restore) or to use a new hose with an SAE fitting on one end and an O-ring on the other.

Now another consideration is the turning radius (distance between the bump stops inside the gear box changes with different model cars) all are adjustable, but it has to be blown apart to get to the stops. And the other issue is the steering ratio (number of turns of the steering wheel to get it from bump stop to bump stop). Once again some sporty models (Monte Carlo the single most popular donor car but others use the same part for less money, Camaro for example) have a faster turn ratio known as a quick ratio; while other have a variable steering ratio (little to any movement of the wheel in relation to steering input but then quickly compensating by an accelerated ratio as the wheel is turned over. These are found in luxury boats such as the Caprice or Buick Electra (that's right any GM model has the same steering box as there are only about six different models of steering box in total bolted into all GM cars as there is only the 800 series or the 605 box in production from Saginaw with internal mods inside being the difference). Most racers do not like this style box but if you have a pick-up they are great for towing. Tracks nice and straight but if backing up they react fast to input.

Earlier cars also had fast easy steering (the Vega box was down right squirrelly), and Corvair but are no longer produced new (you can buy them with a good rebuildable core). Once again the all bolt to the frame, though the Corvair and Vega (Monza) had different spline counts and lengths of the out put shaft which require aftermarket parts. Input was different also but there are rag joints with the right size input to bolt it up.

Saginaw 800-type units (those with the pitman arm held on by four bolts on top) were found on the following cars:

•1964-'84 AMC full-size cars
•1968-'74 AMX
•1968-'74 Javelin
•1965-'91 Jeep J-series truck and station wagon
•1970-'88 Grand Prix and Monte Carlo
•1964-'88 GM A-body cars (Chevelle, Malibu, Le Mans, GTO, Tempest, F-85, Cutlass, 4-4-2, Special, Skylark and Gran Sport)
•1967-'92 GM F-body cars (Camaro and Firebird)
•1964-'79 GM X-body cars (Apollo, Nova, Ventura and Omega)
•1964-'88 Chevy El Camino and GMC Sprint
•1972-'75 IHC Scout

Late Model 12.7:1 quick-ratio gearboxes with ID markings of YA, WS and HX.
Line Thread Size: M18x1.5 and M16x1.5 (M being for a Metric thread O-ring fitting)
Number of Mounting Holes: 3, (missing leg H-pattern)
Input Shaft Diameter: ¾-inch
Output Shaft Diameter: 1 ¼-inch
Number of Turns Lock to Lock: 2 ½ - 3
1984-'88 Monte Carlo/Malibu with Z65 suspension
1983-'88 Malibu, El Camino
1982-'92 Camaro except FE1 soft ride suspension
1984-'87 Regal with FE2 or FE3 sport suspension
1983-'84 Hurst/Olds
1985-'87 Cutlass with 5.0 (VIN code 9)
1982-'85 Trans Am
1986-'92 Firebird except FE1 suspension
1986-'87 Grand Prix with FE2 touring or F41 heavy duty suspension

Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, I mean NAPA dealer has these Weatherhead adapters sitting in the parts bin.
Part number M41157X6X16 - AN6 male to metric 16 O-ring male
Part number M41157X6X18 AN6 male to metric 18 O-ring male
Part Number 1446 - female inverted flare thread
(5/8-18) to male 16 X 1.5 metric o-ring
Part Number 1447 - female inverted flare thread
(5/8-18) to male 18 X 1.5 metric o-ring
Part Number 1444 - 11/16-18 thread O-ring
Male to 5/8-18 female inverted thread adapter

Big Dave

Here it is installed in the car and hoses attached

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j199/64elcamino/77%20Nova%20project/front%20end/Powersteeringpump9.jpg

From below

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j199/64elcamino/77%20Nova%20project/front%20end/Powersteeringpump11.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j199/64elcamino/77%20Nova%20project/front%20end/Powersteeringpump12.jpg

And the pressure port fitting. It was changed to the inverted flare (on left) from the O ring (on right) to enable the use of the stock housing and stock type hose. The pressure hose is a replacement for a 72 Impala with a 400 sb engine. The retrun line pipe is from a 76 Nova with a 305.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j199/64elcamino/77%20Nova%20project/front%20end/Powersteeringpump.jpg