Curious who here has put in a quicker ratio steering box. I have been looking at the Redhead Steering Gears box and they apparently have 3 ratios available, stock 18:1, 15.1:1(I think), and I think their quickest was a 12.7:1. So Im curious what people have upgraded to and if they liked it. I am mostly torn between the 15 and 12 ratios as the reduced lock to lock would be nice. I just dont want to make the car too darty on the highway.
My car is still spread over the garage, attic, and the body shop so I can’t give you much input on what it is like to drive at highway speeds with a 12.7:1 box. I would say you might get a rough idea on something more modern that has a similar lock to lock.
For example a Toyota Rav 4 SUV is about 2.75 turns lock to lock.
A Ford Fiesta ST has the most aggressive steering of anything I have driven at 2.25 turns lock to lock with the wheelbase of a Gokart. Below is an old thread I dug up when the lock to lock numbers for the different Saginaw box guts in a 71-73.
For future people...
Don C & Stanglover both have variable ratio boxes and confirmed them to be about 3.6 turns lock to lock. Paul113 also has a variable box, and his was about 3.4 turns lock to lock.
My parts car with a fixed ratio box is 4 turns lock to lock.
My 12.7:1 quick ratio box is about 2.67 turns lock to lock.
So it looks like....
4 turns = fixed ratio
3.5 ish turns = variable ratio
2.67 turns = true 12.7:1 conversion
