Steering ratio.

[gtpete]

hello. I've finished installing the steering box and I'm now on the steering arms. Question, I'm thinking I would like from the straight ahead position 1/2 to 3/4 turn at the butterfly for 35/40 degrees of wheel movement. Would this be abit to quick ?? What do you guys run ? Thanks Pete.

[rooman]

With a Strange or P & S box the normal length for the pitman arm is 5". Are you running a bell crank or steering direct to the spindle?  On my dragsters with a Strange box and steering off the spindle I use a 5" arm there as well. If you do it that way and run a single tie rod between the spindles the length of those arms is not relevant and can be anything that puts the tie rod where you need it for clearance etc.

Roo

[dreracecar]

Gross overthinking the situation,  First off is this a dragster or F/C-altered , second is that you don't want quick steering since you are making minor corrections to the wheels as it is going down the track, Too quick and you will over-correct and create more problems for yourself. We took 5 of the most popular steering boxes apart and found out that they all had different ratios to start with. Just keep the 5 x 5 and don't worry about it. Although I prefer to incorporate Ackerman in the spindle arms to keep the tires from skidding in the turn outs

[gtpete]

Thanks for the replies. Its a 105/110" FED with an 66 Mustang steering box.

[dreracecar]

Using a production car steering box puts your inquire out of my level of expertise

[jeff/21]

Mustang box is big and heavy  should use one from a smaller car or golf cart have use both cars I've used VW and a Morris8

[rooman]

If you want to go to the trouble of extending the sector shaft the box out of a Standard 8/10/ Cadet is an excellent option to the purpose built race boxes. The Austin A30/35 box will also work but the integral steering column is a bit of a hassle compared with the splined output on the Standard box.

Roo

[gtpete]

Mustang box is in. Yes its heavy but its what I've got and fitted. Just wanted to get an idea of what sort of ratio/speed you guys use.

[janjon]

If I may contribute my two cents, I will say that on my car, 150" FED, 1/4 turn of the butterfly gets you about 10 degrees of front wheel movement. I would say that is quite quick enough and far enough for any steering inputs you may need to make going downtrack. That's one grip up and one grip down, probably if you need to steer much more than that, you should have been off the gas before you got to that point, or should have corrected earlier. Definitely you should have to pass the grips hand to hand at the turnoff, but definitely NOT going down the track. In any out-of-control situations, well, do what you gotta, do what you can.
 But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong...

[jeff/21]

like rooman said 5"pitman and steering arm are good  I've run 6"-6" for more tire clearance 21" front wheels you don"t want a too fast of steering ratio because a slight input will make the car dart

[gtpete]

Thankyou very much guys for all the info. Its sent me in the right direction. Thanks again.