Manual steering box?

[Ed Cannon]

Thinking of doing the manual steering box swap on my bu. How much weight can be lost by doing this swap? I take my belt off at the strip and pick up a .10 but it steers like crap and takes me about 5 min to do. How good does the manual box feel, is it any better than driving a power box with the belt unhooked? Thanks

 

[tiedyemike8]

It is much, much easier to steer than a disabled power box. The downside is the steering ratio. The S10 box is 7 turns lock to lock so I hear, as opposed to the power boxes which are 2.5-3.5 turns for most of them.

 

[grizwald]

according to my bathroom scale, the power steering box weighed 7 lbs more than the manual one i put on (from an s10). i didn't have the p/s pump on the car, so if you're taking that off, you'll obviously be shaving more weight than that.

 

[1badchevy]

It is much, much easier to steer than a disabled power box. The downside is the steering ratio. The S10 box is 7 turns lock to lock so I hear, as opposed to the power boxes which are 2.5-3.5 turns for most of them.

You can definantly feel the difference if you switch to the S10 box, but its nothing you can't get used to after a little bit of driving.

 

[malibuj]

It is much, much easier to steer than a disabled power box. The downside is the steering ratio. The S10 box is 7 turns lock to lock so I hear, as opposed to the power boxes which are 2.5-3.5 turns for most of them.

^^^^X2

 

[DamageInc85]

If your looking,try to find an early 81-82 s10 box(525 series).They are 4-5 lbs lighter than the more common s10 box.The 525 has a 3 bolt cover vs the later 4 bolt style.

 

[monte87LS]

I swapped over to the S10 manual steering box. Im running skinnys up front the S10 box is great for that setup but if your driving daily with regular size front tires I wouldnt recomend it you'l loose that great G-body drive. But if your running skinnys up front hands down run the S10 manual steering box you will never look back with skinnys its pointless to have power steering its just extra wieght ont he front end and stain on the motor. Im not sure how much wieght difference because i did everything at once. My 87 MonteCarlo LS wieghes in at 3000 pound even after I gutted her, shes been sitting for two years but i have everything I need now to put her back together and this time my SBC top end is aluminum and I might run coil overs so cant wait to see how hard she lauches!