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Traditional or cross steer

O

Oldbuilder

Member
Okay gear heads,,, I'm trying to decide which direction I want to go. Conventional old school using a reverse Corvair or the modern Vega cross steer. My reason for holding off on cross is because looking at the amount of gap I have now with no weight on the car, going cross steer I'm concerned the frame will hit the steering rod. I'm 240 pounds and when I jumped on the frame it came close. A Chevy 350 and trans weigh a whole lot more. I'll have to post a photo of the setup to help get the picture. I didn't do the normal spring behind front axle. It's a spring over with a slightly taller spring perch to keep ride height where I wanted it. It's a long story on why it went this way & to keep it simple, the project was built that way from the beginning and I didn't want to change it. Besides, you don't see many spring over Tee's. I've thought about bending the steering arms according to P&J's instructions and may. Photos will really help show the concern, so hang in there I'll post as I learn how & get the right file size made up. Maybe before the night is over :)

So what are the pro's and con's of each setup.
 
Do your steering arms bolt on? If they do, get a deeper drop.arm. If they are stock spindles, I would heat and bend. John
 
I am also undecided on steering, I was told cross steer is better control, better at highway speed. CCR plains have steering going over top of frame. They use a corvair box.
 
If you're thinking Vega you might look at Unisteer also.
 
Yep their the bolt on type steering arms. I have Ford spindles running Chevy 11" rotors and GM metric calipers. Barely fit inside the 14" wheels I have but they do go and I can get my fat finger between the caliper and wheel. I think with the right tool made up I could bend them enough to run a cross steer. My buddy has cross and one issue was how close the steering shaft from the firewall the to box is to the engine mount.

Do you have to run a pan hard bar with cross steer?
Do you have to run a pan hard bar with Corvair steer?

Or is it just best practice?
 
You sure do have to have a panhard bar with cross steer, if you don't the front end will go sideways when you turn the steering wheel. You don't have to have a panhard bar with a Corvair box but some people seems to think it makes handling better, I don't use one and my car handles good. I dont know just how you could run a sway with a straight axle.
 
Traditional costs more but looks better having the box over the frame near the firewall and the column through the firewall which also gives more leg room.

Cross steer places the box at the end of the frame by the axle which looks tacky to me but you need a panhard bar due to shimmy and shakes in the front end at speed or over bumps. But it usually costs less to finsh it. ( look under the suspension threads there is quite a few issues with out a panhard bar ! )


Needless to say i chose the traditional through the firewall approach. If you buy RPM's reverse corvair box it brings the cost around the cross steer pricing also.
 
Joe do you how much RON gets for a corvair box. I don't think he has them listed on his site. You are rite the vega set up does not look as good.
 
Ron there is alot of stuff that you dont have on your site. It would be nice to see your web site up dated on all the stuff you do . A lot of us no that you have alot more then is shown but new people dont no. The thing im getting to is there may be some thing that I dont no about and wont on my ride:)
 
Dino said:
Ron there is alot of stuff that you dont have on your site. It would be nice to see your web site up dated on all the stuff you do . A lot of us no that you have alot more then is shown but new people dont no. The thing im getting to is there may be some thing that I dont no about and wont on my ride:)
Click to expand...

I know the headlight shock brackets i bought are not on there. He said he is working on updating the site last time we chatted.
 
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