Steering upgrade!

Replaced the steering gear with a quicker unit I bought from Corvette Steering Service at the end of April. This unit was advertised as a "Big piston Medium effort steering box (good road feel) much quicker steering! Full turn box for tight turns." Tom Reina, pres of Corvette Steering had told me that the way the frame was shaped in the '58, a small amount of reworking would need to be done to accept the newer, longer style box. "This box is a little longer in the front end, a couple of inches! [On the] 58 Caddy the steering box fits in a dip in the chassis. The front end of your chassis needs to be pressed in or a grinding out so this box will fit in the saddle." He provided a new rag joint and new hoses designed to fit my existing pump.

In removing the old steering gear box, the pitman arm almost popped off too easily. I'm thinking that arm has been off somewhat recently. Then I noticed that the pressure hose on there was a Aeroquip, not factory. Then when I did a test fit to see where I would need to make any modifications to the chassis, I found I did not need to make any changes at all. The new box bolted right up! The evidence seems to indicate that this car has had a steering gear replacement before, very likely with one that was longer like this one. Either that, or Mr. Reina was wrong about the '58 chassis.

In any case, I've got everything bolted up (all in 95° heat) but need to install the hoses and bleed the system. Ran out of time.