Can anyone offer this new guy some pearls of wisdom regarding the installation of a Vega steering box on to a T frame? I am building a speedster with a fairly long hood.

Many Thanks
Dave Carnahan

David
Having played around a bit with installing a “real steering box”,
Here are a couple of thoughts;
1. You need to add a “torsional brace” into the installation. There are a couple of options. A brace to the engine. A frame boxing addition. Probably others
2. A custom drag link. I have used model A tie rod ends with a custom made connector.
Hope this helps

Thank you Les
I did figure that the drag link would need some re-work, however, I'm still on the bottom floor (basement?) of this project. I need to find how HOW the Vega box attached to the T frame. The steering box came with a 3 hole bracket, three spacers and a Pittman arm. Are there any drawings or pictures in existence?
Cheers
Dave

Dave, Do a Google search for the late Ralph Ricks MTFCA. You should find several pictures of his Early Ford steering box on his T speedster. It is like around the 30's and covered several years.
If you'd want some pictures of his I could go and take some for you. He did have a support bracket over to the engine. His worked great.

I recall that Ralph used a 37 Ford steering box. First year of the cross drag link on the V8 cars I believe
The 28-34 cars used a fore and aft drag link.
I’m not quite sure about the 35-36 version

David,

I have been doing these for some years. Use only an original Saginaw box or by Borgeson, not a Chinese built Flaming River. They have thread and spline issues which do not interface well with other components.

You will have to have you drag link heated and twisted about 90 degrees, a Model A ball for the pitman arm, and as stated by others a frame to engine triangle brace behind the steering box to take up the torque.

Now, not knowing your configuration, everyone is different in application. I can send you pictures in the next couple of days but as I said before, really no two are the same it appears.

All the Best,

Hank in Tin-A-See

Do you somehow "lock" the stock T Model steering gearing at the quadrant?

When I did this for my speedster I made up the brackets to mount the late 60's VW bus steering box and added a bracket to the engine pan. I pulled the steering shaft, removed the gears and then welded the stub steering shaft to the long shaft. Has worked great for about 20 years and some pretty solid usage. Had to figure out and make the brackets on my own, I'm quit sure most conversions are unique and I'd never want to be in the business of design, manufacture and sale of such critical parts.

Someone (Les?) made a part that fit over the gear pins on the steering shaft and locked it to the gear teeth on the stub shaft. I think it was a limited run a couple of years ago. It looked like a good alternative to welding the two shafts together. I do't know if they are still available. Les, was that one of your projects?

Speedway Motors sells a really nice stub shaft instead of doing it the hard way. A Vega box makes them drive like they have power steering at any speed. When I cruise at 60 plus MPH no shimmy or fighting to keep her straight.

Hank

I'm going to use a Vega box on my speedster when I get to that point.

I watched a video of such an installation, and when the steering was activated the frame rail actually twisted. The owner's solution was to add a brace from the rail to the engine.....???

That doesn't appeal to me at all, so I'm going to use an extra front end cross member, bolted to the bottom of the frame rails underneath the engine. It's already the right width and will be below the inspection door. The idea is to spread the load between both rails and thus reduce the tendency to twist. When it comes time to adjust the rods, the cross member can be unbolted then reinstalled afterwards.

A couple of links with a few pictures and discussion

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/708324/804963.html?1509901001

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/599638/701596.html?1481479292

Many Thanks for all the information. It is much appreciated. I think I've got a handle on this now.

Best
Dave

You could also use a Model A box and spindle arms.

In the late 1960's and early 1970's before there were a lot of junk Vegas around in salvage yards the T bucket hotrod builders would use a modified to cross steer Corvair steering box. The Covair steering box is smaller than the Vega box and works well on a Model T speedster and looks a little more like T era.