1967 barracuda manual steering box recommendations

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clementine

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Helloooooo FABO!
I am swapping my K member from the 67 one year only idler situation for a couple of reasons, but I am wondering if ya'll have recommendations for the steering box. Its a BB car and Im sticking with manual steering. I have header clearance issues on the pitman side that I would like to solve (currently have 1" spacer on drivers side that I would like to delete to have engine/trans level). I contacted Frank at Firm Feel and he was a great help, so I am considering getting a rebuild kit from him. Firm Feel also offers a pitman/center link that puts the pitman pointing up instead of down that may give me some room to not have it hit the TTI headers.

Thanks FABO!!! You rule!
 
Just a thought here but do you have the engine located in the bay with the measurements that TTI headers require?
 
I have the engine in the car with a 1" spacer under drivers mount to make pitman clear header. pitman points up through the center link on this year. What measurement do you need?

383
 
You should probably verify these measurements
Footnote #39

TTI states they will clear everything as long as the engine is in the correct location in the bay.
 
Header fitment is usually an issue, more with A bodies were clearances are tight. Despite this TTI have good fitment and quality overall.

To answer your initial question the stock manual gearbox works great, at least for me, thats what I have in my car.

Drove a while back a 383 scamp that had a Flaming River manual gearbox and steering felt too hard for my taste
 
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Yup! I need to measure my engine placement. Hell maybe Im using the wrong mounts. but I kinda doubt it. Anyone shim their K member down 1/8-1/4 and shim up the engine a smidge to split differences ever?
 
Firm Feel is a great resource if you want your original box rebuilt.

PST is a site sponsor and gives a discount, they sell reproduction steering boxes that look like the originals. They offer them in the standard factory 24:1 (5 1/2 turns lock to lock), a quickened 20:1 (4 1/2 turns lock to lock), and the factory "fast ratio" 16:1 (3 1/2 turns lock to lock).

The flaming river manual boxes are 16:1 and have a steel case, so they're a bit heavier than the factory aluminum version.
 
Firm Feel is a great resource if you want your original box rebuilt.

PST is a site sponsor and gives a discount, they sell reproduction steering boxes that look like the originals. They offer them in the standard factory 24:1 (5 1/2 turns lock to lock), a quickened 20:1 (4 1/2 turns lock to lock), and the factory "fast ratio" 16:1 (3 1/2 turns lock to lock).

The flaming river manual boxes are 16:1 and have a steel case, so they're a bit heavier than the factory aluminum version.

Im thinking that with a BB and manual steering, 20:1 is good. I am pretty good at 'keepin her movin' and not putting myself in a position of having to crank the wheel, what say you @72bluNblu? Would you go for the 16 and keep the gunshow and core stremph up? Im keeping the stock steering wheeel.
 
Im thinking that with a BB and manual steering, 20:1 is good. I am pretty good at 'keepin her movin' and not putting myself in a position of having to crank the wheel, what say you @72bluNblu? Would you go for the 16 and keep the gunshow and core stremph up? Im keeping the stock steering wheeel.


go with a 20 to 1 and i think pst offers one . 20 to 1 is about perfect in my opinion .
 
Im thinking that with a BB and manual steering, 20:1 is good. I am pretty good at 'keepin her movin' and not putting myself in a position of having to crank the wheel, what say you @72bluNblu? Would you go for the 16 and keep the gunshow and core stremph up? Im keeping the stock steering wheeel.

It’s really a personal preference. My Duster has a small block but I still run iron heads, so it’s not as light as it could be and I run a 16:1 Flaming River box. I’ve also got 275/35/18’s up front and +6.5° of caster and I still like the 16:1 box. It’s great once you’re going 15mph or more. Although yeah, if I lived downtown and was parallel parking it everyday I’d probably feel differently. You get used to it pretty quickly, you just plan a little so you’re doing all your steering while you’re still moving.

I haven’t run a 20:1 box, I would think it would be a good compromise though between the too many turns on the 24:1 box and the “Armstrong” nature of the 16:1 box.
 
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