super stiff steering

Dana67Dart said
Or you could get a usable OEM gear and go that route.

I was driving my dart today. While moving forward at around 10 mph I can stear the car around a corner with one finger under a spoke. Not easy and my finger hurt a bit but do-able.

A lot of the time I can palm stear it except in a parking lot.

BUT most of the time it is hand over hand

Sounds normal. I had a Tuff wheel with a manual box. It was a workout to park it.

Nothing was worse then this old truck. Any manual box felt like power steering after driving this. Having something hooked to it made it much easier to drive.

Maybe you could put a bunch of weight in the trunk. LOL