Steering Box Ratio
I LOVE my 16:1 ratio manual steering box. Mine is from Flaming River, but regardless a new manual box shouldn’t have any slop. A worm/sector style box will have a small on center spot because of the nature of the construction of the box, but that shouldn’t mean it has a big dead spot. Yes, it feels a little different than a rack but shouldn’t have any performance impact whatsoever.
My car is used as my daily driver even with the 16:1 manual steering and 200 treadwear Falken Azeni’s in 275/35/18 up front with +6.5° of caster and a Tuff wheel (smallest diameter of all the stock steering wheels). It doesn’t take Herculean strength to drive the car, in fact at anything more than 15 mph or so it’s not hard at all and I can drive one handed at normal highway speeds. Parking isn’t bad if you can make all your steering inputs while still rolling, it can get a little heavy at slow speeds but IMO it’s manageable. Turning the wheel while not rolling is very difficult, but you shouldn’t be dry steering anyway as it wears out your tires and puts more strain on your steering components. If I had to parallel park everyday I might alter my opinion a bit, but I don’t and normal parking lots are fine.
I LOVE my 16:1 ratio manual steering box. Mine is from Flaming River, but regardless a new manual box shouldn’t have any slop. A worm/sector style box will have a small on center spot because of the nature of the construction of the box, but that shouldn’t mean it has a big dead spot. Yes, it feels a little different than a rack but shouldn’t have any performance impact whatsoever.
My car is used as my daily driver even with the 16:1 manual steering and 200 treadwear Falken Azeni’s in 275/35/18 up front with +6.5° of caster and a Tuff wheel (smallest diameter of all the stock steering wheels). It doesn’t take Herculean strength to drive the car, in fact at anything more than 15 mph or so it’s not hard at all and I can drive one handed at normal highway speeds. Parking isn’t bad if you can make all your steering inputs while still rolling, it can get a little heavy at slow speeds but IMO it’s manageable. Turning the wheel while not rolling is very difficult, but you shouldn’t be dry steering anyway as it wears out your tires and puts more strain on your steering components. If I had to parallel park everyday I might alter my opinion a bit, but I don’t and normal parking lots are fine.