I would be very careful if you are planning to modify the steering design to
add an additional U-joint. I drove a car (1971 GT) that had this done to
accept an SD-1 Rover V-8 with fuel injection. The owner added an
intermediate shaft that was secured to the fenderwell with Heim joints. It
looked kloodgy, and the car drove like a truck (with the steering wheel
about 4 inches lower down in your lap). I was V-8 hungry at the time, but
this car had so many jury rigs that I couldn't justify the $7 grand the guy
wanted for it. Luckily I found a factory GT V-8 only 5 miles from my house,
it cost a mint but it's original.
Sure, the RB crossmember raises the ride height some, but you eliminate a
lot of other headaches by using what the factory used on the GT V-8.
Cheers,
Paul Kile, Fair Oaks, CA
1974 MGB-GT V-8 (The Rustbucket, soon to rise again as The Phoenix)
-----Original Message-----
From: James Nazarian Jr [mailto:James.Nazarian@colorado.edu]
Sent: Monday, October 04, 1999 1:30 PM
To: Ron Howard
Cc: buick-rover-v8@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Steering
What I have designed (read as not yet built or tested) are a set of
brachets to move the rack mounts foreward (to front of car) about 1.5
inches on the plane of the old mounts. Rotate the rack about 20deg (not
precise yet) down, to get the shaft under the rv8 style headers, and use a
Borgesson 5 inch offset steering box from the steering column with a
u-joint to a new steering shaft connecting the offset box to the rack
with another u-joint there. Give this a look, like I said I haven't
built it yet, but I think that it is going to work. BTW Borgesson does
nothing but custom steering components, I don't have contact info infront
of me but I'm sure if you searched on them on the net you could find them
James Nazarian
'71 B roadster
'74 BGT bastardization with big aluminum heart :)
'63 Buick 215 cubic inch 'heart'
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