Borgeson has been handling the steering duties of countless rides since 1914 – that’s right, 104 years! The company made the move to answer the call of hot rodding some time in the 1980s, and hasn’t looked back. Today, Borgeson is the leading manufacturer and supplier of aftermarket steering components for the street rod, racing, specialty automotive, OEM, and pickup truck markets.
We stopped by Borgeson’s booth at the 2018 SEMA Show, and went over some of the new products on display for 2019. Namely, its new 12.7-1 steering box for ’67-’92 Camaro, ’64-’77 Chevelle, ’68-’74 Nova, and ’78-’87 GM G-Bodies. The new Borgeson Street/Performance Power-Steering Box has a quicker-than-stock ratio of 12.7:1, with positive on-center and road feel. It’s a direct bolt-in application that fits the original power-steering pitman arm.
We got the chance to catch up with Jeff Grantmeyer of Borgeson and talk about the new steering box. He had this to say, “The box is a true bolt-on for Chevelle’s, Nova’s, first, second and third-gen Camaro’s, and even later G-Bodies. They’re made to use the original flare lines, or o-ring lines, and we include fittings for whichever you need. The only real modification would be for customers with pre-’77 vehicles, who will need to switch out their rag joint.”
Jeff went on to say, “The real beauty of the box is the ratio. It’s 12.7:1 ratio knocks you down to less than 3 turns, lock-to-lock, and it’s done with a nice effort – you feel like you’re driving the car, you don’t feel like you’re floating around everywhere.”
We know many of our readers are avid autocross enthusiasts or track day junkies, so Jeff told us something about the box that should quell anyone’s concerns about performance steering. “We overbuilt the box, it will handle a 4,400 pound front end – we know cars aren’t going to be that heavy, but when performance drivers load them up in a corner with wide tires, there’s an incredible load transferred back to the box. That’s why, we built them to handle that and not wear out. ”
The steering boxes also feature a separate valve housing that bolts on, much like the Delphi 600 box. Borgeson’s 12.7:1 box came about because those Delphi boxes were becoming harder to find. If you’d like to know more about these power-steering boxes, and everything else Borgeson has coming out, head over to Borgeson.com, and keep an eye out for an install article of this new box in our project 1972 Monte Carlo.