Question for Roy Braatz or others

[Anthony F.]

[Roy B.]

[Verle R.]

Re: Question for Roy Braatz or others

I think the "upright" is different. This is the part the kingpin goes through top and bottom. It mounts the spindle something more than an inch higher, effectively lowering the car that much or more. Because of this difference, the steering arms that bolt to the back of the spindle are shaped different.

Swapping 54 Chevy uprights was an old racing trick to lower the front of the car without cutting springs.

Verle

[Sander B.]

Re: Question for Roy Braatz or others

see picture for the difference in spindle supports
left pass.car on right corvette

[Anthony F.]

[Brad K.]

Re: Question for Roy Braatz or others

Many years ago (in the mid '70's, when I was driving my '59 on a daily basis) I struck a curb very hard and fractured the sector roller inside my steering gearbox. I looked a long time and couldn't find a replacement. I finally found a "suitable" double-enveloping worm and sector replacement in a junk yard out of a '49 Chev pickup. When I put the Corvette gears side-by-side with the pickup gears, it was obvious that they would fit, but the pickup gears were finer pitched. I needed to get the car going so I installed them and they resulted in requiring more turns of the steering wheel lock-to-lock. If I remember correctly, a standard straight axle Corvette steering wheel turns about 3 1/2 turns lock-to-lock and with the pickup gears, it required about 4 1/2 turns.

I drove the car like this for several more years until I finally found the correct gears! My conclusion was that the early pickups and passenger cars front suspensions were "visually similar" but were not identical. The General did do a substantial re-design on most components. Remember that the '53 Corvette was not a sure thing.....and any upgrade of something in-house would be a lot cheaper on the budget if the car had to be dropped from production later!