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Any installed pics?

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And the purpose, if I understand it correctly, is to prevent "flexing" of the 1.25"? sector shaft, to lighten the load on the OEM sector bearings, AND to basically supply another mounting point for the PS box? I can't imagine shaft has much relative flex in the scheme of things.

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If you take a look at the FSM, it is plainly obvious that the design of the steering gears does not plan for very high steering loads. The "cross shaft", or what we have have been referring to as the sector shaft, has ONE bearing supporting the load. Mainly, it appears that the bearing is to precisely locate the cross shaft w.r.t. the worm (input) shaft. The bottom end is held mainly by the housing, seal, and dust boot.

The "flex" in the steering system is a combination of (a) sector shaft flex, which admittedly is likely small, (b) housing flex, also probably fairly small, and K-frame steering gear mount point flex, which probably is the majority.

I see the sector support kit as having a two-fold purpose:
(1) reducing the flex of the above mentioned elements, and
(2) reducing the stress and wear on the steering gear housing at the lower end from the loads on the sector shaft.

We've all driven late-model cars - even my '86 Supra is still better than the RR in the handling department - why not help our vintage iron as much as possible with the tech improvements?

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The bearing is a nice idea but is the new bearing kit a fix for those who won't or can't or don't want to weld their k frame? It seems a properly welded/reinforced k frame would not require this additional piece as the steering box is now held very rigidly.

Has an evaluation been done to see if there is any discernible flex in the steering box mount after a full gusset and weld?

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I usually use the unscientific approach, by looking at how much the pressure hose's chuck end (on PS cars) moves around when moving the steering wheel back 'n' forth a few inches, car at rest. In fact, this is how I discovered K flex 40 years ago!

From what I've seen, this simple bolt-on helps more than all the gusseting I've done over the years, and that's a lot! In fact, unless I was building another real road racer or auto-X'er, this is all I would bother with.

Again, I haven't measured, this is an eyeball estimation. Measurements, to be worth anything, would need to be done on the same car, same weight, same tire footprint and air pressure, etc.

Remember, no matter how much stiffness you add, the pitman (w/o the added bearing) will still be cantilevered out there.

'Course, it can never be too stiff... ;->

Rick

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