Well yesterday I installed a new Borgeson box with the Bergman coupler kit into my 71 Satellite Sebring. Here’s a description of how it went with pictures. I did this with a friend of mine who knows this stuff extremely well. Without his help I’d still be working on it. We got it done in less than a day.
The car has a 340 with shorty headers running a Firm Feel Stage 3 box with fast ratio pitman and idler arms. Because I like the faster ratio and my exhaust was custom bent to route around the pitman and idler, I chose to keep the fast ratio setup. I also have the large sector pitman.
I bought the Borgeson box and kit from Bergman Auto Craft. Peter was very helpful over the phone. I picked Bergman because of their coupler that doesn’t require you to cut the steering column.
https://bergmanautocraft.com/First we removed the battery, tray, and steering pump to make room. Then we loosened the steering column at the firewall and under the dash. After resting the column and steering wheel on the front seat, we hammered the roll pin out of the original coupler so that we could pull the column out of the old box.
Next was to loosen the bolts on the Firm Feel box, and separate the box from the pitman arm. Separating the box from the pitman was not the typical nightmare, mainly because I had just installed that Firm Feel box only a few years ago.
Space was a little tight but from eyeballing it we thought we might luck out and be able to slide the old box out between the header and fender wall. We were a little too optimistic. The header blocked removal of the old box both from above and from the front. Worst case we’d have to remove the header. Best case we could jack up the engine for the extra ½ inch we needed. We lifted the motor on the driver’s side and were able to slide the box out through the front.
Getting the new box in was easy. It’s smaller, lighter, and fits the frame bolts perfectly.
Back to the steering column, it was time to remove the old coupler and install the new one. Removing the old one was pretty straightforward, but the new one required some extra attention in getting the pieces internal to the coupler arranged properly. We put them together, greased them up, and used a brass hammer to tap the black coupler housing onto the end of the column. My column is pretty beat up, to say the least, so we were extra careful in not making it any worse.
Something that might be obvious to others but was not obvious to me was that the internals of the coupler act as a U-joint. Once we had it on the column it rotated fairly smoothly. I could see how the whole thing would work together.
According to the installation instructions the next step is to center the spline on the box and install the steering column. Nothing on the new coupler or Borgeson box showed a master spline, so we had to play it by ear. We decided to attach the column to the box and use the steering wheel to locate the center.
We attached the column to the box and mounted the column back to the underside of the dash. Attaching the Bergman coupler to the Borgeson box was a little different than the stock pieces. You don’t use the roll pin (as far as we could tell). Instead there is a little stud that screws through the end of the coupler and lines up with a divot in the Borgeson spline. The Bergman kit came with a new roll pin though, so if we missed something I’ll probably discover it after my car careens wildly out of control through a fence.
Centering the box was a little less precise than I would have liked. With the pitman arm unattached, we spun the steering wheel back and forth to locate the center. The box turned about 3 2/3 turns, lock to lock. Half of that is 1 and 5/6 turns. So I turned the wheel all the way to the left and then back 1 5/6 turns. The steering wheel wasn’t straight but at this point we didn’t care about that and were more concerned with having the tires pointed straight when the box was centered. We attached the pitman to the box.
We never did get it right. With the fast ratio pitman attached, the Borgeson internal stops weren’t used anymore because the tires would touch the frame rails long before we got to the stops. On our first try attaching the pitman, the steering (lock to lock) was 1 full turn to the right, 1 1/3 turns to the left. We detached the pitman and tried it on the next spline, and we got the opposite result – 1 full turn to the left, and 1 1/3 turn to the right. If we could somehow get a 1/6 turn adjustment using the splines it would have been perfect, but we couldn’t. I’m hoping to get that 1/6th using the tie rods.
There’s been some talk about the angle of the Borgeson box with the steering column. It’s not too bad and so far I haven’t felt anything.
Then we reattached the pump (the return line on the box is the one closer to the firewall), filled it, and reinstalled the battery tray and battery.
Here’s my experience driving it for about 30 miles:
The Good:
The ratio and steering feel. Wow! I was a little worried about using the fast ratio arms with the Borgeson box. But, no. This is the BEST steering experience I’ve had with this car, and I’ve had this car since 1987! For under $1,000 this is the best steering you will get out of a classic Mopar. The final ratio is somewhere around 10.5:1.
The Bad:
I have the dreaded Borgeson “hiss”, which is a slight hissing sound you hear with this box. Many other people have reported it. I only hear it when the steering wheel is dead centered. If I turn the wheel just an inch, it goes away. I’ve already spoken with Bergman and they are suggesting a new pump.
But even with the hiss – the steering is so good I’ll just turn up the radio and forget about it.
The Ugly:
My original 1971 Saginaw power steering pump is giving up the ghost. The Borgeson box, as per Bergman, requires ~1,000 lbs of pressure at ~2.4 gpm. A cooler may be recommended as well. My pump was fine when the car was moving but struggling when the car was at a dead stop. The fluid felt hot as well.
I hope this helps others who are considering the Borgeson box.
Jim
