AGR gear box, little power steering

[brownz]

i checked the search and really couldt find anything. so here my question

i just got a agr steering gear box for my 70 nova 12:1 and the ratio is great but it seems as if i dont have full power steering? its not real hard to turn but i think its a little too hard. when coming out of a turn the steering wheel will not return to center. could it be a pump pressure issue? i did just replace the entire front suspension and had a alignment done and its still about the same. i did bleed the system and the fluid is full. any idea of has anyone had this problem?

Thanks

[Jasons72]

What kind of caster and camber are you running? If its a stock alignment then it probably won't really want to track back to center too well because of the lack of caster.

[brownz]

What kind of caster and camber are you running? If its a stock alignment then it probably won't really want to track back to center too well because of the lack of caster.

yes its just setup as a stock alignment it just a car that i cruise around. the return to center is not the only issue it like it only has half the power assist that it should. not sure if the original pump is the issue or not?

[Rod]

2 things with these boxes they need good pressure from the pump if the pump is old it will be stiff (up grade to a higher pressure pump)and what size steering wheel do you have the smaller the wheel the harder it is to turn (power steering or not)

[TnBlkC230WZ]

I would look at your total caster and your pump. I'm running an AGR 12:1 in a 71 Nova with a stock pump, 14 inch Grant steering wheel and about 6 degrees of caster (I have GW upper arms) It all works pretty good. Effort is good, and it center's itself. I've been autocrossing it with no issues.

[silver69camaro]

I wouldn't worry about the pump pressure too much if the old box worked OK. However, the t-bar in the new box may require a higher flow rate than your pump can provide, which would make it feel more like a manual box effort-wise.

[John Wright]

Here is a great little pump with changeable flow valves to dial in the "feel" to your liking.

http://www.krcpower.com/castpumps.html

[Rod]

Talked to the Guys over at AGR (friday) and they recommend that you drive the car for a while to allow the new box to (Seat In) and if its still stiff after about 1000 miles you will need to go to one of their higher pressure pumps, or anyone else higher pressure pump
Hope that helps,
We do the same swap here at the shop often but when we put in AGR boxes we also use the DSE power steering pump, also friday i swapped in a stock pump into my 68 camaro (with a AGR box) and ran it for a few and i see the stiffness your talking about it goes away at higher speeds but around idle (like parking) it was stiff to turn Im guessing you just need more pressure

[OLDFLM]

Get AGRs billet pump that's designed to work with their 12:1... FTW

[Skip Fix]

I had one AGR box that was always stiffer to one side than the other until 3 years later it finally got REAL easy to the one side. The replacement box with a new AC delco pump has too mych assist , like grandma's Caddy, unlees it is cold at idle. It also needed almost 3 turns on the adjustor to get the slop out. Everytime I talked to their tech it was "you need to bleed it, can't be an issue with our box. We did multiple times and it isn't the first box I've ever put on.

I think pump output is important to affect that, but I haven't had good luck with AGR myself.