Gas Alley Street Rods Cowl Steering Conversion Kit - Side-Steering Made Simple

I ended up going with a neat Reno Rod & Custom hanging pedal assembly (look for an install on that setup in the near future, by the way) and wasn't sure whether it'd be best to mount the steering box in front of or behind the pedals. Well, behind the pedals won out so the next step was to fabricate a mounting bracket of some sort.

One thing that threw me off a bit is the fact that the mounting pad on a Corvair box is not horizontal--in other words, in order for the output shaft to be perfectly horizontal the mounting plate has to be tilted to the right by about 20 degrees or so (don't take my word though cuz I didn't write down my measurement).

As I mentioned earlier, fabbing the mounting bracket took up most of my time. Some of that was because I needed to utilize the space above the box for the hanging pedal assembly, I was piecing the bracket together with odds and ends from my scrap metal pile, and I wasn't smart enough to sit down and draw up a design ahead of time, just wingin' it like usual. Anyway, every situation will be unique and I won't bore you with my specific details, just keep in mind the exit location of the output shaft through the cowl, the length of the supplied Pitman arm, and the final angle of your drag link.

After two or three false starts I finally ended up sewing together a mounting bracket that located the box both in the correct position and solidly. Like I said, though the conversion components can be used to install a reversed Corvair box for cowl-steer in any situation, mounting the actual box will very from vehicle to vehicle.

With the mounting bracket complete enough to locate the box, the next step was to mount the output shaft adapter to the box using the nut and lock washer supplied with the steering box. The mounting bracket will be reinforced for added strength after the balance of the install is complete.

That done I bolted the box and bracket in place and marked the side of the cowl where I'd be drilling my hole. Amazingly I located it correctly, marking the wall with a center punch and drilling my hole with a hole saw. I'll tell ya, drilling that hole was the most stressful part of the whole deal, but I lucked out and got it right the first time.

After celebrating the fact that I didn't wreck my cowl by drilling the hole off center I proceeded to attach the extension shaft to the adapter using the Grade-8 nuts, bolts and lock washers supplied in the kit. Once in place I then measured how much of the extension shaft I'd have to remove so that the Pitman arm would end up in line with the steering arm at the front spindle. If you look close at the end of the extension you'll see a yellow dot. That dot is one of three that Gas Alley puts on the shaft as locators for holes to be drilled for rosette welds when attaching the machined end to the shaft.

Once marked I used my band saw to cut it to length and then drilled the rosette holes in the end.

Also keep in mind that you'll want to bevel the edge of the shaft for good weld penetration when attaching the machined end to the tube.