"quick steering arm" mod on a manual steering 53 Commander?

[Xcalibur]

I've done them of three cars and love 'em on all!!!

[64V-K7]

Then there's the other side of things. I removed the ones on my Avanti last year.
The first issue I had on the inaugural ride, was blowing a pressure hose on the power steering. The hose wasn't that old, but the pressure required to move the newly assigned geometry had to be significantly increased. So first off make sure your hoses are in good condition.
Secondly, the arms made the steering wheel more of a tiller than wheel. They also augment any motion from road wander. Where before you could move the wheel 5-6 inches to make a correction, now 1-2 inches. One errant glance off the road while at speed that may cause your hand to move the wheel slightly and you could be in the weeds very quick. Caveat Emptor

[63 R2 Hawk]

My Hawk has 225/65/16 8" wheels with Toyo U900 tires. That is the best tire/wheel combo I have found so far. Steers easy & straight, amazing handling on tight corners. These tires have an interesting design requiring them to be mounted correctly, the sidewalls are marked "inside" and "outside" For me, the quick arms tightened everything up nicely.

[lumpy]

I used a HD Snap-on air hammer with a bit that I turned down to fit the countersunk end of the arm, had 'em both off in less than a minute- after pounding on them for over an hour with my biggest hammer.

On my lark I used my brass mallet , soaked them first with Croil . 3 or 4 good wacks and they came out. Still very happy with the quick arms. Once again I will state ..My car has 165 15 front tires and a small block chevy . It is not darty ... My 69 z28 was a handfull with quick ratio power steering when banging gears at full throttle. The lark does have increased effort at no or slow speeds , but I find it to be no worse than a lot of older cars with manual steering.

[plee4139]

I changed to the shorter arms not long after I got my Sky Hawk. That, along with radial tires made the steering quite difficult at very slow speeds. I've been thinking of changing them back. Is that worth the expense?

[studegary]

I changed to the shorter arms not long after I got my Sky Hawk. That, along with radial tires made the steering quite difficult at very slow speeds. I've been thinking of changing them back. Is that worth the expense?

It is if it will make the Hawk more drivable for you.
I would have recommended against that change in the first place.

[63 R2 Hawk]

I changed to the shorter arms not long after I got my Sky Hawk. That, along with radial tires made the steering quite difficult at very slow speeds. I've been thinking of changing them back. Is that worth the expense?

I probably have my old ones laying around if you need another set.....

[bensherb]

I changed to the shorter arms not long after I got my Sky Hawk. That, along with radial tires made the steering quite difficult at very slow speeds. I've been thinking of changing them back. Is that worth the expense?

If you decide to go back to stock arms. I'll swap you a set of nice clean stock arms for your bent ones. it'll save me the trouble of bending them.

..My car has 165 15 front tires and a small block chevy . It is not darty ...

165-15 those are baby tires. My VW beetle had 165-75-15's on it when I got it, they were too small, I changed them to 175-80-15's.

[lumpy]

If you decide to go back to stock arms. I'll swap you a set of nice clean stock arms for your bent ones. it'll save me the trouble of bending them.



165-15 those are baby tires. My VW beetle had 165-75-15's on it when I got it, they were too small, I changed them to 175-80-15's.

Baby tires or not .. I bet I can show you its tail lights any time you want I can assure you it doesn't have baby tires on the back

[bensherb]

Baby tires or not .. I bet I can show you its tail lights any time you want I can assure you it doesn't have baby tires on the back

It's just that the tires on my Hawk are 2 3/8" taller and 2 3/4" wider than the little 165, even the tires on the bug are over 1 1/4" taller and almost 1/2" wider.

[lumpy]

Ben , do you drag race much ? Im thinking you are missing the point about steering effort with small tires ...

[bensherb]

Ben , do you drag race much ? Im thinking you are missing the point about steering effort with small tires ...

Not in a long long time, and then it wasn't cars. I get it, it just seemed like an aufully small tire for a full size (not tiny) car, thought it's not too much different than what they came stock with. I actually tried 135's on the front of the bug once, steering effort was great, but I tend to corner hard and there was just not enough rubber on the ground and I kept pushing the front end. They were terrible for braking too just not enough on the ground.

[plee4139]

Bensherb - Re: Steering arms: I believe the man who restored my car and installed the bent arms may still have them. If not, I'll take up your offer. I think I made a mistake changing them in the first place, but then again I had no idea what the downside would be.

[bensherb]

Ok Peter, just let me know.

[cdn56J]

My '85 Avanti came with the quick arms. I installed a set from SI on my '56 Golden Hawk with PS, I am very happy with steering action.