69 Camaro Fast Ratio Manual Steering Box

[Lynn]

Apparently there is such a beast. Extremely rare.

Best explanation I found is here:

There are two measures for steering ratio; gear and overall. Power steering was variable ratio, new for ’69.

#1. The standard [exc Z/28] manual steering ratio was 24.8:1 [gear] 28.3:1 [overall]. 4.8 turns L-L. Standard production steering gear, 5.25” pitman arm, long steering arms.

#2. The standard Z/28 manual steering ratio was 24.8:1 [gear] 21.4:1 [overall]. 3.5 turns L-L. Standard production steering gear, 5.75” pitman arm, short steering arms.

#3. The standard [exc Camaro SS and Z/28] power steering ratio was 16.0:1-12.4:1 [gear] 15.5:1-12.8:1 [overall]. 2.16 turns L-L. Standard production power steering gear, 5.25” pitman arm, long steering arms.

#4. The standard Camaro SS and Z/28 power steering ratio was 16.0:1-12.4:1 [gear] 14.5:1-10.8:1 [overall]. 2.06 turns L-L. Standard production power steering gear, 5.75” pitman arm, short steering arms.

2,161 Camaros were built with N44 special steering equipment. What that means is an overall steering ratio faster than standard equipment for the application, not a specific ratio. N44 as a discrete option is rare, only 2,161 orders.

N44 ordered on a manual steering Camaro, exc Z/28: same as #2.

N44 ordered [incl Z/28 & SS] on a power steering Camaro: same as #4.

N44 ordered on a manual steering Z/28: 20:1 [gear] 17.9:1 [overall]. 2.9 turns L-L. Optional steering gear, 5.75” pitman arm, short steering arms.

There were 101,478 Camaros built with manual steering, 141,607 built with power steering. Production numbers indicate 83% of N44 optioned cars were not Z/28s: 1,796.

That means 99.85% of 1969 Camaros were built with standard production steering gears.

Many thanks to William for putting that info together.

It is post #16 in this thread: http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=18375.15

Also explained here (but without production numbers):

http://www.camaros.org/suspen.shtml#steer