a guy I know said he put an S10 manual steering gear box in his 3rd gen Camaro convertible. is this gear box (in the S10) the same length as the power steering gear box (in a 3rd gen) making it a straight forward swap or are mods needed ???

 

The 84 - 92 S10 manual gear box is a direct bolt in.

It's suggested that you keep the third gen pitman arm to keep the same steering geometry but using the S10 pitman arm will still work. The third gen pitman arm is slightly longer.

Other than that it's a simple bolt in. The pre 84 s10 boxes are an early style and use a smaller diameter sector shaft preventing you from installing the third gen pitman arm onto the shaft.

The steering box you want has 4 bolts on the top cover. The early version boxes only have 3 bolts on the top cover.

 

I had to do some grinding on the mounting surfaces (making them larger) to get mine to sit flat against the frame rail. Not a big deal. Other than that, it was a direct fit. The bracket that holds the sway bar was the main offending area. The mount tab supports on the steering box are different than the facotry one, so they needed a little work. Another option, is to remove the sway bar mounts. I left mine so that I could use a wonderbar, and that may have been my reason for the clearance work.