I'm considering one of their 670 steering boxes in 10:1 ratio for my race car. As you know, the stock ones get such a horrible dead spot to the point where its ridiculous. Its especially bad on my car which has stiff 275's tires in the front. The way the car tracks ruts is out of control.

I have looked at past posts concerning Lee and there seems to be some mixed reviews of them, but those posts are pretty old now. Is anyone running their 670 box and have dealt with lee recently? Is the box worth getting?

 

I have one and his box got loose.. This was covered in another thread. I actually just started dismantling mine yesterday to send back to him to get it rebuilt or repaired because it was like brand new when it got loose. He said he'd do it for free.

For the 6 months that I had it when it was new it was phenomenal and tight though, I have my fingers crossed.

 

I'm wondering if this is common with these - that they lose their precision so quickly. Is there a general concensus with these units?

I know that steering boxes can wear unevely, the centers can wear quicker than the 'edges' (when the wheel is turned). This uneven wear makes it impossible to adjust because if you adjust it for no slop on center, it gets to tight when you get near the lock...

I also noticed there's a company called sweet mfg that has a lot of boxes, has anyone tried them?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...box-loose.html

 

Hellz, I noticed that post is from july 2011, have you had your unit rebuilt already since then? I don't know how many people have these units, but i dont see many people complaining. I'm wondering if this is isolated?

 

Could be isolated. That's what he said on the phone to me, but we will see. I didn't get a chance to send it in yet but will be doing so very soon (I was away on business recently and just flew back last night).

 

Had a 600 series box built by them last October; it's sustained 5 months of autocross and driving like an a**. No dead spots developing so far.

My 800 series on the other hand, did kick the bucket after 2 years.

Your results may vary, I'm lucky he's so close.

 

Last time I talked to Lee personally was 4 years ago and dementia was setting in pretty rapidly. He really should not have been dealing with customers at that time and I would suspect short of a miracle he is in far worse condition today. His wife at that time was trying to cover for his messes. This was my first hand experience with him and her, not heresay. I would hope he is completely out of the equation and they have others in the shop doing the manual labor. Don;t know if I would cahnce it at all if in fact he is still trying to run the operation. He even admitted to me he has "Severe Sometimers"- again, that was over 4 years ago.

 

The hottest boxes going right now are Turn One by Jeff Roethlisberger.

Dean, have you ever used Turn One? Jeff is the new Tom Lee.

ramey

 

That's the company the short taxi driver on my left uses.

 

I have had dealings with Lee Manufacturing in the last few years. Dealt with a couple of people, both genders. Got the advice and parts needed with no evident dementia, so someone seems to be holding the fort.
I have a rebuilt stock box, so I can't comment on longevity of their specialty boxes. The rebuilds last well…but still have a slight dead spot.

 

Unfortunately that sounds like my experience about 3 years ago. His wife was on vacation and he was running the show when my box was rebuilt. It came back no better than before but with a fresh coat of paint. I expect the internals were never actually touched.

 

I just got off the phone with Lee Mfg but did not talk to Tom Lee. He apparently is in only during the morning.

Anyway, I did speak to a guy who did not have dementia. I asked a bunch of questions about the 670 box that a lot of people seem to be going with. He said that box is what is currently run in NASCAR, but its a weak box and is not durable. He said in NASCAR, they replace these boxes after every race. He said that the 800 series box (i believe this is what our cars come with) is a stronger design and should last longer. He also went on to say that our (my car is an '89) steering pumps are junk and recommended upgrading to bigger, stronger pump. I think he said the pump to use was called PC. He also said I should call back and talk to Tom...

But, its sounding like Lee has been hit or miss lately, so I think I might give Turn One a call and see what they say.

 

That's completely the opposite of what Mark from SC&C told me about these boxes.. That they're lighter, stronger, more precise, Rack & pinion feel, etc etc... Ofcourse he was trying to sell me an expensive part though lol.

Our cars did come with the 800 box, but why would an older version of the box be stronger and last longer? The stock steering pumps being junk makes sense, I've replaced mine with aftermarket, but with stock pressure.

Curious about this though.. If I could return the box and get my money back I would because it was such an expensive box to have it wear this fast like it did.. It's so bad I can't go on the highway now without fearing for my life, so I can't really drive my car anywhere much anymore.

 

What cars did the 670 box come in? Also, what pump are you running? Do you know what our stock pump is called? I see some pumps around, but they are pretty pricey at around $300. But, they have a whole bunch of pumps in the speedway motors catalog for way cheaper. I wonder if one of those would work...

 

I don't know which cars came with the 670 box, I just knew that alot of people recommended it for it's precision and supposed "strength".

The pump I run is this one: http://www.summitracing.com/int/part...t/model/camaro

Not too bad at 135$.

 

This looks like a stock style pump.

 

Looking through summit, they have some pumps called the TC series. I think this might have been the pump that the guy at lee was talking about. I think i mistook what he said as 'PC".

Now, i wonder if these will fit in the stock location.

 

So, that TC series pump seems to be the best there is, but apparently, our P pumps are not supposed to be that bad. I don't think the guy at Lee knew what pump is OEM on our cars.

I'm not sure, but i dont think that the TC pump is an easy swap onto our cars.

 

hellz_wings, what Mark told you at SC&C makes more sense than what the guy told me at Lee. The Delphi 670 box was in the 00's tahoe, which is a large vehicle. It doesn't make any sense that they would put a weak box in it.

I also talked to Jeff at Turn One, they use the Saginaw 600 series box and I dont know if thats the same as the Delphi 670 box. Their box comes with a .230 valve so it should take a little more effort to turn than the stock box. The stock box has a .205 valve and a 12.7:1 ratio in the WS6. Turn One can also notch the box to fit our cars which is nice. They can also do custom valving and a 10:1 ratio, but its very expensive. It was over a grand for the 10:1 box. Jeff also said that we are kinda stuck with our OEM style pump unless you want to re-route your belt and get new brackets. It's not a bad pump, but its inefficient and takes a lot of power to drive.

Hellz, is your box the Lee 670 auto-x 10:1 ratio one? I dont know what ratio box you came from, I have the WS6 factory box now. How is the steering effort?

I honestly dont know what to get. It seems like the Delphi 670 box is the way to go, but i just dont know. I just want something that will stay tight for a long time...