Rack & Pinion Steering

[redcamaro]

Is there a Rack and Pinion setup that has 6" or 15cm of travel from lock to lock?

Ideally one that mounts to the front of the K frame (crossmember), and right hand drive of course. Power assist would be nice too.

[chaser304]

i can tell you that there isnt many cars that run the rack at the front of the k frame..... But i do know of a couple The FG F**d falcon runs it at the front and also the territory does. i think they may have about 150mm of travel. i could check next time one is in at work.

Cheers chaser

[Holden202T]

toranas and geminis have front racks

[Dazza92VP]

so do rodeo/dmax

[redcamaro]

i can tell you that there isnt many cars that run the rack at the front of the k frame..... But i do know of a couple The FG F**d falcon runs it at the front and also the territory does. i think they may have about 150mm of travel. i could check next time one is in at work.

Cheers chaser

Yeah that would be great if you could, I think it will need 150mm (6")... else the spindles need to be modified to maintain the turning circle. That's what I've read up on so far anyway, so it's time to try one on I guess.

[redcamaro]

toranas and geminis have front racks

I measured the travel on an L34 Torana the other week and it was only 5.5" - not enough travel there.

[redcamaro]

so do rodeo/dmax

There's a recent model Toyota 4x4 that I measured roughly, and it looked like about 6" of travel - have to find out what model it was.

I also measured a VE HSV or SS and I think that was close to 6" as well and on front of the K member if I recall - not sure now?

[VK_3800]

The width (i.e. inner joint to joint) is very important too, you can't just go by travel. So it depends on the car you want it for as to what will suit, a little difference can be allowed for by moving the rack up or down but you can cause some massive bump steer problems if everything isn't perfect.

BMWs, MX5, Subarus, Cortinas have front mounted racks. You might be lucky getting that much travel out of them though and they're all reasonably narrow. I'm in the final stages of putting an MR2 power steer rack into my Torana, its the same width (~625mm) and travel as the Torana rack.

The other option is modern racks have screw-in tie rods which can be space out a little; the drift guys use spacers with long stud inner tie rod ends so that the spacer itself moves into the rack housing and you get a bit more lock before hitting the end, this could potentially give you that extra half inch. Bear in mind though that this alters the inner joint spacing and could stuff up your bump steer again, so needs to be planned for from the start (you need to start with a narrower rack).

[redcamaro]

Yes width and bump steer, travel and turning circle seem to be important 'correlations' with steering.

In the US they use the rack out of Ford Pinto's on thirdgen F-body Camaros and Firebirds, but they're left hand drive racks.

[VK_3800]

Well that is the other option, a LHD rear mount rack is effectively a RHD front mount if you can get hold of one.

Also I didn't mean to understate the importance of getting the geometry correct; if you don't get it spot on the car will be very dangerous to drive and not just around corners.