been thinking about my car as of late..

Im thinking its time i part ways with the stupid power steering system and switch it out to a manual rack and pinion steering system, problem is, Nobody makes them for my car

so now im thinking about adapting a rack and pinion from somewhere else to my car......

would this save me weight over the original steering system its got now?

Pinto rack ftw..........

If you just want manual steering, check this out: https://www.429-460.com/stuff-for-sale-f1/ford-parts-t5566.htm its about the 12th item down the list.

The R+P is nice but this would be a bolt in.

Bill

Putting a front-steer Pinto, Mustang II, or Fox body rack on the older "spring tower" cars (with their rear-steer geometry & looooong lower control arm lengths) can be a real pain in the azz to do correctly if you don't know what your doing.

Bump-steer geometry problems & Ackerman geometry problems will be two of the biggest pains if you just swap the spindles side-to-side & slap a front-steer rack on it. The simplest way is to just buy one of the rear-steer rack kits on the market & save all the headaches of working out all the rear-steer suspension components with front-steer rack geometry.




.........Or you could just swap the entire front suspension with either a Fox strut & rack setup kit, or a Mustang II swap kit.

I don't know if this will help with what Dave said, but some Chrysler products have rear steer R&P. Might check to see if these would be easier to make work.

AZFairlane wrote:I don't know if this will help with what Dave said, but some Chrysler products have rear steer R&P. Might check to see if these would be easier to make work.

That is a possibility cuz if I remember correctly one of the rear-steer rack kits on the market does in fact use either some kind of a Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler front wheel drive rear-steer rack, or possibly a foreign car maker rear-steer rack.......but I'm not 100% sure.

AZFairlane wrote:I don't know if this will help with what Dave said, but some Chrysler products have rear steer R&P. Might check to see if these would be easier to make work.

Dodge Omni rack is a rear steer app....installed one on a maverick once, worked out pretty sweet.

here you go.....out of Australia and kinda pricey. http://www.rrs-online.com/rack&pinionproducts.php

later model tauruses and windstar/freestar and the merc equivalents are rear steer racks.... keep it ford....

7litrestang wrote:later model tauruses and windstar/freestar and the merc equivalents are rear steer racks.... keep it ford....

Keeping it "Ford" is fine as long as the rear-steer Ford racks you mentioned do actually have the correct main body length to work with the older "shock tower" car's real long lower control arm lengths & short chassis pivot point C/C measurements to avoid ending up with any bump-steer problems.

Choosing a rack just because it's a "Ford" rack could be asking for bump-steer trouble if it's geometry won't work correctly with the older suspension's geometry. Better to choose a rack (whatever the brand) that fits a suspension's specific geometry need vs choosing one on brand loyalty.

wouldnt a bump steer correction kit help that out a bit?

Im going to get under tomorrow and take some measurements to get an idea what im jumping into. I had to do the unthinkable today and work on a chevy truck.

although it did make me laugh to see a ford dragging it in

Maddmattmustangs wrote:wouldnt a bump steer correction kit help that out a bit?

The bump-steer "adjuster" kits you see (like for the Fox body stuff) are meant to help correct unwanted bump-steer caused from the rack being mounted too high/low in relation the spindle's steering arm height and/or the lower control arm's ride height angle.

But the adjuster kits can't really correctly help solve bump-steer that's caused if a given rack's inner pivot point measurement is too wide/narrow vs a given car's right & left lower control arm's chassis pivot point distance apart. Both numbers need to be real close so that the assorted components move in at/close to the same arc.

As an example say you decide to use a rack (whatever brand) that has a super wide main body inner pivot point to pivot point distance of say 30" (wildly over exaggerated number for the example) on a car that has a super narrow control arm chassis pivot point to pivot point distance, say only 8" (and again wildly under exaggerated for the example). In this mismatch example, the lower control arms & the rack's outer tie-rod shafts will move in very different arc's causing strange toe-in/out geometry throughout the suspension travel.

This is why you must map out what is actually happening during front suspension travel when ever you start mixing & matching components from different cars/makers. If you don't map out what is actually happening after any changes/swaps are made, you will have no idea what possible geometry problems might pop up (bump-steer, Ackerman, scrub, etc, etc)

I see what your saying now. So if the pivot point on my current setup were the same on a rear steer rack then it would be a mostly bolt in deal?

Maddmattmustangs wrote:So if the pivot point on my current setup were the same on a rear steer rack then it would be a mostly bolt in deal?

Well if a given rack's main body length & a given car's lower control arm chassis pivot point distance are close to being the same it theoretically should get you in the ball park, but it's no guarantee that it will be 100% dead-nuts perfect.

This is because the lower control am's length vs the length of the rack's outer tie-rod shafts also plays a big part in the whole geometry dance. A mismatch here can also effect bump-steer. This can cause problems when swapping components (car to car, make to make) because not every car uses the exact same control arm lengths or outer tie-rod shaft lengths. And the amount of Ackerman angle built into any spindle's steering arm (regardless if it's a front-steer or rear-steer spindle) has an effect on the outer tie-rod shaft length car to car & make to make.

For example take a Mustang II spindle vs a Fox body spindle. Even though they are both "front-steer" spindles, their steering arms don't have the exact same length or Ackerman angle.

Again, this is why you have to map out what the front suspension is doing throughout the entire travel when you start swapping in/out different components. This is especially true on cars with a decent amount of front suspension travel. The greater the suspension travel is, the greater any unwanted geometry hiccup will grow.

That's why buying an aftermarket rack "kit" should keep the headaches to a minimum (in a perfect world) since the manufacture should have already done all the math & got all the geometry correct (again, in a perfect world).