Rack and Pinion
03-05-2008, 04:26 AM
#1
Senior Member
RACING JUNKIE
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,137
Rack and Pinion
I have a 70 Nova bracket car and was thinking of going to a rack and pinion steering. I know there are a couple kits out there that are a bolt in but in my opinion not worth the money...not saying they are bad kits ...what I mean is I would like to change to a rack but not bad enough to fork over 600 bucks just for the rack and steering arms. I only want to do it for the weight savings mainly. I feel I have good fabrication skills and it doesn't seem like it would be very hard to do it yourself with a junkyard or parts store rack and pinion...what I don't know anything about is how to know you have the correct geometry and things of that nature..If I were to try and do this what rack would I want to get and what are the critical aspects of mounting it in the car? Does anyone know where I might find some information on this? I have googled and mostly what I get is articles dealing with a unisteer or flaming river bolt in type kit. I found talk of mounting a chevette rack on a Nova but it was an old link and the info had been removed.
What is the difference in the mustang II rack and the Pinto? Those seem to be the two main ones used...also My car is a rear steer but looks like if a guy found the right steering arms converting to a front steer would be the way to go.
Any of you guys ever install a rack and pinion on your car without just buying a bolt in kit?
Just something I've been thinking about. I just got a Wilwood brake kit and some new control arms so I figured it would be a good time to do the rack if I were going to do it at all.
What is the difference in the mustang II rack and the Pinto? Those seem to be the two main ones used...also My car is a rear steer but looks like if a guy found the right steering arms converting to a front steer would be the way to go.
Any of you guys ever install a rack and pinion on your car without just buying a bolt in kit?
Just something I've been thinking about. I just got a Wilwood brake kit and some new control arms so I figured it would be a good time to do the rack if I were going to do it at all.
03-21-2008, 10:23 AM
#2
Member
CRAFTSMAN
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 57
well you will have your hands full doing that change. The main reason is the control arms on the nova have to be clear out for the rack in the front. Good luck with that, did it and it still hit. The steering arms have to be bought from a vendor, try and bend yours and swap sides and you will find the bump steer is crazy. The steering rod is very hard to set up with the old frame. They are just not made to do what you want, and the weight savings for just removing the old steering box is nothing...
I have the smith racecraft and will never look back. Money well spent and doing another set up on the 1962 we just bought.
It's not cheap no matter what way you go but racing is not cheap as you already know.
Save you money and buy a new frame and you will thank me later.
I have the smith racecraft and will never look back. Money well spent and doing another set up on the 1962 we just bought.
It's not cheap no matter what way you go but racing is not cheap as you already know.
Save you money and buy a new frame and you will thank me later.
