Rack & PInion Install

[Smiliesafari]

Great picture post, Larry. You saved me a lot of work as now I won't repeat what you are doing. I'll try to get you the templates some time this week. I've got a transmission to build and install in a Ford van. Wish me luck. It's a big one. E4OD.
Gary, the rack sits as close as possible to a straight line with the steering knuckles. It will be at the same level as the bottom of the crossmember. Or very close. The GM power steering pump works just fine. All modern power steering systems operate at approx the same pressure. I've done a lot of research on this conversion as I wanted to be sure it would work before I went to all of the trouble of doing it.

[Rebel]

Hey Gary,,yep the rack is slightly low in the pic but just temporary untill I get the templates from Skip. It will sit higher and the tie-rods will have a slight downward angle from the rack to ends. I will get all the measurements as I go through this and post.

Thanks Skip,,,missed your post earlier. No problem at all on the templates,,I'm back on the slider now so all is well. Thanks,coming from the rack guru,,I appreciate the words. Good luck on the tranny build,,glad it's not me.lol

[Rebel]

Skip,,two questions.

Looking from the top down are Walley's rack are tie-rods in a straight line from tie-rod end to tie-rod end looking down or does he have two angles that are off center, one being the downward angle of the tierod and are the tie-rods off front to back from the rack itself ??

Also Skip,,,I couldn't tell from the pics for sure but are there brackets on the top side of rack also ? If there are, I may try to install without the top ones,,just don't know yet. If I do, I will run another piece on the bottom side of each lower bracket all the way to bottom of crossmember. This will give up and down support and side to side also. What do you think ?

[Smiliesafari]

Larry, All of the tierods are in as straight a line as I could get them. Up down and fore and aft. There may be a very slight misalignment but that's not a worry. After all, the steering and suspension are not ststic. They're moving all of the time. There's no top bracket. There is a gusset on the bracket that welds to the frame in the verticle. There's no pressure on the system in the up down. And very little in the back and forth. Unless you hit something. Then you'll bend a tierod before you break the rack. BTDT. Wally's rack brackets are made from 3/16 plate. Very, very strong.

[Rebel]

Thanks again Skip. Understand no up or down pull and very little side to side but thought you must have had something I couldn't see and that's the gusset hidden behind rack. I was going to run one under bottom of bracket and back to crossmember but either will be good.
Thanks and listen don't worry about the templates but tell me about what you used for shaft, rack up. I can see the Ford section with the spherical but the connection to rack is different than the Mustang shaft I have. Mine has the rag joint at the rack connection. Did you remove the lower part and add the bottom half of another u-joint connection that connects to rack shaft ? Also not sure what you used above the spherical to connect to Astro shaft at firewall.

Thanks for your putting up with all these questions.

[Jboy2]

Larry,

This is an excellent mod and your posts are very informative.
I will be following this

Thanks

[potskie]

Larry,

This is an excellent mod and your posts are very informative.
I will be following this

Thanks

Just following it??? I'm already hunting parts. LOL

[peter]

And where've I been while all these pics were being posted

I'm intrigued, Larry. Very intrigued......

[Rebel]

And where've I been while all these pics were being posted

I'm intrigued, Larry. Very intrigued......

I thought I was being shuned by you Peter.
On where you've been,,I'd say bonding with your female friend.

[peter]

To be fair, I just got high speed here at work. So I'm now looking at threads I'd never dare try to open when on dial-up.

[Rebel]

To be fair, I just got high speed here at work. So I'm now looking at threads I'd never dare try to open when on dial-up.

Well, we do want to be fair to your lady friend. That is important and glad you have learned the importance. Took me years and years.

Know you're glad to get off th dial up. I remeber those days,,could have caused my heart attack.

[skippy]

Just following it??? I'm already hunting parts. LOL

Me too pots , me too lol

[Rebel]

I know Skip is busy lounging around the beach in Orlando so I'll give ya a little more info. No really, he's building a tranny and installing in a big van this week so I'll pass on a little info.'
If you guys remember, Skip installed a rack from a Ford Explorere in his van and a 98 Mustang in his sons. I don't know what tie-rod ends he used on his but the Mustang will require you to remove the stop limiters to get the full 6in. of travel from stop to stop. Easy to remove, just pull boot down from rack end and you'll see the blue plastic C shaped limiters, just pull them out on each end and that's it. The tie-rod ends used on the Mustang rack are from a 2000 Plymouth Voyager.
I'll be making up the rack brackets this weekend and get them tacked on. From there, I've got to wait on Skip to let me know what parts he used from rack to firewall. Little fuzzy on exactly what he did to connect up shaft.
Be back later this weekend with some part numbers on the Voyager tie-rod ends and maybe some pics.

[skippy]

cool , thanx larry , you da man !!!!

I'm not really worried about the design of the brackets used to mount the rack , but what thickness did you use for the brackets ? i can pick up some sheet steel to cut my brackets from but what thickness should i get ?

[Rebel]

Skip says he used 3/16th. Because the pics didn't show the top area where a bracket could be, I asked if he had 2 brackets on each end,,upper and lower that rack fit in to. He said he did not, just the lower which the rack will sit on top of. He did mention that he made a gusset from top of this one lower bracket surface to crossmember. As he mentioned, you won't have any up and down force at all because the inner tie-rods float up and down of course and very little right to left force as you turn wheels and the most you would have then I would think would be while turning wheel at a complete stop.