Rack and pinion choices

[Bill Musarra]

I am ready to order the rack and pinion for my DRB. I am trying to decide which rack to put in. Have been looking at the Flaming River units. Can not decide if I need the regular rack or the quick ratio. The normal rack is 20:1 with 4 turns rack to rack. The quick ratio is 15:1 with 3.3 turns. What is the consensus on the units out there. Is the quick ratio a bear to use in slow driving manuevers or is it a better choice. While we are at it. what about steering columns and aassociated parts for the hookup(lenghts). Anyone using tilt columnns or telescoping units, I plan on using a quick connect steering wheel adaptor for easy entry.

Bill

 

[Peter Delaney]

Hi Bill, FWIW I have 3.7 turns lock-to-lock & find that it is quite ok (one hand only) for parking speeds (but a little tough if the car is stopped - two hands). I really doubt that dropping things to 3.3 turns would make it all that much harder. But I reckon that the minor extra effort at parking speeds (maybe 1-2% of your driving time) would be worth it for the slightly more direct steering at road speeds (where you would not even notice the difference in effort at all).

Here in Oz, we use a Holden Torana rack & a Ford Laser (KC) tilt column - sorry, but not much use in the US !

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

 

[Gary Gibbs]

Should make sure your rack length is "just right" for you suspension geometry to aviod bump steer problems. You can get custom racks from these guys: http://www.woodwardsteering.com/hot.htm

 

[Phil]

Rack and pinoin choices

Bill
I am using a Pinto rack from flaming river. I chose it for two reasons, it has a quick ratio...about the same as you are thinking about, 3.7 turns lock to lock, and the mounting is in a horizontal plane which allows the rack to be spaced up or down to take out bumpsteer. The tie rods are 1/2 X 20 thread, and if you need to change the width of the inner tie rod pivots they can be removed and shimmed a bit to suit your application.
Good luck
Phil

 

[Bill Musarra]

Phil,
That's the one I am looking at. Trying to find one on ebay(complete of just the rack) at a discount, but that is a hard thing to do. The DRB mounts horizontal so that is just the ticket.

Bill