k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

who makes the best fit and bang for buck umi,spohn, or bmr. Im going to use coil overs with pinto rack&pinion. Oh and by the way how hard is it to turn with manual rack vs power steering? Opinions and experiences needed asap please guys

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

bump! nobody?????????????????????????

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

Our upcoming 3rd Gen k-member isn't yet outfitted for manual rack.

We aren't too far away from a coilover kit for this car.

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thanks

ramey

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Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

Thanks Ramey! Thank you for making post here. I cant believe nobody else has made not one comment even though 100s of people here have put on a tubular k-member and several have changed from power steering to manual rack and pinion. All im asking about rack and pinion is how hard is it to steer after changing to manual rack&pinion. Oh Ramey one more thing. Can I get k-member without engine mounts and powder coating

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

We can quote for a k-member without engine mounts and powder coat. Email me at ramey@umiperformance.com

Manual steering, whether it be steering box based or rack and pinion, is all about the ratio. Basically you trade mechanical advantage for horsepower savings. You can make a car very easy to steer manually at the expense of how far you have to turn the steering wheel. For drag racing you can get away with the slow steering of a manual system. It gets a bit tiring on the street. For easy steering you have a ton of wheel movement. To get any speed in it you need a quicker ratio and huge biceps. For a discipline like auto-x, you almost can't steer fast enough.

Ramey

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

I have a spohn K-member and i bought the spohn manual rack and pinion steering setup right after it came out. the steering arm angles are terrible and i ended up re-working the setup a bit to have more straight linkage to the rack. out of the box there was a huge turn to connect to the rack and was too susceptible to bump steer.

I also have a front coil over conversion and every other aftermarket suspension part you can think of. Turning with the manual rack is certainly harder, dont care what anyone says. Specially from a stand still. If you need to get out of a tight spot moving back and forth and turning end to end it really sucks. It isnt bad while you are moving though. It is nice to have the weight reduction and a cleaner engine bay without the steering gear there. if you drive the car as a daily driver i would not go with a manual steering setup.

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

Thank you man for your post also! I have another question for you. Whats your opinion of coil over vs factory set up if I were to use my car as everyday driver

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

I have a spohn k member. Id go with spohn again. I had an 80's s10 with manual steering and that was fine, i didnt think it was TOO bad but it was definitely harder to turn while going slow. and coilovers depend on what you want from the car, straight line/DD they are fine, for autox there have been things said bad about them

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

I honestly havent driven the car enough to really notice the difference and i also changed the ENTIRE car from factory so its hard to tell what the coil overs are doing to the ride itself.

LOTS of back and forth has been going on regarding coil overs in thirdgens and damage to the strut towers. WHile i understand this could be possible because with a coil over you are putting all the load (spring and strut) on the strut tower, i still have never see any photos to prove it does cause damage. I have read that people say they have seen or heard of struts blowing out or just bending ever so slightly... I considered a custom strut tower brace that ties down to the front frame rails to really reinforce everything but just havent had the money to do so right now. It doesnt hurt to run a strut tower brace to provide some additional strength. At the same time a strut tower brace that connects strut to strut wont help that much in keeping the struts from being pushed up because that amount of force can certainly cause a joint in a strut tower brace to be tweaked a bit, hence the thought of connecting down to the frame rails. I got this idea from Neils z28. Amazing build.

Check out my 383 LT1 supercharger build thread in the LTX forum for some pics of my setup. I can get you more this weekend if needed.

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

the cars were not designed to hold the weight of the car on the strut towers, its on the k member, so take that into consideration when weighing your options.

There is really no reason that i see to doing coil overs over a weight jacker setup

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

I have the Racecraft road race crossmember, with pinto rack and 2" dropped spindles with shorten arms for the rack. I have not found the turning radius to be much different than factory steering, I really enjoy driving the car with this setup

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

this is like asking..

Do you Redheads Or Blonds?... I Like RedHeads:thumbsup:

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

Well i like them both especially at same time

Re: k-member and manual rack&pinion
 

strut towers are pretty tough I did enough wheelies to prove it. What is not tough are the mounts. Invest in a good thick set and you'll be fine.