That's kind of neat. Does it run off the stock hydraulic pump on the accessory belt? Have any other pictures too?

 

More details please! End take off R&P, what brand is this? I like that it nicely clears that LS swap, I need a ton more clearance on one of mine because of a large stroke crank and deeper sump. I was thinking about extending the pitman arm but this is a whole lot nicer.

 

I assume that it is not the one that is sold at Hawk's, correct?

 

Ditto more info please

 

I have a couple of 2011+ F150 electric racks I want to fab one up for my car.

 

Interesting

 

Interesting. I remember a ton of the other retrofits gave up steering angle to make it work I think. Which made the turning radius horrible, and its already 39ft stock.

 

It's a racing rack from Flaming River, but everything else is hand made. It requires short spindle arms to get full turn.

 

Spindle.

 

Oh Cool! How much does the whole unit weigh? Possible weight savings??

 

What P/N rack did you get? where did you get the bracket that attaches to the rack and the tie rods (Black part)? Was it a kit? I didn't see a setup like yours in the racing racks section? How much of the steering arms did you remove to get the full turn radius? Sorry for so many questions but that is really cool! would love to see some more build picts.

 

OK, why does it need shorter steering knuckles? With an end take off you are pretty loose in where you place the tie rod ends on the center mount, you can easily taylor spacing and height. I do not see why on earth you would need shorter arms unless it has very short travel. From the looks of the harmonica boots it probably has. With an ETO you can have a much wider rack than that as rack width is not a real issue, it's just a packaging issue not a geometry issue.

It does look like a quality install, just not too fond of mig welded ends on cast spindles. Ddi you get it all x rayed?

 

With the way all the racks are designed, (short travel) they need that shorter spindle knuckle to keep the stockish turning radius.

I have friends that weld to cast all the time. Its ok as long as you know how and what to use.

 

When i measure up the rack travel of stock spindles it came to 7 inches, the only cto rack i could find with the travel required was : http://retrorack.com.au/indiv-retror...d-lhd-ausfscto
Obviously the rhd version for me, but it was just too pricey for me to get.

 

Yeah, holy crap.

Would be interesting if someone made a drop spindle with shorter arms. Would make rack conversions much more popular.

 

With regards to twin turbo. There was no need to x-ray the spindles because no welding was done to the iron.

 

Oh I see it now, it's sort of a sleeve that's bolted on. Nifty

 

Looks nice. Id get longer bolts where the tierod connects to the spindle. Rule of thumb is 1/2 the diameter of the bolt must extend past the nut. Looks like it stops just as it touches the nylon, so its locking aspect is lost completely as well. Drilling through for a cotter pin or other mechanical lock wouldnt be a bad idea either

 

The bolts in the pic were not used. For those interested in more details there are so many mods that have to be done to make this work. Obviously the spindles must be shorter to get full turn and to keep the ratio fast. The others are my motor is moved back 2 inch's. I doubt a motor in stock position would work. I also have a under drive balancer to get the rack high enough. Everything about this conversion you don't have enough space. I'm sure that's why no one makes a kit for them.

 

How about who use the low mounted AC comp.The tie rod nut just rubs unless the idler arm is lowered a bit.I know there's no idler arm/tie rod or compressor, but anything of a sort like that with this set up?

 

TVC, thanks for the email to check this out. That was the rack that gave me the idea to fixing my problem of the rack interfering with the damper on my build. Both of our cars have extensive mods, yours has the engine setback and custom steering arms and mine has the wheelbase moved 5" forward and 4th gen spindles. All that and we still have clearance issues with the rack. I see on flaming river that your rack is very similar to the onr they use in there 2nd gen camaro kits. Also they list a XL rack that has 6" of travel and a custom make to order road race rack. All 3 of these would be possibilities for a 3rd gen swap but still a lot of fabrication and expense.

As always great work and craftsman ship from you.

Dave

 

no more sway bar??

 

The sway bar was not on in that pic. But the sway bar is one of the things that makes the rack such a tight fit. At full lock the end of the rack just misses the sway bar.