Hey, are any of you guys by chance running the manual rack and pinion for the thirdgens? Or know of anyone who is? If so how much of a pain in the rear is it to steer. The one I'm looking at is 3.75 turns from lock to lock. Thanks

 

I drove my uncles '75 Plymouth Duster 318 for a while with manual steering. I hated it.

 

Right. But was that Rack and Pinion or was that just a car that the power steering went out on? And yes, I'm serious. I know the mustang and and a few other cars had rack and pinion and it was no big deal to drive, but those were all light cars..........the thirdgen is quite a bit heavier.

 

I don't know if it had rack an pinion per se, but whatever fashion of steering it used was manual from the factory. It was a stripped v8 go fast model with almost no extras.

 

Appreciate it. I e-mailed the company to try to get some more info, but nothing yet. Thanks for the input. When you say you hated it, was it pop a blood vessel kinda hate or it was just a pain to drive daily?

 

Pain to park.

 

There's a company called paracing that sells the conversion, they might know more about it. www.paracing.net

 

Yea, that's who I'm looking at getting it through but all they've told me is that it's 3.75 turns from lock to lock..........other than that they haven't been very helpful......I don't want to bust a nut everytime I need to turn the wheel at low speeds. I need something to compare it to or I'm just going to have to jump in and try it. 600 bucks is alot for me to risk though.

 

unless the car is moving front or backwards its a pain to turn the wheel. Most racers that do this run skinnies up front so its not a big deal for them. They have a lot less rubber to the pavement to create resistance.

 

Also, check thunder racing: third gens, then it might be chassis, if not it's suspension.

Go to mustang sites like www.corral.net and www.stangnet.com
At least at www.corral.net, there are plenty of peope using manual racks. I want the manual rack in a year or so ($$$).

Also, www.corner-carvers is a site to try. It doesn't focus on any one type of car. Rather, it's a site for all cars that auto-x and maybe road race--I haven't been there for a while and it's down right now.

 

Why are you wanting a manual rack, Cool factor or to remove the parasitic loss from the power pump. On my bird I have installed a manual steering box from and s10. Parallel parking is b---h, and thats with skinnies. At highway speeds you cant tell the difference.

I have pictures of the one installed on the bird, on my website.
Later
John

 

I too have an S10 manual gearbox. I also have the extra weight of a BBC under the hood. At a stand still it does take some grunt to turn, but otherwise i like it better, way more roadfeel. This car is daily SUMMER driven around the city in traffic, so it isn't just a strict track car. I also don't have skinnies up front.

 

Why not go power assisted rack and pinion?

 

Ok, this might not make any sense, but the main reason I'm wanting to go with a manual rack is to be able to put my alternator in the power steering spot and put an aftermarket a/c compressor on the lower passenger side. That gives me an easy bracket setup and I still get to keep my a/c. Depending on how big the pump is for a power assisted rack, I might go that way but I'll have to see one first.........Thanks for all the links and suggestions.

 

I would also like to know if ANYONE has done a conversion over to a Rack and Pinion setup. I am going to be using a custom Blower bracket by Don Barnett (http://www.gmhightechperformance.com...h3rdgen_04.jpg). This bracket requires that I convert over to Manual Steering. I was going to go with a custom Flaming River box converted to 4 turns lock to lock. But, a Rack and Pinion setup (using the PA Racing K-Member) would definitely be sweeter. Is ANYONE using a Rack and Pinion setup on their thirdgen??? I don't know anyone who has done it who can report what they had to do in order to make it work. I have heard that there is a problem with the angle of the steering shaft in order to mate it to the RNP. Not sure if that is true or not. I know the 4th gens have a U-Joint in the shaft in order to take care of that 'angle problem'.

Tim

 

Hey Spud or CrazyRob, How many turns lock to lock is the S-10 gear box. And is there any particular year that I would need?

 

I don't think I ever counted. But I can tell you, a perfect 90 deg turn is possable. It's more then you need. As for s-10's look for 82-85 4cyl 2 wheel drive trucks. A good friend of mine was playing on advance's website and came up that 60's camaro's used the same manual box as the s-10s. If someone has one of those laying around, that might be an option also????
Later
John

 

A few years ago, we had an early 80s F100 (3 on the tree, lol) that had a manual steering box. It wasn't much fun to maneuver, but my mom could drive it--it wasn't that bad.

I drove a 69 GTO Judge (I wanted that car, but the guy wanted too much $$) that had manual steering. Even though the front end needed a rebuild bad, it wasn't hard to steer but I wouldn't want to have to parallel park it.

I have manual rack and pinion steering on my Shelby Cobra replica. It is not at all hard to drive--I would parallel park it. This one is not really fair, though, as the car is shorter than a Mazda Miata and only weighs ~2200 lbs. However, it is manual so the wheels don't turn unless you are moving.

I obviously can't speak from experience, but I think that manual rack and pinion would be fairly manageable. I wouldn't want to have to squeeze in and out of parking spaces, but I don't do that a whole lot. I don't even turn the wheels unless my car is moving anyways, so it would just require more effort on my part, not a change in parking style (that sounds kind of weird).

 

Actually thats a big help........Thanks

I'm pretty much sold on the manual rack and pinion.

 

Keep us informed if you go this route, a lot of us are thinking about something similar. Thanks. Later.

Adam

 

No problem

 

We are calling for a GP on Tubular-Arms,K-Member,coil overs and Rack strg.
!

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Talkin about parking and pain to steer : i would not recommend it for a stock daily driver!

The car in the pic weighs 1100KG without driver should not be a big task to steer this diat monster !

 

Just wanted to ask again ... has ANYONE installed a manual rack and pinion using an aftermarket K-Member? Any info would be helpful.

Tim