J-car rack and pinion

[mdjay]

rear

The rack is nice. Very close to Randall's. I guess they're all pretty close in design...

However the Four Link is much more interesting to me! Do you have plans to release a kit like the one you made?
http://www.vikingmustang.com/RearSusp.asp

 

[Håkan]

The rack is nice. Very close to Randall's. I guess they're all pretty close in design...

Thanks, but the design is on my opinion very far from Randall´s as mine is based on side take off units.

However the Four Link is much more interesting to me! Do you have plans to release a kit like the one you made?

I just dont know right now, we´ll see later on when it´s tested.

 

[jikelly]

Okay my girlfriend was nice enough to post the picture of 71vert's modified rack so you should be able to get to it now. http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/jikelly/Howdy Dude.htm

 

[71vert-pga]

1995 Intrepid rack

jikelly,

I emailed the pictures to you. Let me know "where" you post them if not in this thread.

Stats are...

- Total length 34 5/8 inches.
- Total travel 6 7/8 inches.
- 3.2 turns lock-to-lock.

If you want to use this make sure you get the "standard" model without the electronic attachments on it.

*** For those concerned about turning radius this rack exceeds the stock Mustang travel by 3/8 of an inch. The steering wheel will have about 1/4 turn more than with the Cavalier rack but that's because of the extra 3/4 inch travel. Ratio is the same.

 

[71vert-pga]

jikelly,

Damn! Missed you by 8 minutes.

Since they're structurally identical, you can make the same mods to the Intrepid rack but it won't be necessary to have the opening milled out larger.

 

[jikelly]

Okay guys 71vert sent me pictures of a dodge intrepid rack and some information about it which I posted on my webpage. http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/jikelly/Howdy Dude.htm

 

[71vert-pga]

“Speed Proportional Steering (SPS) Model”

Thanks Jimmy,

I checked out the electronic gizmo on the rack that’s in the photos. It’s called the “Speed Proportional Steering (SPS) Model” (or variable assist). I don’t really know how it works or if it can be connected to work properly on our cars. Probably would need to be wired into the original Dodge onboard computer. It would probably work just like the standard model if not wired up (I assume). Just thought it would make a cleaner install without the wires and the box on the end.

Did a salvage yard search on http://car-part.com/ and found them from 20 to 485 bucks around the country. If a new rack is about $210 and a remanufactured rack is about $175, why the heck would these guys expect someone to pay $485.00???

I guess that’s why I would never make a good business man. I’ve been cursed with some form of common sense.

This unit was also used in these cars but I'm not sure what years...
- Chrysler New Yorker
- Chrysler Concorde
- Chrysler LHS
- Eagle Vision

 

[71vert-pga]

Intrepid is backwards!

Still can’t upload pictures but I can link to them. Here is the Cavalier rack.

http://forums.stangnet.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=25769

Notice the pinion feeds into the rack on the top. This way when you turn the wheel to the left - the linkage is driven to the right – and pushes the “rear” of the tires to the right (because we have rear-steer vehicles) and makes us go left. Simple enough? Turn wheel left – go left.

Now, if you compare this to the Intrepid rack that jikelly posted for us at…

http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/jikelly/Howdy Dude.htm

…you’ll notice that the pinion feeds into the rack on the “bottom”. So when you turn the wheel to the left – the linkage is also driven to the left – and the car will go right.

And that would not be cool!!! Turn wheel left – go right.

I bought an Intrepid rack this afternoon and started double checking all the measurements I made a couple days ago when I realized the movements didn't make sense. Checked out some Caravans also and they're all side takeoff.

Sorry guys but I did my best. Back to the j-car again.

 

[streetgrande69]

you mean like this..........
its easy, place the address of the pic, in this case, http://forums.stangnet.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=25769
between thses tags

and you will get the below result.

there are a couple way to get the address in your post, i always post the post, then hit "edit" to add the tags and pics to the frame, then save changes.

there are other way, but thats the easiest i use.

 

[71vert-pga]

Yes but...

Until a few days ago I was able to upload images from my computer. Now I hit the upload button and wait a couple seconds... then I'm right back where I started from.

And no picture!

Once this gets resolved, how do I upload an image and have it display with the text box like you did with the web link?

 

[jikelly]

Crap! so I assume you could somehow modify an intrepid rack to steer the right way but that would probable more trouble than it is worth. With so many cars out there with rack and pinion steering there has to be another one that would worth. Oh well I recon the J-Rack will have to do the trick. They have plenty of those in the junkyard here so maybe that would be better anyway.

 

[71vert-pga]

The J-car is the only center-take-off that I know of with enough travel to do the job, and work on a rear-steer car.

The only other option would be to fabricate a center-take-off link to work on a side-take-off rack such as Hakan Ostlund did. Or we could just use a side-take-off rack from a Taurus like chepsk8 did. Almost every car on the road today uses them.

 

[71vert-pga]

I may have jumped the gun on this.

When I get home this evening I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to remove the pinion and turn the rack 180 degrees so that the opening in the housing and the bolts for the centerlink face the firewall. Then try to reinstall the pinion from the backside.

Don't know if it'll work but it's worth a shot.

 

[71vert-pga]

Intrepid rack MAYBE???

I may have jumped the gun on this.

When I get home this evening I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to remove the pinion and turn the rack 180 degrees so that the opening in the housing and the bolts for the centerlink face the firewall. Then try to reinstall the pinion from the backside so that it "should" work like the Cavalier.

Don't know if it'll work but it's worth a shot.

 

[tweet66]

J-car?

I've been keeping up with this thread, but I have one qusetion. Could someone define the vehicles that make up the J-car. Obviously the Cavavlier, but what else and what years?

 

[71vert-pga]

I think they started in 1982.

Cavalier
Beretta
Cimmaron
Skyhawk
Sunbird
Sunfire
J2000
Firenza
Probably a couple more.

Over the years some models have been dropped or the names have changed but for the most part they are still in production. There were occasional changes in the rack itself (mostly in the mounting brackets) but overall it’s the same. The one in the photos posted here is a 1992 model.

 

[tweet66]

Thanks. I tried using a power rack out of my old Nissan 200SX in my 64 Falcon. It's slightly shorter than my TCP rack on my 66 coupe and fit within the framerails nicely. The only thing I didn't take into account was the firewall location in the Falcon being closer to the shock towers which put the universals in a bind situation. So now its back to the drawing board Most of my measurements were off of the Stang anyway, maybe I should try it in that

 

[71vert-pga]

Nope. Intrepid rack can't be reversed. The pinion head where the steering shaft attaches prevents it. Still working on possibilities with it though.

One of the techs at Maval says he has a center take off rack for a rear steer vehicle with 6.25 inches of travel. That's all I know for now. I'm waiting on some more details from him.

 

[bnickel]

keep us posted, i devour info on rack conversions faster than people can type it. but i don't really have any for the big-bodies. i don't even have a big body right now but i plan on trying to find a 71-73 vert for my daughter for her first car, of course she can't drive it unless she does a lot of the work on the car herself (with me helping of course) so that should help her appreciate it more and try to keep from trashing it out

 

[71vert-pga]

No word back from Dave at Maval yet on the 6.25 inch rack. However, when I spoke to him on the phone yesterday he said we would likely never notice the loss in radius with the j-car rack. The 3/8 inch difference in travel only comes out to 3/16 inch loss per direction. I guess he feels I'm splitting hairs.

I told him I wanted to look at it anyway. Perhaps the centerlink/tierod bolts are farther away than 2 inches like the j-car. That would ease the minds of some who are concerned about all the forces being concentrated in the very center of the rack. I really think the rack is plenty strong for my purposes. Here's the modifications I worked out with a shop down the street but think at this point I may just go with a stock rack and fab a centerlink something like Duane did for his '70.

Proposed mods

Duane Simon's setup

Duane's centerlink is simple and STRONG. All parts are off-the-shelf products that you can find anywhere. Advance Auto Parts has reman racks from Cardone for $72.88. The linkage connecting the column is right off a junked buick centry. He modified the column. Then fabricated his centerlink, rack mount, and crossmember. All else is the original mustang linkage. He's been driving it for a year now and really enjoys it.