Manual steering with 5 lug swap problem

[Jason Lawrence]

trying to complete my manual steering and 5 lug upgrade and have run into a major problem. first off, i am using a manual rack for an 84 mustang and spindles off of an 96 v8 mustang for the 5 lug swap. the problem i am having is when i went to hook up the tie rod ends to the spindles i ended up un-threading the hole tie rod trying to connect it to the spindle. with the tie rod mounted to the spindle the end if the inner rod just barley touches the end of the outer end. it is the same for each side no matter what i do. I made sure the steering wheel was centered and all that other jazz, i have used the search form and found nothing. i have also looked at all the 5-lug conversion sites that everyone always suggests and have found nothing. just for some extra info; i checked the part # for an 84 vs an 89 rack and pinon (manual and power) and they are the same. i know people have used 96 spindles and for the life of me i can't figure out why this isn't working for me. please can some one give me some direction. thanks....jason

 

[donsbad68]

Wrong tie rod ends, use the SN95 ends, thank you come again

 

[Jason Lawrence]

sn95 tie rod ends are about 1/8 shorter than fox ends. won't work.

 

[Snikt89GT]

The SN95 rack uses Metric threads, you can't use the tie rod ends on a fox rack. The fox rack uses SAE threads.

Do you have fox a-arms or SN95 a-arms?

 

[Jason Lawrence]

fox a arms.

 

[Snikt89GT]

Don't know too much about the manual rack, but the only situation I know of where the steering won't fit is using a fox rack with sn95 a-arms. Maximum makes a special tie rod for that which is longer.

Does the manual rack have shorter inner tie rods?

 

[Jason Lawrence]

both are the same length. not sure if this will work but i was thinking of getting the inner and outer tie rods for a 96 and trying to use then on my manual rack.