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steering rack from Moss

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Gordon,

You don't happen to have any pictures of your install do you? Specifically, I am wondering how you centered the rack in the mounting clamps.

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd
 
Hi David;
I recently installed this rack.
The lower u joint tends to hit the side of the shock tower. The instructions say to cut the shock tower to clear the knuckle.
So you have two possibilities.
1) trim the side of the shock tower to clear, and center the unit or
2) offset the rack by about 1/2" .

I decided to offset the rack. This resulted in unequal length tie rods.
When turning, the wheels will turn at slightly different rates.

I also used my original control head, ran the wires out of the end of the upper shaft, and tied the wires off with an elastic cord, to prevent slack developing.
Turn signals and horn work great, but you must self cancel the turn signals.

All in all I think that its a great unit, and I'm very happy with it.
My car steers great.
Emmett
 
Hi Emmett,

Thanks for the reply. I will do as you have done and offset the rack slightly to clear the tower. There is no way I am going to cut or grind the tower.

I may contact you again when it comes to hooking up my turn signals and horn hopefully in about 3 months from now.

Cheers,
David
 
Interesting information - I'm curious the comment on unequal tie rod lengths. In my mind, as long as you have enough travel on the rack, can't you offset the internal rack gears slightly to compensate and still get the same tie rod lengths? Unless you run out of gearing on the rack, I'd think you'd be able to get set up lock to lock using the stops on the trunnions. Not so?
 
Somehow I can't grasp the idea of the wheels turning at different rates because of unequal tie rod lengths. What am I missing?
 
If you move the rack so the length of the tie rods are not equal side to side, you will most likely introduce bump steer that suspension engineers try hard to eliminate. When we did the TR6+6 at Ratco (a TR6 widened 6 inches), and installed the widened rack, we tried to get as little bump steer as possible. Shimming the rack up or down as little as a 1/4" had dramatic effects on the bump steer. I would try to keep the rack as centered as possible.
 
Tom-aka tdskip :smile: Would be happy to take some photos and post this evening once I am home from work.

Cheers,
Tush (gotta keep ya guessing)
 
The German Bastuck kit can only be centered one way due to it's build...the attach point is cast into the unit.
The lower steering shaft u joint does slightly tap the inner tower but a light filing fixed that, just had to round a few corners and the u joints are very meaty/robust units so no issue.
 
Hi Guys,

Here are a couple of pics of the rack conversion. Looks like I have enough clearance of the universal joint on the pinion if I butt the rack all the way over to the right. Not sure if that is how it is supposed to be.....

IMG_0532.jpg


IMG_0516.jpg


IMG_0530.jpg


Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd
 
fyi on the diff units.
https://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc138/prb51/DSC01283.jpg
the bastuck unit is indexed on the driver side and the centering is automatic as you can only put that u bolt in that slot.
On the above pics it appears the unit is more to the passenger side but that may not be the case, the rubber boots look to be in about the same orientation in relation to the frame to my totally uncalibrated eyeball..
 
The rack needs to be centered to the center line of the car. This would be a point midway between the frame rails of the car. If the rack mounting brackets are not symmetric, than the gaps at the bracket are misleading. You also need to measure either from the retracted or extended inner tie rod joints as the other end of the measurement. Nice pictures by the way.
 
Pied-

Can you confirm if you have enough travel in the inner rack itself so that you can center it and the tie rods? I'd think shifting the outer case is no issue at all if you can keep the inner portion centered.

That steering knuckle does look big - bigger I think than a TR6 one maybe. If that lower column is splined maybe you can just put in a slimmer knuckle to improve things.

Randy
 
Hi Guys,

I will try and be a little more scientific and will break out the measuring tape to see how far off I am from being centered and will get back to you. No sence guessing at it or eyeballing it. Will let you know when I get back to it...probably going to spend a week on the body to do something a little different for a bit.....

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd
 
Tinman Dan,

Did you get your unit fully installed as of yet? Any pics to share?

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd
 
I just got the upper steering coloum today!! But after leaving the house at 4:30 this morning, starting a new project at SFO airport and a 3 hour drive home I am not in the right frame of mind to crawl under the car tonight. Friday and Saturday are going to be long days too. So I am hoping for Sunday to complete the steering rack installation. So far it is a pretty straight forward job, Whe I do my friends conversion it will be a lot less head scratching. I will post picts. It will make more sense that the half a-- instructions.
P.S. the steering coloum is nice.
 
After working fifteen hour days (including comute) Today was the first chance to get back to the rack install. After painting the kitchen and plumb the new sink. I was able to get the raditor back in the apron on electric fan wired and even fired up the engine Man it sure is nice to hear it run. With any luck Sunday will be the test run.
 
Finally got every thing done!! The wewather was perfect today for a good test drive. I like the new steering rack it is easier to turn and a little more responsive. But in my experiance I would not go thru all the extra work to just do the rack conversion. If you had the car apart and knew that you wanted the conversion, that is the time to do it. I think it is a nice up grade but not as important or pratical as a 5-speed trans. I may just need to get used to the feel but I am on the fence as if I would do it again. Today was a great day for a drive and fun to be back on the road again.
IMG_3793.jpg
 
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