2088 replies to this topic

[Heath]

I will deal with the ugliness in time lol.

Want to put an LX rack in this car to speed up the steering a bit, but not a fan of the rubber mounts. This is not the finest machining work I've ever done, but I figure the design will probably need to be revised anyway. Spun these up earlier this weekend, two are just plain ally washers with a flat linished on them (to sit on the front), the other two are chamfered down to seat positively on the back of the rack (you won't really see them). I notice the UC rack actually has one of its bushes 'slotted' as are the ones that eyepeeler has for his car. I haven't slotted mine, and I've drilled them to a fraction under 1/2" so i will drill/file them accordingly which should ensure I can get a decent fit. We'll see...

[eyepeeler]

Will be really interested to see if you end up filing it out a bit. I was having the same conversation with Welby (A9X) before I had mine made up, why do they need to be slotted?
Nice one mate.

[Heath]

Sorry, LH rack*

 

P/N: 9932244 is 18:1 rather than 20.4:1. But the steering arms on the UC are longer also which probably makes nearly as much difference again?

[Uncle Chop Chop]

What's the advantage of a solid bush for the steering rack? I've noticed others have done it also

Alloy bushes won't wear out like the rubber ones. Also, the rack tends to move around a bit with rubber bushes.

[Heath]

I was going for the more positive location aspect, not the wearing out aspect, but I suppose that is also true.

[Potta]

why do they need to be slotted?
 

 

Heath will let us know when he finds out 

[Heath]

The centre distance on the LH rack seems to be spot-on. Still haven't figured out what the slot is for.

[rodomo]

Picture of slot please?

[eyepeeler]

Picture of slot please?

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 image.jpg   130.86K   31 downloads

[Heath]

As above.

 

Just filed each of these bushes for a minute or two until they were a snug fit on the standard captive bolts.

 

Chopped the end off the steering rack input to accomodate the twin-uni mod:

 

Gave the rack a bit of a tidy up

 

Chucked it in.

[Potta]

Nice rack Heath!

[eyepeeler]

Nice mate, that looks really good.

[Heath]

Seems to be fuelly when you open the taps, haven't fiddled with it yet. Still got a dead short on the electric choke so that is disabled too. Haven't driven out of the industrial estate for weeks now lol, hopefully that changes tomorrow arvo.

[Heath]

No luck today. Didn't really notice until I put it in the car but this steering rack is a bit 'tight'. Felt weird on the hoist then took it for a spin and it didn't want to self-centre etc. Figure it's probably not worth getting an alignment if I'm gonna have to re-do the steering part of it. That is not very satisfying. Might have to do some work to the column while I'm at it to make it worth the while.

[Heath]

Bit of an update... car went back together after a fair while off the road. Ended up having to put a 1mm thick rubber washer behind each rubber bush (against the K-frame) to ease up some misalignment in the mounting surfaces on the K-frame, not sure if other solid bush guys have experienced the same thing? But it was making the rack tight and it was a bit tricky to diagnose.

 

Linished the column down for the sealed bearing mod.

 

Cut the column short

 

Deburred the shaft & end, marked the point of the hex to line up with the rollpin hole etc

 

Refitted rollpin in new hole

 

Turned up longer intermediate steering shaft, filed the flats on manually

 

All back together

 

Should be able to feel the work come together after my wheel alignment tomorrow!

[Heath]

The sealed bearing swap is a very common mod documented in this thread:
http://www.gmh-toran...brg/?hl=g clamp
The bearing I used was a (updated part number 20/4/23) 6205-2RS-25.4. It is a 1" I.D. and 2" O.D. bearing with rubber seals on both sides. The standard unsealed bearings don't work very well - have a fair bit of resistance, fall apart and are damn ugly.

Replacing the rag couple with a second uni joint is also a pretty common modication for more direct steering.

Shortening the column and making a longer (4340) intermediate shaft was something I thought of years ago and I've been waiting for an opportunity to do, but I have seen someone else on the forum do the same job. You could argue the difference is negligible but I prefer sharing the shaft misalignment between the two joints - it is a mechnically superior system - also makes for better clearance, I probably coulda/shoulda made the column even shorter but it's done now.