418 replies to this topic

[enderwigginau]

Mat,
have you had a closer look at any of the shaft mount power assemblies advertised in the hotrod mags?
They mount directly to the steering shaft, negating the need for a special rack.

Grant..

[Toranamat69]

Woah Deja vu,

Use the quote button mate.

Do you mean these ones Enders?

http://www.motorspor...steering_system

Doc damage posted this link back at the end of page5.

They could potentially be a goer although I'm not sure where they would go on a Torana, not much room under dash or near the drivers side exhaust.
You are still stuck with the Torana steering ratio too.

I suppose you may also be able to use a reduction gearbox as well to change the steering ratio (you can get those from Summit racing)

One of those electric ones will be heavier than my setup if it ever works

M@

[enderwigginau]

NO progress or pics Matt?

G..

[A9X]

Yeah,

Hurry the F@#$K up !!!

only jokin mate, keep up the good work.

Welby

[Toranamat69]

I got a good couple of days in over the weekend and took some more photos.

I have just ordered the tapered reamer to modify the steering arms to take the Magna Tie rod ends. I think every car manufacturer has made up their own taper for their front suspensions and the only ones you can buy off the shelf are the chev ones - from the US. I have had to order the closest one - a tapered pipe thread reamer which I pick up tomorrow and then it has to go off to the toolmakers to be ground and resharpened to the taper of the magna tie rod end - You don't want to know what that bugger is costing .

I have decided to start off using the WRX rack and leave the Cortina one off too the side for now - the Cortina one has been done before, even though I don't have my nice little graphs to show exactly how the end result performs.

I have lined up and scribed the centre lines for both the rack and the front subframe and measured where I want to get the rack to mount but unfortunately I now need to start modifying the subframe (mainly drivers side engine mount bracket) to make it mount far enough to the drivers side and rearward enough.

For my setup with the LT5, I am at a huge advantage as the engine mount is flatter and a fair bit wider apart than the Holden ones so I shouldn't have dramas with the engine mount, but I will still have to mod the crossmember to get the rack back far enough.

I am going to see what I can do with the Holden mount still but I reckon removing the drivers side mount all together and making a new one including the bit that bolts to the block would be the simplest way to go to get the bugger out of the way. God knows what effect this would have for extractors as I don't have an engine here to test fit - I may have to get one once I get a little further down the track.

I ordered my CRS drop spindles today (finally settled on HR 2"drop with Commodore bolt spacing for the calipers) - the buggers are on 3 month back order
Looks like I have plenty of time to keep chipping away at the steering.

I'll update my cardomain page in a few days

[A9X]

Had a great chat with Keith Callinan over the weekend.

Keith is running a WRX rack in his Pantera. Said it was the best mod they have made so far. Keith's spannerman was there and he said the have even modded one to fit in a commodore.

Keith also tells me Joe Caudo has PS in his Targa A9X. I'll call him this week and see if i can have a squizz.

I've got some great pictures of the quick rack fitted to Steve Coad's LJ Torana ,thanks to Rally Sport magazine and while it would seem to be a cost effective and relatively simple conversion for a racing car, the engineering is a bit much for road use i think.

I have a supplier quoting me this week on power steering pumps to suit, i will pass on the details when i receive them.

Looks like we are going to go the WRX route ourselves, starting this week.

Can you tell me what model rack you ended up with?

welby

[Toranamat69]

G'day A9X,

My PS rack is from a '99 WRX . Same rack is used from '96 though to 2002 including the STI's.

They then changed to a slightly different rack in 2003 or 4 to present which is similar but a bit bulkier around the rotary valve which is the area causing the most hassles with fitting the Torana Front end.

You can get 2 faster ratio racks in the later model ones (big $$$ as the rex guys want them and they came out in the club spec C and STI's respectively) but the '99 type will end up a bloody quick ratio on the Torana anyway so the fast ratio later ones would possibly be too responsive.

The racks from the Impreza and the Forester are also the same housing and overall width as the rex's, just slower ratios in them.

If you are serious about getting a rex rack, keep an eye on e-bay, I have seen them go for $50 to $100 and sometimes don't even sell at that - I have almost lashed and got a spare a couple of times.

I have just picked up my tapered reamer for fitting the Magna tie rod ends to the Torana steering arms so now I just need to start cutting the Torana subframe to fit the rack in place.

Unfortunately I didn't get a change to go near it this weekend, too busy playing with my new Nickel plating kit (and a million other non car related things)

M@

[Toranamat69]

Kastin,

I went through my notes as I have measured up an LC ages ago when I was scouring for suitable racks but I seem to have lost the measurements.

Reading back through this whole thread, the vital stats and some clues are sprinkled around the place. Some of my own Quotes I found

"I measured up an LC last week too and they need a rack with inner balljoint spacing of approx 510mm which could be tricky to find. most of the other specs are similar enough LX to LC I reckon and there is a bit more flexibility for mounting in the LC's if you can find a narrow rack."

You need a rack as close to that 510mm between inner balljoint pivots as possible.

http://www.appletonr...12232/4511.html

"I have never found a power rack I thought would be suitable for the LC but the 19.25 " long racks shown on the Appleton site look like they would be suitable."

The LC rack shaft comes out almost perpendicular so the appltton one may me tricky to get in without butchering the subframe.

Notice appleton do remote servos and cylinders, I reckon retrofitting those to the original Rack may prove to be easier and/or better.

That would leave you with the standard ratio rack but in a power version. You could then add a reduction gear like this to speed up the steering ratio.
http://store.summitr...15&autoview=sku

Hope that helps give you some leads.
M@

[Toranamat69]

I am up to the stage where I need a block(253 or grenaded 308), Torana sump and a pair of engine mounts to double check how much clearance from the WRX rack to the sump, even just for a loan for a week would do as I don't want to spend any $$ on parts I don't need.

The mods to the Torana subframe are fairly minimal to get the WRX rack to sit in the same spot as the original Torana rack - surprisingly the drivers side engine mount has way more room than I thought, it is just the bottom webbing on that engine mount that needs to be modified (even though I chopped it off) it didn;t need to go.

The only bit that really needs to be cut and modified is the bit around the rotary valve as the Torana rack doesn't have one of them. A bit of heat and a few taps in 1 other spot will also be needed just to get the rack a little further back.

The lines between the rack and pump will need to run through the subframe but I was hoping to do something like that to hide them.

I'll post my pics tomorrow, too tired to download them now.

If I can't find a spare block etc to use and verify the bumpsteer up in the original spot the Torana rack goes, I am going to start modding it further for the LT5 setup where i am going to run the rack about 6 or 7mm lower and use the A9X arms.

M@

Edited by Toranamat69, 19 February 2007 - 01:07 AM.

[Toranamat69]

Voi La - The long awaited update. I hope you weren;t hanging by anything valuable

I really need a Dummy block and sump now or else I continue on the LT5 power steering path but things are looking very promising to me.

I thought I would have needed to notch more than I did from the subframe to get the rack into position.

Check page 3, only a few minor mods to the first 2 pages.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/480776/3

I should change the fist page to some newer pics too - thoe ones are nearly a year old.

M@

[dattoman]

So we send you our crossmember now to have a rack fitted ?

[Toranamat69]

This is the castor/camber gauge I have, I guess it cost me about $200 ozzy as I split the shipping over about 5 parts in the 1 order.
http://store.summitr...15&autoview=sku

It works really well, does +or- 6 degrees camber in 1/4 degree increments and although they say +or- 8 degrees castor, it can actually do +or-16 degrees in half degree increments.
Certainly accurate enough for me.
The 20 degree angles on the end are useless as tits on a bull - you need some turn plates of some sort to turn the wheels exactly 20 degrees each way to do a castor measurement.

There are several other types including digital ones. I needed one which connected to the stub with no wheel and brakes fitted for my purposes but it will still work with my wheels on the car, I just need to take the wheel off and remove my centre caps to fit the gauge - bit of a bugger but I havn't used it for that anyway.

If you want to measure the alignment on the car, you may be better off with one of the ones that clamps to the wheel rim.

http://store.summitr...319906&D=319906

Matt

[Toranamat69]

Sounds promising, I am surprised it is that cheap.

Are you going to use their adjustable rack ends? Probably not a bad plan for a retrofit job as you then have some adjustment for rack mounting height.

What rack ratio are you going to go for?

I hope you told them the application is for a RHD car with the rack mounted out the front of the axle so your steering works in the right direction

Keep us posted.

M@

P.S. Datto, not long now, but not yet.

[dattoman]

Do LC-LJ really need a power rack ?
I always helt they were light and not too many people shove huge rubber under them do they ?

Maybe M@ can do some measuring of the LX rack to get a quote on them too

[Toranamat69]

Kastin,
Going for the unisteer option, I have been keeping them up my sleeve incase the WRX one doesn't work.

It is pretty dificult to see those measurements in that pic but it looks to me like you have shown 132mm rack travel either side, I think that should be 132mm total rack travel so 66mm each side.

Your 502mm between inner balljoints is probably more accurate than the 510 I quoted as I was estimating it with the rubber boots still in place. Just remember you are trying to measure to the centre of the ball pivot.

As far as I know those rack ends just screw off but they usually have a lock washer to hold them on tight and they are a bugger to get a good hold of.

Which angle pinion are you going to go? they only do 18 degree or 90 (funny how they change reference with the 2) the LC one looks to be less than 18 degrees though, maybe about 10 or something. Maybe the 18 degree one with a short shaft and unijoint will get you out of trouble, I can't remember how much room an LC has in that area but remember a power rack will be bigger around the pinion as that sketch with your measurements is a drawing of a manual rack.

Do you know what threads and tapers their tie rod ends use?

M@

[Toranamat69]

Datto,

My LC used to be quite okay to steer but it had standard wheels and a 6 cylinder and the big bus steering wheel.

I remeber driving a mates LC with wider fronts and a little steering wheel and it was obviously heavier, if you added a V8 up front and started doing the sort of things I am to my front end with castor settings it will also get heavier every step of the way and add to that again if you wanted to get really quick ratio steering, I reckon that would put you in power steer territory.

M@

[Toranamat69]

Another update on my Front end.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/480776/3

Lots of my secrets are starting to come out now.

M@