418 replies to this topic

[axistr]

Hi Matt, I think I have worked out a way to fit my subbie outback rack with out doing any mods to the engine gradle or engine mount, I had a good talk to the bloke that does our racks and he showed me all his spare rack he had ,about 350 old racks up stairs, we went through just about all of them including the cortina racks and then we come across one he said that was out of a rod that was moded to suit an old 34 ford with power steering and it was most likely from an early holden front end, it got me thinking of a new approach. the rack was in the scrap as the vehicle was involved in a hard hit in the front and damaged it and the owner didn't go ahead with the repair. I'am getting my engineer to look at this approach as he will have to do the certification paperwork anyway. If he goes for this idea all the steering rack end will match the original Torana measurments. I will let you know on the outcome as he is due one day this week, but he never turns up when he says so.

Axistr

[rodomo]

I vote Chopper for "test pilot".

[axistr]

Hi Matt, going by your WRX rack mesurements tie rod centres of 650mm my subie year 2,000 outback rack centres are only 635, I also have a early version subie rack I picked up and it is also 650mm, both racks have three turns lock to lock outback rack total travel 132mm early rack 135mm the early rack is also around 5mm bigger in the hydraulic cylinder, here again the outback rack would give less power assist but most likley better road feel. It will be very easy to get the later unit to travel 3-4mm further travel. After I striped out both racks I found the outback rack has a variable ratio built into the rack & pinion gears never seen one before. The early rack shaft has all the rack teeth parrallell the outback starts parrallell then goes into a helecal cut eather side of centre so this will give me quicker turn in I hope. the outback has 7 pinion teeth the other 8 but they interchange and work so I can change the ratio later if needed by only changing the pinion gear. how are the WRX set up ??. Going by your photo's the outback rack looks the same untill you measure it.

When I align the rack with the centre line of the engine cradle it needs to move 16mm to the drivers side and the inner tie rod centres line up with the control arms mounts exactly even better than the standard torana rack at standard torana rack height. I think I will go for the A9X steering arms as they should make the tie rod bars level as my hatch is 1" 1/2 lowered and retain the standard LX RTS control arms and stubs. If I'm correct the setup with the A9X steering arms should give me more toe out on turns with very low bump steer curve. Please advise if I'm wrong here as you have done lots more research on this section. As stated earlier I recon it will be possiable to do the conversion with out any mods to the cradle at all with only three minor mods to the rack making it a direct fit, this will suit me as when I carried out the full restro all the front end was two packed. There is also a way of moving the rotary valve to a position where I can run the p/s lines and will not foul with the engine, mounts or cradle, by welding on two new small flanges in the correct position to bolt the rotory valve to the rack with the standard subie set screws go but this is why I need to consult my engineer but as usuall he didn't turn up this week.

Hope this may help


axistr

[A9X]

Well done.

Do you have any pics?

Welby

[axistr]

Here are some photos of the subaru racks you can see the differant lengths.




The top rack is from the 2000 subaru outback is is a bit hard to see but the rack teeth have changed angle on the outside. The lower rack shaft is 10mm longer with inner rod end centres of 645mm against 635mm on the subie outback rack and is variable ratio.




The rack should be a direct fit when finish carn't give all details yet untill I get the nod from the engineer on my proposed mod, but will also bolt up to the original torana rack mount bolts so no welding will be required to the engine cradle.




May be a little tight but will fit without any cut outs for the p/s hoses.







The awaiting patient

Hope this helps A9X I am sure I will have some questions but hope It gets us all one step closer to getting the best p/s for our tories.

[A9X]

Excellent work mate !!!!!

Welby

[enderwigginau]

Mat has been working on this this weekend.
Hopefully he checked this before starting at it this morning.

Hope anyone who went down to Acacia Ridge last night said hi to him.

Grant..

[enderwigginau]

Spoke to Mat this week.
How far back have you got the rack to sit?
It needs to be within 6mm of the transverse centreline of the old rack to be any good.
He said something about HZ powersteering arms...........
Grant..

[axistr]

Hi Grant, I have checked my rack set up and It's 5mm further foward than the standard Torana rack, but I may be able to get it back an extra 1mm. My engineer finally turned up last Friday and has given me the go ahead for my proposed mods. I will now have to send out out a coulpe of parts to the machinest as I carn't do splines on my lathe, the draw back here is that the bloke I send my machine work to is as slow as the engineer, both excellent tradesman but very slow to get things done. When I have the rack in it's final position and affixed I will do all the sums on the steering arms, I think I will still achive a better steering axis than the original Torana setup.

Axistr

[enderwigginau]

Is there any webbing, etc on the rack that can be removed to get an extra few mm?

How close are you to having it mounted for pics?

Where abouts are you located?

Grant..

[axistr]

Hi Grant, I have removed 3mm from the aluminium casting at the mount area to get it within 5mm of the original Torana rack position, but I might be able to get it 1 or maybe 2mm closer at max. I have sent the torana coulpling that mounts the p/s input shaft to the steering column shaft to get it splined to suit the Subaru rotary valve setup. I will send the rack to my mate for the last of the rack mods so I can get it through R.T.A approval this may take a few weeks at least ,then I will be able to finalise the brackets. I have made templets so It shouldn't take long when I get the parts back, it just seams to take a long time when I rely on other people to do things for me as they know Its not a direstraights job. and my workshop has been chockers with trucks over the last months so progress has slowed the last couple of weeks.

I live north west of sydney.

axistr.

[Evan]

watching this thread closely. keep up the good work axistar

[axistr]

Sorry but I am still waiting for the rack to come back shouldn't be to much longer as it turns out the bloke that was doing the certification testing went on an over seas holiday for two months and he is due back this week I think, the steering coulpling I sent out to be splined to suit the subaru rotory valve input shaft is due next week, then its just down to finishing of the main rack mount bracket assembly to the setup engine cradle and retest and check.

I have a few car shows to attend over the next six weeks so the final fitment to HOLDON will be ofter that. My workshop has finally slowed down a little the last couple of weeks so I may get it all togeather sooner, It just seems customers vehicles come first and my stuf allways comes dead last. sory all for slow updates.

Axistr.

[enderwigginau]

I'll have to SMS Matt for info on what he has come up with.

Grant..

[axistr]

Up Date,
sorry all waiting for the latest in the power steering up dates. I have now finally got the adaptor to connect the subaru rack input shaft to the torana steering column, the adaptor looks factor and is made from EN26 steel so It will never break. The rack come back two weeks ago but both my rack man and myself looked at It and rejected the mod on the rotory valve where they welded lugs on it to relocate it in a better position for a direct fit to the torana engine cradle. The rack turned up again today and now looks the goods, now it's going back out for e-xray so I can get a certificate for it for the engineers report. The main rack shaft has not been cut or welded so there is no issue with strength it's only the outer case that had small mods to make the fit easy ( p/s hoses) and more important the correct rack centres for the correct steering geometry. This set up will have better rack centres than the original torana rack so my bet is that it will steer much better with the added feature eazy to steer and variable ratio. The bad news is my rack man has told me he's now going on a two week holiday on tuesday so further delays expected as he will assemble and put it on the test bench after it comes back from e-ray.

I wil post more photo's soon and keep you all up to date. AXISTR