Rack and Pinion fabrication

[MUSCLECAR]

Ok. I am new to this forum and after a bit of searching I did not find much on replacing my steering box by adding a rack and pinion to my 2nd gen Camaro.

The goal is to get larger tires on the front of my 71 Camaro without flares and on a semi-budget meaning I do not want to do an entire front sub-frame due to the cost.

I would like to get 315's on a 18 inch rim on the front. Probably on a ZO6 wheel that is 18x10.5.

So, I know I will need to ditch the front steering box or rework the frame where the factory steering box is bolted extensively, and I believe a rack will be a better choice. Then I can fabricate and notch away in the area where the tires would hit then re-support but without as much worry about needing as much structure there.


I looked at "Unisteer" ,, that is a possibility for a bolt on kit, anyone familiar with that kit?


Has anyone on this forum done that?

Is the factory sway bar going to be what the tires hit?
Will I need a different sway bar design also?

I would like to keep this thread focused on the Rack and Pinion subject.

But,, a little background would probably help to explain about where I am going with this project.


I am a good home hobby fabricator.
I will be using a 2 inch drop spindle.
Keeping proper steering geometry is important
I do not want to create new problems with bump steer etc.
I will be using the car at Autocross events.
The back of the car will be mini-tubed and I will use 335's on the rear with a 18X11.5

I am new to this forum and this is my first post, go easy on me please :usa:

Tom

[79T/Aman]

hello Tom, 315" on the front of a 2nd gen Camaro is possible but is you want to autocross you will want to focus on proper geometry and both drop spindles and a rack and pinion will both cause problems, there is no need for a rack, a modern 600 series steering box will do everything you need, drop spindles will cause physical problems with the outer tie rod vs rim, yes the sway bar will be the point the tire hits first STAY AWAY from hollow front sway bars they reduce tire clearance and or are less effective.
if you are on a budget improve what you have instead of reinventing the wheel.

[NickyP]

Hey Tom, I am actually in the same exact boat as yourself. I keep doing tons of research on upgrading my steering in my 1972 Chevy Nova and it seems like there are way too many contrasting opinions out there about weather it is better to go with an upgraded 12.7:1 quick ratio box or weather to use a power rack. The Unisteer and Steeroids power rack and pinion set ups seem super easy to install. However, it seems like in every review or comment I read people say that there is always problems with bumpsteer or problems with header fitment or issues with binding. At this point I think I am going to go back to my original plan of installing a rebuilt Jeep Grand Cherokee steering box to save some money instead of getting an updated box from DSE or Ridetech. Please let me know if you ended up going with the rack or the updated box. Best of luck!

[raustinss]

A lot of people are using boxes from turn one . Check them out

[wicked93gs]

I had a similar issue. Not because I wanted wider tires...but for other reasons. My car is a '66 Mustang so I am not sure how the Camaro is set up...but I think its already front-steer? My solution for the Mustang though was to convert to front-steer. In my case I used MII spindles and put them on the early-style Mustang control arms(I did have to ream out the spindles slightly to fit the ball joint correctly). I then used a Mustang II crossmember that I modified to hang a MII rack:

203047

In this case, I am NOT installing the MII suspension, only the MII steering. Because of that my steering rack now mounts below my LCA instead of above it like it does in the MII application. In this picture the green line represents how the MII pivots points for the LCA and UCA line up. The red line shows how the early mustang pivot points line up. You can see how the MII pivot points intersect the pivot points of the MII rack....and you can see how the early Mustang pivot points do not. What this means is that the steering rack has to be shortened so the inner tie rod pivots do line up(some vendors sell pre-shortened racks by the way)...this is to prevent bump-steer(same thing needs to happen with the outer pivot points as well, but the spindle takes care of that. So I simply shortened the rack and moved the rack mounts inward:

203048

Now the inner pivots line up. As part of this front-steer conversion, the aftermarket MII spindle steering arms are inside my 17" wheels:

203049

The original steering arms were longer than the MII steering arms. This is a 7" wide wheel with a 225 tire...but I could fit a 315 tire on a wider wheel under here if I wanted to now....but since I am keeping manual steering, I am not really interested in doing so.