2nd Gen Camaro Steering Rack options

[dipren443]

Any one out there converted their 2nd gen camaro to rack and pinion?? Steeroids and Unisteer both have setups for the 1st gen, but not the 2nd gen. I am curious if anyone on here has done this yet.... :help:

[graycamaro]

I am curious too. I would try to fabricate somthing for my 1980 camaro project car but I am trying not to spend a whole lot of money on stuff that insn't proven, but if an aftermarket company made it available I would be intrested depending on price. Plan right now is to use the IROC Z box I hae in the garage.

[paul67]

If as I think the steering box is in front of the spindle , if this is so there are a lot more racks that can be used try looking at very late camaros I would think they could be used or vettes as with the 1st gen the rack needs to be at the back of the spindle.
paul67

[bnickel]

mustang II's and fox body mustangs would be good to look at as well

[graycamaro]

So possibly use a camaro or mustang rack depending on wether the width would work.Could fabricate brackets to mount the rack. But my question is now what about bump steer. not positive but I belive the tie rod end is supposed to follow the same angle as the control arm. Right? Correct me if Im wrong. If this is a problem I belive I have seen some adjustable tie rod ends for correcting bumpsteer issues. This could work. Does anyone have a width measurement of the camaro rack. Thanks for any info.

James

[ks71z28]

The 4th gen camaro nor the mustang rack will work properly. Here are the issues; The width of the rack (where it pivots) must match the lower control arm pivots. The spindle arm length (from center of spindle to tie rod) must match donor car or steering ratio and range will be effected. The stock 2nd gen it something like 17" from pivot to pivot on the lower control arm, and the spindle arm is something like 7". The 4th gen rack is really wide at (off my head) 28", and its arms are like 5". The Mustang rack is narrower at something like 22", don't know the spindle arm length. I have measured and mocked up both. Ther are companies that sell narrowed racks, which is what is done for the 1st gen. Shortening up a 2nd gen spindle arm will be the most difficult task. The racks tie rod ends must mimmic the lower A-arms movement to reduce bump steer. I have looked at some import cars, and small GM. No off the shelf candidates yet
Custom rack will probably be best

[dipren443]

ks71z28,

Thanks for the info. It initially was just a thought so I hadn't taken any measurements as of yet, so the technical info is much appreciated. I have a query in with Unisteer as to what they would charge to do a custom rack. I'll post up their response for everyone else to read as well. If they want too much to do a custom one, I may buy the one they have for the 1st gen and attempt to retrofit it.

Nick

[Marcus SC&C]

We did really in depth research into a 2nd Gen R&P several years ago for a berserk customer project. The result was that unless the LCA inner pickups were relocated fairly radically the *best* result we could expect wouldn`t be much better than the factory box/linkage setup. The very narrow rack necessary for use wit hthe stock LCA pickups would have given it a much larger than stock turning radius which could be a real pain on the street. We ended up relocating the steering box (AGR) slightly,swapping the pitman arm for a custom unit and runnign a SCP torrington bearing idler arm and Howe adj. centerlink. Bumpsteer measured .0017" over 4" of travel if I remember right. :) Marcus

[graycamaro]

yeah I went out and looked at it the other day and with it being a front steer car it would be a real pain to get the steering shaft to line up even if you did get the rack to fit. To many problems, not worth all the work to try and make a rack work on the front steer cars.

Thanks anyways think Ill just use the IROCZ box.

[dipren443]

Thank you for the informative response. After reading much of this info, I am leaning towards the DSE 600 box. From what I have been reading, it seems like it will fit the bill perfectly for what I am looking to accomplish.




We did really in depth research into a 2nd Gen R&P several years ago for a berserk customer project. The result was that unless the LCA inner pickups were relocated fairly radically the *best* result we could expect wouldn`t be much better than the factory box/linkage setup. The very narrow rack necessary for use wit hthe stock LCA pickups would have given it a much larger than stock turning radius which could be a real pain on the street. We ended up relocating the steering box (AGR) slightly,swapping the pitman arm for a custom unit and runnign a SCP torrington bearing idler arm and Howe adj. centerlink. Bumpsteer measured .0017" over 4" of travel if I remember right. :) Marcus