Hotchkis suspension and rack upgrade issues.

[Protournoob]

Hello there protouring.com members, my names mason and I work at a classic car restoration shop. Im currently in the middle of finishing a full hotchkis suspension install, as well as a unisteer rack and pinion conversion on a 1960 impala convt with a 502 big block and a 4l60 trans. Back has a 9inch ford, full hotchkis arm kit, QA1 shocks, and now a hotchkis bar. The back I had to modify the sway bar mounts to fit the larger 9 inch housing and now I have 1/4 inch clearence to the drivers side shock and over an inch on the passenger side. Not sure where the issue is there yet but thats the least of my worries(if anyone has suggestions id love to hear them.)



The big reason I joined to post is the front. I already got all 4 hotchkis front arms in, the QA1 shocks, and the sway bar and rack. Well at full droop, the head of the rack hits the sway bar long before it would come close to being hooked to the links, and sitting at ride height im about 3/4 inch away from the already compeletly adjusted out sway bar links (hotchkis arms comes with heim joint adjustable links already on them). I tried clocking the rack slightly for clearence but then steering shaft hits the frame. Car HAS to get allignment today for delivery tomorrow so this is very much an emergency post. Worst case senerio in my mind is to re clock the rack and notch the cradle for the shaft. Not sure how that would affect bump steer and such. Other thoughts are can I make longer links, or move the sway bar mounts slightly to compensate without adversly affecting overall performance??

Any ideas or info would be greatly apreciated. Ive been messing with this stuff all my life but being 22, I sure as hell dont know it all. Thanks so much in advance guys.

[Protournoob]

Figured out that I can atleast use spacers to fix the rear bar, thats no longer an issue just dealing with this damn front one....

[kochevy67]

I have a unisteer rack and I can tell you that their racks are NOT a bolt on as they claim. I have had problems with the rack during the install and after the install I had an issue with the end caps. One fell off and they wouldn't tell me how or why. Needless to say I would NEVER buy from them again. My next car wil have a steering box. If you can put a box in it I would, because more than likely you will see this car return to your shop for issues.

[Hotchkis]

Hello Mason,

Thank you for talking with us yesterday regarding the clearance issue you are having with your aftermarket rack-and-pinion setup. As we discussed on the phone, it looks like your best course of action right now is to make end links that are 3/4" longer than what you have now. Please let us know right away if you are still having issues after you make the longer end links. Our sway bars were designed to work with factory and replacement steering boxes and have not yet been tested for compatibility with the various rack-and-pinion systems now available.