Swapping to rack and pinion steering
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==Turning radius== | ==Turning radius== | ||
| − | Many cars suffer from poor turning radius after an R&P install. There are 2 basic reasons. Either the rack was placed too far left and interferes with the wheel, or no adjustment was | + | Many cars suffer from poor turning radius after an R&P install. There are 2 basic reasons. Either the rack was placed too far left and interferes with the wheel, or no adjustment was made to the steering arms. On a typical RB type steering box the pitman arm has a “throw” of 7 inches, side to side. It is usually connected to steering arms effectively measuring 7 inches long. (The 7 inches is measured from the center of the steering arm mount, where the king pin or ball joint pivots the spindle, to the center of the outer tie rod where the steering pivots.) Typical racks (Cavalier) have 6 inches of throw and originally connected to the upper strut in a manner that represents about 5 ½ inches from center of the strut to the center of the tie rod. Connecting the rack to the original arms causes a loss of nearly 20% of steering angle. It is strongly recommended that this be dealt with before installing the rack. |
Changes to the steering arm can affect the steering geometry and introduce bump steer. So, if you are going to address this issue, (some people don’t) do it before the rack install. | Changes to the steering arm can affect the steering geometry and introduce bump steer. So, if you are going to address this issue, (some people don’t) do it before the rack install. | ||
There are two acceptable methods of dealing with this issue. The preferred method is to replace the steering arms with shorter ones. On the 41 Pontiac upgrade covered in the wiki “37 - 57 Buick Olds Pont suspension upgrade” we were able to replace the original 65-70 Chevy steering arms with a set from a 64 Chevelle. The Chevelle arms are 6 inches long (using our measuring guidelines, not the actual arm length) and even though that is a front steer car, we were able to flip them over for our use. | There are two acceptable methods of dealing with this issue. The preferred method is to replace the steering arms with shorter ones. On the 41 Pontiac upgrade covered in the wiki “37 - 57 Buick Olds Pont suspension upgrade” we were able to replace the original 65-70 Chevy steering arms with a set from a 64 Chevelle. The Chevelle arms are 6 inches long (using our measuring guidelines, not the actual arm length) and even though that is a front steer car, we were able to flip them over for our use. | ||
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