bowtie racing

Has anyone instaled or bought one yet? If so hows the overall quality and craftsmanship of it? Pics? thanks !

LymanSS

I remember hearing about this, and hearing that it would be out for the vette soon. Is it out? Where can I get info on this? I would love rack and pinion steering in my 71.

Scott

zwede

Vaporware. It has been due out "in a few weeks" for 2 years now... Don't hold your breath.

Monty

I've been calling SpeedDirect every other week since about March. I called last week and they said the delays were due to supplier issues. They said they were still going to make the kit though, and it's just a matter of time. Their website still says Summer of 2001 though.

mrvette

Hell with steeroids....do your own....I have now done my car, engine is not in it yet, but everything should fit and line up....
the rack you need is from an '89 series Grand Am....center take off, the position is both higher and toward the rear than Idar's ideas there....
the tie rods need a special steel block made so the original tie rods are used, the adjustment collars are cut in two, and welded longer with .562 inch steel rod in mine....the length needed is 21.5 inches on the pass side...that is from joint center to joint center....on the driver's side it's 19.75 inches....
on MY installation....that steel block takes the original 15mm capped bolts from the grand am...and ties same as the original tie rods...being one inch thick at the bolt seating...then I have tabs on either side about 3/4 inch thick with tapered tie rod holes...about 1.25 inches from the mounting bolts to the tie rod bolts....now I think the ground clearance is not optimal, but I will just modify the block I had made, the rack is not going to move...I have used only a double universal....from Lumina parts, grand am parts, and a modified wheel stem clamp...due to my personal situation/comfort...I moved my wheel 3/4 inch off the firewall toward rear of car,..so my arms are not so straight, and too boot cut the footwell moving it forward about 3" at the bottom edge....moved the brake pedal by cutting/welding the lever....and straightened the gas pedal so it's re-angled....but these last 3 things have little/nothing to do with the rack steering....

OK, so it's stock tie rod assy....lengthened in the middle....
custom adapting block....you could use those hotrod heim joints available from speed shops...like drag cars use...but I thought the stock tie rod ends were probably more weather tite/durable....I dunno....
IF you use the hein joints idea, you MAY be able to switch over to the tie rods from an Impala of the 70's vintage...they are about18 or so inches long and have the same taper on the ends....
the correct position forthe rack is about an inch forward of the power piston bracket on the driver's side frame...and 2.5-3 inches below the frame...measured from the surface of the rack tip end....not the centerline....
similar on the pass side,.....
NOW also the rack is positioned so the input shaft is UP as far as possible...
this relaxes the angle on the upper universal joint near the wheel column...
the column needs retracted, no way around it....but the angles are in your favor there, so no safety troubles....
I have an intermediate shaft a double D arrangement from a Lumina it's collapsing also....
MY driver's side engine mount was cut out with a hole saw on the back side to allow the steering input to 'rise to the occation'....IF there is any weakness noted there after my engine is in....metal will be added....I"m not anticipating any...it's strong as hell 1/8 inch steel there..plenty of metal....
I used heavy stock 1" angle steel for both constructions....the pass sideone is easy...needs to be about double width at the bottom as the rack needs the clamp moved inward to avoid oil line fitting....
the mount on the driver's side is made of same material, but boxed into a square tube, and mounted to the first two most vertical steering box holes, longer bolts, and pulled 1/2 inch off the frame to the inside...then the proper telt angle for the rack is done by welding another piece of 1" angle to that boxed in piece....so now we have the rack offset to the left of the boxed angle, and the box is held off the frame by 1/2 inch spacers between it and the frame...
this was done because the tire may/will rub the rack tip otherwide....don't forget I'm running 17x9.5 '92 vette rims all around....so need every inch of clearance I can muster....

so far, having returned all parts of the false start with other gear....
I have got about 150 bucks into this project....thanks to junkyard parts and an 85 buck machinest bill for my adaptor block for the inner tie rod tips....the other alternative is 70 bucks for heim joints and no steel block....
OH BTW, the rack is approximately 45* off flat horizontal, to accomocate steering input geometry...so the stock grand am tie rods would be in binding on the rubber bushing and wheel movement....the grand am rods are not long enough either...I messed with them a bit, and my welder buddy said he was NOT happy with the welds...and did not recommend them....SO word to the wise on using that cast iron/steel stock poopie, and modifying it..

I will eventually finalise some drawings.....but it's in now, and works fine...finally plenty of clearance for tie rods over previous attempts with this grand am rack....

GENE

71roadster

Gene
Thats a great effort you have going there. Love to see it "live" so to speak.

How abouts some pics? They're worth a thousand words....

I especially like that extended footwell idea!

mrvette

Money is tite right now, and I don't have a dig-it-all camera, and film developing/scanning is difficult....and besides, it's sorta hard to show pix when the car is in the condition it's in....on the jack stands....
I gotta get a dig-it-all camera so as to do this....but then I need another hard drive, as this one is maxxed out....sh it never ends....

GENE


[Modified by mrvette, 10:12 PM 10/26/2001]

427V8

Gene,
The R&P sounds sweet. Steeroids will be knocking on your door to see how it's done :cheers:

BTW, did you know proex will develop your film and put the pics on CD for free?? Hint hint :D

mrvette

proex?? sounds cool, but thing is, without being able with a dig-it-all camera I can't get the lighting right, that is a problem for me with some of Idar's shots...angles, focus, clarity...so I could develope forever and not have anyting....I don't get along with cameras too well anyway, it's an age old fault of mine......is not excuses just the way it is....so much of what I have done was/is wasted effort, the time to mutz around getting the pix correct would have been even more wasted effort...hang in there guys, it's a bunch of fabrication, but when it's done....I"ll photo it with someone's camera then see what is...

GENE

bowtie racing

Gene,you have done great Job!!! Is there possibility at someone could len you a digicam so you could post few pics,it would be BIG help for us.

thanks again!

joni

mrvette

Doug Johnson is the only person I knew with a digital camera, and since I"m no longer friends with him, I can't borrow his.....I"m thinking of using maybe the wife's camera now, this morning...that the thing is finally finished enough to photograph.....yeh, not a bad idea, just may do that.....get them developed today, and try get my scanner working....last post on the subject indicated computer troubles, well I reformatted C: since then, and now my printer won't work, so the sheet fed scanner may not either, I need go into bios to set printer port to be directional, I know that....why not, I have nothing else to do but bang my head on this keyboard today...;-)))

GENE

burners

Here's at least part of the information you want. The design of the system is complete and it has been on a test car for about 6 months now. The difficulty has been with suppliers and getting the little details finalized. I can say from experience that it steers really well. It is very smooth and consistent. The ratio is about the same as the stock quick ratio steering.

More information and pictures are coming, hopefully by the end of the week.

Shutdown1

Dear Mr. Vette,

Even with pictures and you standing beside me, I couldn't handle a job like that on my car (as bad as I would like to improve it's handling). MY hat's (and T-tops) are off to you for such a remarkable engineering job. Regards, PM, '74 Turbocharged 350, "Molested to Perfection", class of '71

Monty

I'm dedicated to buying this kit, as long as it is equal in perforamce and quality of the Camaro kit that's been out for a couple of years now. However, I am pretty disappointed that the delays keep happening. My car would have been ready for the "One Lap" had the kit been released as promised. I've used the additional time to make further enhancements, but I'd really like to know when a realistic expectation would be. SpeedDirect has been promising this kit for almost a year now, it would be nice if us potential customers had some solid and relaible info.