steven31371

Looks like I blew a seal in my rackin pinion and have to get it rebuilt....but if the option is available I'd rather just convert to a more track friendly non power steering setup that is more durable and has more direct feel than the power setup.

Has anyone done this?

Can you point in me in the right direction as far as parts and a "how to".

Thanks in advance.

trackboss

You don't want to do that. It will wear out your arms on a road course. Especially with a good amount of pos. caster

steven31371

K

What mods do you recommend to make the system more track reliable...don't want to have another breakdown at the track again

Also, does carrying more caster put more stress on the power steering system....I'm running about 9.4 caster.

trackboss

The most common modifications on cars like yours are to have your pump and rack rebuilt by turn one. They do have an option for the pump rebuild that should improve feel slightly. Having them install their pulley is worthwhile as well since it makes pump removal/install easier. The other thing to do is to use a power steering fluid cooler. There are many to choose from. Basically a small transmission type cooler sized to fit wherever you prefer to install it. I use a frame rail transmission cooler from permacool and mounted it in the airbox. I also converted all my power steering lines/fittings to AN style so I am not married to oem lines, seals, etc. AN parts are universal and can be found just about anywhere race parts are available.

RapidC84B

That's way too much. Most try to be around 6.

ECS makes a nice manual steering kit. Never tried one in a Corvette. Know a few people with manual steering in road race cars and they like it. Also, know a few others who hate it. I think it depends on how heavy the car is.

Turn One is the place to go for rebuilt pumps and racks for track duty.

yakisoba

+1 for Turn One! They also make a pulley that's not solid, so you can get at the trapped bolt which holds the pump on. It's only one, but it's a pain if you don't pull the pulley before you pull the pump, and it's hard to do that without taking too much stuff off the car.

steven31371

Thanks guys....this looks very cool:

http://www.turnone-steering.com/vari...ble-flow-valv/

RapidC84B

FYI the LS2 PS pulley has openings for bolt access w/o having to pay the premium for the Turn-One pulley. It installs on the LS1/6 pump just fine.

InflatableDog

In my exp. There isn't enough adjustment in the Corvette front suspension to turn down the caster enough. A car that is setup to run a non power rack will only have a few degrees of caster, and will run more static negative camber.

Anything within the factory caster range will be impossible to turn on a track car that is using sticky tires.

Bill Dearborn

Amen to that. When the engine dropped a valve going down the front straight at the Glen 2 years ago I had all I could handle getting it into the run off area and stopped. Power steering and brakes both went away and the brute was really hard to steer even at triple digit speeds.

Bill

DOUG @ ECS

Thanks!
our manual racks are for drag racing applications though, you better have some serious upper body strength to road race one of them!


I would also recommend Turn one products and a big cooler. Actually the big cooler fixed all my P.S. troubles, then as I wore parts out I replaced with Turn one.