fatmans power rack and pinion conversion

Sorry. for the confusion. I just boaght a rebuilt rack from an ebay power seller. I'm gonna make my mounting brackets my self. what I'm missing on the one side is the semi circle bracket deal on the one side.
Gene Where did you get the intrepid rods? junkyard?

 

So your talking about the steel strap that wraps around the rubber that wraps around the rack itself? I just bent an 1/8" x 1" strap and drilled a couple holes. The rubber was already on the rack, but I suppose maybe a guy could get them from Mopar. They tend to have individual componets available and are sometimes pretty cheap, sometimes......Look for 93-97 Dodge Intrepid (Chrysler Concord or Eagle Vision) parts.

My tie rods came off a car that I had stripped out. My son and I both had Intrepids and we bought one that was beat up for cheap and used a lot of parts from it (stil have a bunch of stuff). Since that time we have both sold out cars so the parts car was stripped and sent away. A year or two later the car that was my son's got wrecked and ended up back at out place and it was also stripped. I had that complete Intrepid rack that I wanted so baddly to fit on my Plymouth but I just couldn't figure a way to make the front steer work on the Plymouth's rear steer. Trust me, I had it hanging in the hole every way possible (I have two of these racks here) and just hated the thought of having to buy something. One day at a junk yard I noticed that the Caviler rack was the same design but was a rear steer. I bought a rebuilt GM rack (from NAPA) and used a set of Intrepid tie rods I had laying around.
Bet you wasn't expecting my life story was you? Sorry, Gene

 

does it make a differance if the engine is in or out for the setup as far as keeping weight on the front end or can you have the engine out thanks

 

I will be swapping the rack out this week for one that has both mounting brackets. So that will be fixed. I have been thinking about this and it looks like I can make a tie ros bracket the will mount to the front of the rack in the 2 bolts and drop down and behind the rack so that I can mount the rack farther forward for clearance reasons. Any reason why that would not work?

 

any opinions on the tie rod bracket idea?

 

Which rack are you using? With the rack I used, and the 3.9 V6 with its stock oil pan, clearance was not a problem anywhere with the rack. Where the power steering hoses went through was a little close, but I had no issues with the rack clearance.
Just a thought, even mounting my rack where I did, I bent the tie rods so they would line up with the steering arms ever so slightly. If the rack is moved forward in the car more that bend will have to be a sharper bend, not sure what you would be gaining. The rack it self does not move when the suspension travels, its mounted solid to the frame, only the tie rods move only about 3" max, and most of that movement is at the outer tie rod ends as the centers are mounted to the solid mounted rack.

To 514door: The difference between having a motor in the car or not, when you mount a steering rack, is going to be a clearance issue with the sump on the oil pan, and the final toe in setting will be different with the suspension loaded or unloaded. As long as you know where your oil pan sump is located when you make your mounting brackets so that the pan and the rack don't try to occupy the same space you should be good. The final toe in setting has to be made with the weight on the suspension.
Gene

 

gene thanks for all your info as far as the sump that wont be a problem cause i am going to a sbc and the sump is in the rear so no problems there once again thanks bob

 

not to hijack the thread or anything but reading this really got the gears turning in my head, anyone done this on a 49-54 chevy with stock front susp? is it really just as easy as findig a rack to mount up, replacing the tie rods, attatching the wheel and setting up a pump? if anyone has done this what did you use? thanks