RACK AND PINION STEERING

[SmokeyBear]

There is a guy who has put a mustang front end on his truck but he built a complete frame for it and laid it on the groud with 20's. marz68 is his screenname ane here's a link to his project...

http://www.fordification.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9944

[bleedfordblue]

I'm going to try to put it on my original suspension setup. I just wondered if anyone had done it, what it was like, and what to watch out for.

[marz68]

It can be done but I think it will give you a lot of bump steer because the pivot points of the suspension and the pivot points of the rack are way different, if you look at my M2 suspension where the lower arms connect to the frame, that is were the suspension moves so that means that the
rack should also pivot in the same location as the lower arm. I will draw a pic to better explain it.
I hope this makes cense.

[marz68]

here is a picture that explains what i was talking about.

[willowbilly3]

I always take heat for this but I think the chevy pickup front would be a good idea. Then you have lowered spindles that you can buy but you still have pickup parts and not parts from a smallish car. Also you could probably make a rack and pinion from a Dodge pickup fit. Just keep inh mind that those chevy parts aren't as tough as the old twin I beams

[bleedfordblue]

no I'm sure they aren't, but I won't be ahuling much of anything in this truck. I like the chev front end because it handles sooooo much better than the twin I beam. I can't get my truck sideways, no matter what I do, unless I am on gravel. All understeer...... Boring..... So.... anybody ever do this chev swap?

[marz68]

It will work if you use a cheby front suspension.
We are working on a 70's cheby truck were we are going to adapt a 80's ford mustang rack steering so it should be the same for you if you go with that suspension setup.

[bleedfordblue]

please keep us updated on that!

anyone else?

[marz68]

Here are some pics of the cross member that we used, the truck is a 67 cheby. The frame was narrowed to make room for 22 inch wheels.

[marz68]

one more.

[bleedfordblue]

how did this turn out? I was wondering how the chev handles compares to the mII. Surely these parts are stronger than the mII. No? I also was wondering how a 67 chev frontend compared to an 80's in terms of width and performance. Anybody?

[layedout72]

hey marz, whats the width of that frame for the 22's, this may be a better way to go for me on the truck, rather than dump ALL that cash into mustangII stuff. Would the same narrowing apply to the stock frame?

[marz68]

I will get you some messurements with those 22's.
We are having problems with the steering right now, we are thinking of building new lower control arms to make room for the MII rack cause we had to lower the motor 2" to make room for the magna charger.

[layedout72]

do u have a link to the build? I wouldnt mind seeing how yall lowered the mounts an all, as i plan on super/turbocharging whatever motor goes into the truck.

[marz68]

I don't think we got any pictures of the work that was done on the motor mount's, we were in a hurry to get it done cause Street trucks was going to shoot some pics of IF doing a big brake install.