46 ford straight axle rack and pinion steer

[frdrak]

I am a newbe to forums. I want to convert my rear cross steer power steering box to power rack and pinon. does anyone know if a kit is available. has anyone made this conversion and how. any help is appreciated.
thanks,
fred

[Huskinhano]

A couple years ago I did a performance upgrade on my 66 Mustang with tubular control arms and do my own set ups with alignment. Before I started on doing any work I did a lot of reading. One of the big problems in converting from a recirculation ball to rack has to do with linkage geometry related to Ackerman. Ackerman is more to help with low speed steering. It basically makes the inner wheel turn tighter to reduce scrubbing. It's basically a predetermined rate of toe changes. A regular box gets Ackerman by the angle of the tie rod arm on the spindle. A rack gets it by the changing triangulation of the linkage. When you install a rack on a drag link system you get excessive rates of toe changes that cause bump steer. The location of the rack is very, very important.

The reason for cross steer on your solid axle is specifically to reduce bump steer. Going straight off the box to the LF spindle will increase bump steer due to the shorter linkage and greater movement as the suspension articulates.

This is why I do not have a rack on my 66. I would go through the box, rebuild it, pay close attention and use a good grease. You'll have a much better steering truck.

[frdrak]

Thank you for the info. I will do some homework

[squirrel]

There is also a thing called "unisteer cross steer kit" that might be what you're thinking of?

[SuperBuickGuy]

I've always wondered why someone would bother with rack and pinion on a solid axle. It's not like they're going to be out whipping on Miatas on the road course.

[Deaf Bob]

Where do you mount it?
Off the axle?

[SuperBuickGuy]

Unisteer mounts to the axle and there's a slip-joint in the steering shaft to allow movement of the front axle...