Bill (bill1978v8) sent me a response to a question about his rack setup. The quotes are my questions.
Do I just need to mount a ujoint on the end of the shaft at the firewall? Any parts recomendations? Did you have any difficulty adapting the ujoints? Did you use the stock steering shaft? It kinda looks like that...
What I did was put a u joint on the splined end of the steering column coming through the firewall. This has a rag joint from the factory on a Monza. Take off the coupler and it's splined (1"-48, I think). After that I ran 3/4" DD shafting to a second u joint (3/4 DD x 3/4 DD). This let me run the shaft away from the exhaust. After the second U-joint I put a support bearing mounted on a piece of angle and bolted to the unibody. A third u joint (3/4 DD x 3/4 DD) ran down to the rack. This is the parts list from the firewall to the rack:
U joint - 1"-48 spline
3/4 DD shaft
U joint - 3/4 DD x 3/4 DD
3/4 DD shaft
3/4" + .006 Rod end support bearing
U joint - 3/4 DD x 3/4 DD
3/4 DD shaft
3/4 DD to Pinto rack coupler
'74 Pinto rack
Tie tod adapters - Pinto to GM bump steer correction kit
I'm planning on custom headers so I can run the shaft where I need it. I was thinking behind the exhaust or maybe over the last port and under the next. What do you think?
You can run it where it gives the most clearance. Try to keep it to two u -joints but if you use more than two or use a double u joint you need to run a support bearing.
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It's not an answer to the shortening question but it's something...