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by **bill1978v8** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:47 pm

You probably saw my swap of a Pinto rack & pinion into my '78 Monza last year. Well I didn't like it so I sold it. I'm in the middle of finishing up the swap of a different rack into the Monza. This rack is from a '73 Datsun 240Z. The price was right ($20.00) This rack is almost perfect for the Monza chassis. The inner tie rods are right at the point where the lower control arms bolt on. The outer tie rods are factory bent and they line up with the tie rod mount on the spindle. It looks like there will be zero bump steer with this rack. The bonus and the reason I went through all this is the Z rack is 3.0 turns lock to lock instead of the Pinto's 4.25 turns. I'll have pics and a parts list soon.

Thanks,

Bill

by **cdnvega** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:06 pm

sounds like a nice upgrade, lookin forward to seeing some pics.

by **v8astregt** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:02 am

Awesome! I'm looking at doing a rack upgrade on my car sometime in the future.

by **SunbirdMan** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:29 am

But how much travel does it have? The h-body centerlink has about 6" travel from side to side. If you don't have that much travel then the turning radius will not be as tight. It gets a little worse with the s10 spindles due to the longer steering arms. Most rack and pinion systems use much shorter steering arms so the rack doesn't need as much travel.

by **NixVegaGT** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:39 am

Thanks Bill. For the sake of other alternatives, I'm using an Appleton rack unit. Here's a pic. It also reaches out to the LCA bolt centerline but no further.

I'm pretty sure it's the 16.25" version. I've just got to work out the ackerman angle for final positioning but it should work well.

by **bill1978v8** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:10 pm

This rack has just over 5 1/4" travel per side. It is actually more than what my car has (S10 conversion and 225/50-15's).

I'm picking up the 240Z crossmember this weekend and I'm going to use the mounts for the rack to build a custom mount off my stock crossmember.

I like the Appleton rack but couldn't find one in my price range.

Bill

by **bill1978v8** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:46 pm

I got the 240z crossmember today!! It came with another rack and some other parts. It looks like it'll be easier than i thought to make it work.

Bill

by **ColinOpseth** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:57 am

Bill,
If you get this to work I'll send you cash if you'll duplicate your setup for me. I've been thinking I should upgrade to the later style k-member anyway.

Thanks a lot,
Colin

by **heinz057** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:01 am

pictures lots of pictures

by **bill1978v8** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 7:02 pm

I will post a lot of pics when done. It should be another week or two depending on my work schedule.

Thanks,

Bill

by **bill1978v8** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:41 pm

Here are some pics off the crossmember with the 240Z rack mounts on it.

Bill

by **greg72** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:12 pm

Cool! How soon will you be out of the prototype stage and into production? We will need part numbers as well. :lol:

I'll take two!

Seriously , nice work. I am looking forward to your finished install and final report.

by **AusRs** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 5:12 am

looks like a great conversion
when you get up and running checking bump steer etc can you let me know what i need for this swap.possibly even make me up a care package to weld onto my x member (NO lhd z cars in australia!

by **Sirshredalot** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:40 pm

Just wait till you price those rack and pinion units...cheaper to buy the flaming river or the aftermarket racks from jegs or summit.

God bless
-Shred

by **spyder_xlch** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:12 am

Sirshredalot wrote:Just wait till you price those rack and pinion units...cheaper to buy the flaming river or the aftermarket racks from jegs or summit.

God bless
-Shred

If they are cheaper than the $20 Bill paid for his rack put me down for a few.

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