75 steering rack

[deano]

Hey guys,

Interested in people's experiences when it comes to manual vs power steering racks. The rack in my 75 is starting to become a bit of a headache. I believe the pump is leaking and it's very oily around the pump itself and under the car which requires regular degreasing to pass scruitneering... Seeing as the car is rarely driven on the road and only really used in club events I'm wondering whether it's worth installing a manual alfetta rack as it will reduce weight, improve feel and save me the headache of having to sort out the power rack at this stage. I understand that the steering will become much heavier with fat bars which I plan to add fairly soon and there will also be a slight decrease in the speed of the rack. What are your thoughts guys? At the moment its running standard bars and springs and its a nose heavy 3L.

cheers

[scott.venables]

I've got a manualised rack in my 2.5 75 which I find quite acceptable, even considering it's a daily driver.  It has a smaller aftermarket steering wheel as well.

I don't think torsion bar size will contribute to steering weight.  More likely to contribute would be castor, tyre size, wheel offset.

[dehne]

i was running power steering in my 90 race car until i had a spin and it decided to do a seal, i did not bother fixing it and left all bits in and run it as is (i did take the belt off) and i think it is better with out as you feel what the car is doing better now and for road use in my road 90 has had no ps for 6-7 years and i livewith it can be a little heavy at low speed

[deano]

Cheers guys. I've got a rack out of a 80s gtv sitting in the shed so its a matter of swapping it over. Probably been asked to death but are all alfetta racks the same in terms of their speed? All 3.5 turns lock to lock as opposed to the 3.2 for a 75 power rack? Not that much of an issue but Id prefer a slightly faster rack if possible.

In my experience with installing fat bars on my mates gtv, the steering was much heavier. We did do a quick string line allignment though.

[MD]

there will also be a slight decrease in the speed of the rack.

My experience is exactly the opposite. Manual racks offer faster response, infinitely better feel and greater accuracy as a result, less horsepower wastage, less maintenace issues and for racing puposes, weight savings. How many more reasons do you want?

You can leave the rack in place, remove the pump and belt to save weight. If the rack does not leak, leave the fluid reservoir in place to lubricate the rack by gravity. Otherwise you could pull it apart and grease fill it and use it as a typical manual rack with original ratio that you are used to. It will be heavier of course at very low speeds but on the move, its not relevant.

The final bonus is that you will get rid of those chicken wing arms...

[sportiva]

Hi All

deano you said you have an 80's rack to replace your ps rack
before you pull the power steering rack out of your car check that the splines on the uni jointed section are the same as the gtv rack
If they are different you might be able to swap the pinion between the racks [i havent tried to do it just a thought] but i know the splines are different between 75/90 ps racks and gtv manual racks

Cheers Glen

[sportiva]

Deano

All Australian 116's Alfetta, guiletta,and gtv series racks were made by ZF and all are 3.5 lock to lock
GTV6 racks are different as they use a steering damper so the rack housing is slightly different same 3.5 lock to lock

Glen

[deano]

Cheers guys for all the help.

I think I'll pull apart my normal rack and grease fill it in the next few weeks when I get time and pop it back in. I'll let you know how it all goes.

[scott.venables]

I've got a spanner I made to undo the rack halves you can borrow if you like.

[MD]

Deano

before you pull the power steering rack out of your car check that the splines on the uni jointed section are the same as the gtv rack

This is good advice from Sportiva because the splines are not the same. The simplest option for you is the one you propose to take. There are a couple of others involving more money and complexity. Stay with your plan.

I am doing a 160 to 116 conversion right now and I can tell you oils ain't oils..

[Sheldon McIntosh]

I'm pulling the engine out of Ironsides soon, and I'm thinking I'll probably do the same thing while I have the chance.  I really don't want to lose the P/S since it's very handy when tootling round the pits or at a servo or whatever, with a 320mm steering wheel; but I've had a couple of issues with the P/S before (see my report on the 6 hour in C&S a few years ago) and can imagine I'll have a few more in the future, so may as well make it as simple and reliable as possible while it's easy to do.

Dammit, I love that power steering, probably the second best (old) power system I've experienced, after a Porsche 928.

[MD]

I have to agree. They are a good rack. I liked it enough to custom fit one to my wife's Alfetta (which I used too ) using a 164 pump. She wanted to get rid of the car as she was having problems parking it but the conversion did the trick. For a road car they do the job well. For the track I would prefer a manual rack to save power and weight and keep the sharp feedback and response.

Here's a couple of pics of the install..

[Sheldon McIntosh]

I have to agree. They are a good rack.

Are you talking about my avatar again?

[MD]

Hahaa.
There's rumours about your rack and your G string...

[Sheldon McIntosh]

An old thread, but thought I'd update my findings.

While I had the engine out I took out my rack and filled it with gear-oil, with two equalising tubes, and deleted all PS gear.  I only got a few laps at Sandown on Sunday but the steering felt fantastic.  To be honest it's no different at high speed since the PS was a fantastic system which doesn't offer any assistance at speed anyway, but in the very low speed stuff it's just a tiny bit better in terms of feel.  Obviously it's a lot harder to turn the wheel at parking speed, especially since I'm on race rubber and with a 320mm steering wheel, but it's not ridiculously hard, probably no worse than my standard 33 S1 at parking speed.  I'd been expecting it to be very hard to turn at low speed but it's perfectly acceptable, I imagine it would be just fine with a standard wheel.

I had really wanted to keep the PS, but I knew that something would start leaking eventually, and since it's purely a track car I wanted to make it as simple as possible, and any weight off that front end is always welcome.  But with the results, if I ever have the engine out of a road car in the future I will be doing exactly the same thing.  I want to avoid at all costs having to work on the steering rack while the engine is in situ.