75 steering rack

[dehne]

sheldon
the mother inlaw has a blue 90 (have not put any pics up of it) she is 62 yrs old and it has no power steering but has the orig wheel and she does not have any probs parking it,
i prefer have no p/s in the racecar you seem to have a better feel for what is going on, i still have the p/s rack in i just took all the other stuff out

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Hi dehne

My power steering did fail at one point (split HP hose) and I recall it being quite tough to turn the wheel at parking speed.  The way I have it presently is a lot easier than that.

PS you didn't PM me your address so I could send you a beer, so I drank it.  Bottling next batch next week, so I'll keep one for you.

[dehne]

sorry to go of topic
did you get ur fuel pump prob sorted, as i have a complete tank sitting out the side and im not planing on using it so if you need parts from it let me know

[Sheldon McIntosh]

S'all good, it was the pump that lifts up to the surge tank.  I was able to bypass the surge tank and go back to a standard set-up for the day.  I filled him to the brim and had a spare 20 litre tank of gas just in case, 'cos I always found that anything under a half-tank would cause surge (but that should be a lot better now with the stiffer suspension).  I'm just gonna get another of the little pumps that lift to the surge tank, but I'm gonna check this one first to see why it failed, because it really shouldn't.  The only thing I can think of so far is that it didn't like sitting around for 6 months doing nothing, but surely that would be normal for a lot of racecars?

Cheers anyway

[GTVeloce]

I read somewhere that two racks were used in Alfettas. The ZF which is unmodifiable and a Spica unit that could be opened up and modified with a kit for 2.5 turns. Possibly the Spica racks never came to Aus but one may be available overseas if you're keen.
Cheers

[MD]

I can see the logic for 2.5 turns for a rally car but for the track I dont think it's such a priority. Makes the job of Peter Brock/Jim Richards "smooth" that much harder to do for the odd time that you might actually rely on it. If you are doing 56's around Lakeside ( I want to know who your mechanic is immediately  )then yes get one pronto. If you are 10 seconds off that pace, forget it. Spend bucks on other improvments.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

If you are doing 56's around Lakeside ( I want to know who your mechanic is immediately  )then yes get one pronto. If you are 10 seconds off that pace, forget it. Spend bucks on other improvments.

Lakeside?  I'm not sure we run there.  Whereabouts in Victoria is that then mate?

[MD]

Hahhaa, ya dag.

Advice for all lost Kiwis :

to get to Lakeside, take pit lane and get onto the main straight newly named the Hume. Take a sharp left at the Dakabin railway station. Watch out for ding batts and drop bears along the way.

You can read about it here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeside_International_Raceway

If you nod off by Altona, try going to Lakeside in your lounge room instead:
http://www.virtualr.net/lakeside-park-2010-released/

[Sheldon McIntosh]

If you nod off by Altona, try going to Lakeside in your lounge room instead:
http://www.virtualr.net/lakeside-park-2010-released/

Nice one, I'll give it a go on GT Legends then.  Fun track?

[deano]

Hey guys,

I finally got organised and went up to winton on the weekend to try out the new suspension and the steering. Very happy with the way the car behaves now. The lack of understeer will take some getting used to.

The steering however is another matter. In theory it should be heavy at slow speeds and fine at speed. My steering is just as heavy parking as it is at 60 or 100 km/h. I'm not sure whats going on there. The only time the feeling changes is when I drive on different surfaces. The rack in the car came out of a TS and all I did was block off the pipes and left the pipe attached to the supply to allow it to breath. I dont have the return open which could be part of the problem. The rest of the pipes are sealed and there is a breather pipe between the boots. I also put graphite grease on the splines and poured half a cup of ps fluid into one of the boots before I sealed it all up. The best way to explain what it feels like is for anyone who has a ford/commodore, go jump in the car with it off and try and turn the wheel. Thats what it feels like all the time regardless of the speed. I really struggled with it at winton. I was fighting the car the entire time. Especially through the sweeper and the tits. I had a few sideways moments and really struggled to get the opposite lock on and off again. As a result, come decemeber my original PS rack will be rebuilt and back in the car. The only thing I can think of that is causing the problem is the fact that the rack was in my mates car originally and he drove around for a year or so with no fluid in the rack after the pump failed so it could just be failing now. At the time, I decided to put this rack in my car because I didnt want to destroy my original rack thinking I might need it in the future if I get bigger slicks on the car.

Sheldon, Id like to have a go at Ironsides steering to see what its like. Have a go in my car and see what you think also, I'll bring it down to Brunos one night next week.

cheers 

[scott.venables]

My offer still stands if you want a hand to convert your spare rack.

Scott

[deano]

Cheers scott, I'm probably going to just spend the money and chuck the power steering back in. I know it works and even though it had a bit of a wierd feel in it, I'm sure that that will be sorted once the rack is rebuilt. I'm going to send it off to prestige power steering in decemeber and they will linish the shaft and put a seal kit through it. I've also had some spacers knocked up for that rack to limit the amount of lock due to the fact when I get full lock, the rims hit the sway bar on the inside and knock the wheel weights off. I drove up to winton wobbling all the way. I got them rebalanced up there. My pump was also leaking so I'll have to get that sorted out with a seal kit. Once its in there with new hoses/seals etc, it shouldnt give me much trouble. And it'll make life easier in the future when the car is running 16 by 8 inch rims

cheers

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Hey Deano

This is just going to be a track car though isn't it?  And you'll be towing it anyway?  If that's the case, I would highly recommend not putting the PS back in.  It's more weight, and it's always going to leak again at some point.

It sounds like there is something seriously wrong with your current one though.  You need to have two balance lines as far as I know, you only mention one?  Attached a pic of mine for reference.

Happy for you to have a go in mine, I just need to get my exhaust sorted first and get some new boots on it after melting one of them last week, maybe towards the end of this week.  I think once you try mine you won't want to go back to PS, I'll let you know when it's ready.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Actually, I think maybe there are two different types?  Attached a pic of Greg Gordons conversion, the rack is slightly different.  Note he has two equalising tubes.  Mine has effectively only one in the rack, and then the one between the boots.  Do you have one on the rack, or just between the boots?  Even standard PS racks have the equalising tube don't they?  (these really are new to me)

[david sammartino]

Deano stick with the ps mate, tis' the 21st century after all lol and theres a reason that our cars with modern mod cons can do similar times to the group A cars of 20 years ago with "old school" thinking. P.S WILL ALWAYS BE FASTER!

Viva le revolution'!