Rack and pinion kit?
 

Has anyone bought the Blacktie Motors rack and pinion kit? They just came out with it. Just wanted to know if its a qualiy kit?. Any info or opinion on their kit would help. Been asking blacktie for a few more pictures of their kit. But they keep referring me to their video but it doesn't show much of the kit on the car. Mostly interested in the tie rod angle in relation to the lower suspension arm. Also how the stock steering rod attaches.

Link? Never heard of em.

http://www.blacktiemotors.net/

Well, its interesting but you have to modify (weld) your stock steering, I won't fit 13 and most 14 in wheels. Definitely not bolt on for sure. Also its a front mount rack pushing being used which seems kind of odd but I'm no steering geometry guru.

Found this...but I am not qualified to comment on quality or design: Rx-7 rack and pinion steering kit / Blacktie Motors

They say "We are now taking orders for a run of six (6) kits. Do (sic) to the time and work involved in making this kit we will be doing them in batches."

and mention that it doesn't fit with AC and that 13 and some 14" wheels don't clear their retrfofit knuckles.

I'd also like to see a full installation to see how the tie rods fit with the tension rods.
The RE-Speed kit had custom arms behind the lower control arms.

Looks to be a pretty good kit. I think these guys used to be Hot Water Labs, and have some pretty good products.

They should post more documentation on the forums, they will get a lot of interest, people are always requesting R&P kits for the FB.

I would consider something like this. My FB has coilovers, 15" wheels and TechnoToyTuning control arms and tension rods. If this would fit with my setup i would be very interested.

A full on FC subframe swap is a bit beyond what I can do at the moment and it would necessitate new coilovers, brakes, wheels etc etc. After finding all the parts, hubs, brakes, wheels, etc it would be too much $$.

What members have a similar R&P kit installed? This looks similar to a few other kits that have been available in the past. Feedback on steering feel improvement and geometry would help.

With the FC subframe you can keep factory GSLSE brakes and 14" wheels by using the FC NA 4 stud hubs and rotors. 13" wouldn't be possible however.

if you have 4x114.3 stud pattern you should also be able to fit turbo 4 pot calipers and 276mm rotors with 15" wheels, again by using the FC 4 stud hubs

I don't like the way the front oil line has to be routed. It's literally touching the steering shaft. I'd like to see a stock install with the radiator, stock shroud, lower water pump housing hose, etc...

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0be5e03d00.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...db15cdb7be.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...7d361ce66a.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...a3010530ca.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...7d6b36192d.jpg
Blacktie motors sent me a few more pictures of their kit.

Also notice that it is using small diameter poly engine mounts. It looks like factory engine mounts would foul at the last universal joint before the rack.

It looks to be an extremely poor quality looking kit with lots of cut corners for cost saving. I'd rather safe, properly engineered recirculating ball steering than half-assed rack and pinion any day of the week.

Also it looks like the tension rod would rub on the tie rod. i looked a the Respeed manual for their rack and pinion kit that i found online. That is a well engineered and designed rack and pinion kit. They put the tension rod behind the wheel so it doesnt interfere with the tie rod in the front. Wish they still made the respeed kit.

Holy moly. That kit is scary :o

Kudos to them for trying to bring a new product to market for our cars, but I would not feel safe with that kit at all.... I'd be curious to see what (if any) kind of testing was done on it... As said above, there are clearly corners being cut to make it more affordable (although this is about what the Re-speed kit used to sell for...)

If anyone on here does get one, please post detailed pics and feedback on the install!

I am interested in going rack and pinion and found the same Blacktie site. I am not mechanically inclined. The Blacktie offering sounds iffy from the comments so I will keep looking. (Holdfast / others) I am willing to jump in on a group order if others can bless the design / quality of whatever seems to be a good solution.

I'll pass on the black tie kit. Look to sketchy for me.

John Vargas from Angel MS out in cali made a kit for ~$1500 or so with drift angle. hit him up, say i sent you :)

Ya i seen that on Facebook. Looks promising. To bad I spent all my money on some recaro seats. Next tax return.

Old thread, but I have the Re-Speed R&P conversion kit and it is absolutely amazing. Straight forward install and everything was included. Took better part of half a day to install. Does anyone know if Re-Speed still sells these kits? They use a Mustang R&P. Looking at their website, it appears once they moved, they stopped focusing on the RX7. Sad, as I purchased a lot from them.

As for the Blacktie kit. The photos look terrible, and it that's what they are advertising with; I wouldn't want to be part of that first batch of 6 before extensive R&D has been performed. The kit doesn't look like a lot. The RE-Speed came with a whole new crossmember and other parts that he Blacktie seems to be lacking; however, I can't speak for this kit.

Re-Speed was sold the someone in Canada several years back. For whatever reason, he stopped selling/supporting the RX-7 stuff Billy from the original Re-Speed developed. A few tears back I even offered to buy the designs to build the R&P and didn't get any response. I know it doesn't make any since to not sell the designs because the new(er) Re-Speed doesn't make them.

I ran cross a brand new never installed R&P a few years back and like a bonehead I sold it to another member. I should have had some drawings made.

bruhhh :( :(

I just put an order in for the blacktie kit. Not sure if I'm going to have to change my motor mounts but I suppose I will find out and if anything doesn't fit I'll be sending it back. My car is in the garage for the winter and I'm about to pull the motor and swap in a new ported motor, so now is the time if they can get it to me before December. I also need to do the bushings so everything is coming apart anyway.

I just finished redoing my wife's Aw11 MR2 with new bushings and inner/outer tie rods. Honestly, the setup isn't that much more robust than what blacktie is offering....and boy is the steering better than my FB. For reference, my car had 20k when I got it, has 40k now, it's the P/S box and it has never been good. Plenty of feedback on the track, but so much work to correct a slide. I wish i didn't have to modify my steering shaft for this kit, but i suppose I can source a spare if i need to revert.

I'm already planning to ditch the p/s pump and I pulled the A/C last year because it wasn't working, so no issues there. I'm also running 15"s already. I'll be bummed I can't put the old 13"s back on but whatever, it's not easy finding tires for them anyway.

I'm hoping that is just an optical illusion, but I've got the RB oil line kit ready to go in since my car was an '85 with the beehive and I'm putting an -SE cooler in. Hopefully the fittings I got with the RB kit will avoid the rack or perhaps I can swap in a 45 or 90 degree fitting to clean things up.

I'd need more pics of the setup with a stock configuration of radiator/fan/shroud AC etc.

Let us know how the install goes.

Has your car been lowered?

It's on RB Springs and Tokico Blues. I asked whether that is compatible. Based on BlackTie's Facebook, they've been working on a drift car that I'm guessing is as low, if not lower than my car.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...70f701077f.jpg
Respeed kit. Tension rods behind lower arms
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...ede61a8d2d.jpg
Mustang 2 universal tension rods.
If i got this kit i would modify it by removing the front tension rods put them on the other side of the lower arms. Similar to the mustang 2 suspension and what respeed did with their kit. I dont like how the tie rods are so close to the front tension rods in the BT kit. Looks sketchy.

Me neither, but chuyler1 supposes it'll work similar to an MR2 because it's also arranged the same way:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...04d6a2f52c.jpg

I believe the kit comes with spacers based on the description, and once it is spaced properly, there is little chance of contact as both bars will move up and down mostly in sync with suspension travel. I'm less worried about that as I am the two simple bolts to mount to the frame. I know it won't have any forward/aft forces at play, but I feel like at least a second bolt or some way to triangulate it might work better, I'm no suspension engineer though.

He said the rack that comes with the kit is a standard MustangII rack that is about 3-1/4 turns lock to lock. I just checked my FB P/S rack and it is only 2-3/4 turns lock to lock. That's with 15x7s with 205s that will rub on the sway bar at full lock. I guess I could take off the wheels and get another reading. As long as the ratio is close, it should be fine. I certainly don't want slower feedback than I have now after doing this.

It looks like my '85 P/S rack is closer to 15:1 than 20:1 that would be the default for a MustangII setup. That seems like more of a downgrade. I guess I can find a quick ratio rack to use instead of the one they will provide. The more I think about this, the more I don't really want to change anything.

Thats the conclusion i came to. The respeed kit is very well designed and engineered. With lots of good reviews. But impossible to find. This blacktie kit is sketchy with no one here to testify how good it is or isnt. Even though they sold all the kits from there first batch. For now i will live with my crappy steering.

Mr2 tie rods are above the tension rods out of the way. The black tie kit has the tie rods under the tension rods in the pic they sent me. That tension rods for the mustang 2 i talked about before is a unversal part made by hedit. jegs sells them. Hedit make all kinds of mustang 2 rack and pinion kits . So ive been looking for a crossmember local to make my own. Problem is everyone around here want you to take the whole car with it. I also found some cad drawings and directions for the respeed kit. If u want anything done right you gotta do it yourself.

Do the drawings for the RE-Speed kit have dimensions for fabricating the rear control arms? That's a big part of making front steering work since the brackets bolt into the locations for the stock steering box and idler arm.

How do the Mustang II arms work? They look like the brackets need to be welded to the chassis, and the arms are not threaded like the factory tension rods are to adjust caster.

Ya i think the mustang 2 tension rods are welded in. It would need a lot of modifications to make it work on a rx7. I think it would be easier to make your own. Yes the arms do bolt on the respeed kit. I cant copy the pics in the directions for some reason.

Rack PDF

Anyone out there install the Black Tie rp kit yet?

CAD Drawing
 

My question is why has no RX-7 club member ever offered up their ReSpeed R&P kit to be blueprinted by a qualified CAD engineering, and then we share the cost of the CAD drawing fees and walk away with a set of certified drawings to take to any metal fabricator to build.

Billy sold enough R&P kits they have to be floating around somewhere, we could have the drawing finished during the winter months when a lot of RX-7 are stored for the winter months so not deprived the original owner of any lost time.

Ok, you take yours off first and ship it to a stranger on the internet to get it scanned/copied whatever first. Most folks that have these, have them installed and aren't about to uninstall just to allow them to be copied. Its a great idea but in practice I don't see it happening easily. Now if someone who used to make them came along and maybe leaked the drawings, well that would be dandy! Billy? You there? I'm sure they are protected IP and the owner would not appreciate that whoever that may be.

R&P is way overrated. Get used to the reciprocating ball is all.

Here's the part I don't understand about the "NEW" RE-Speed that acquired it from Billy. We all know the "new" owner could not deliver and has since abandoned making anything RX-7. I tried to contact him 4 or 5 years ago offering to buy the plans and give him a royalty on each item sold. He didn't even reply to my email.

I had a brand new one and sold it about five years ago. I'm trying to contact the buyer to see if I can buy it back or have it leant to me to make drawings. If I get it back or loaned to me, I'll need to have someone make the drawings. At this point I'll make them open-source or maybe a Go-Fund Me to recoup the cost. It's a long shot.

I could model and make drawings if someone got me a kit. It honestly wouldn't be hard to redo if someone wanted to order the mustang II steering rack and go from there. One day I may do this but right now I am happy with my steering box.

i have a RE-Speed R&P kit sitting in a box. i bought it years and years ago before Billy sold the company. i haven't installed it yet. i had planned on installing it this year... time permitting. i would be willing to let someone get some drawings made but i am a bit weary about shipping it. i have had a terrible year with mail carriers... so i just don't have any trust for them. i don't want to risk losing this kit since its so scarce. if someone local to me had the means, we could work something out.

There are a number of AutoCad professionals for hire in Houston. I reached out to one to get a budgetary quote using the component diagram in the pdf uploaded by KansasCityREPU. If you give me your zip code, I will look for one closest to you. I can get a couple of quotes and see if there is interest in a gofundme or some kind of cost sharing.

So the kit looks like there are 24 components that need drawing, some just spacers but others more involved, and I assume that the left and rights are different and need to be drawn. Got an initial estimate of $3500 from someone who sounds like they know what they are doing. His response below. Hoang5659 this would require you being comfortable leaving this with a local guy. Also if deep gratitude and a copy of the drawings is enough compensation. I'd be interested in who else would be in on funding these drawings as covering this myself is a bit much. Thee more they cheaper. 6 people would still be $600 / each. I will also report back with additional estimates.

" let me assure you that this project is right up my alley! I have been using Solidworks since 1995, and have been a mechanical designer for even longer. Yes, I can reverse engineer and properly document it for production. I have calipers, micrometers, run-out and internal Diameter measuring devices to accurately measure each and every part. I will set it up as a Solidworks assembly with part child relationships and sub assemblies nested into the master assembly and organized like a veteran designer draftsman would do it. I will also generate a complete set of 2D documentation to go along with the STEP files I provide. These drawings will be complete with exploded views, bills of material, tolerances, weld symbols, and everything you will need to throw it over the fence to get quotes or production started.

my zip code is 77007.

ReSpeed R&P
 

I work for the US Customs Service, so I am currently furloughed but absolutely would pony up whatever to get a certified mechanical drawing and / or CAD file to replicate the complete R&P system. Kudo's to RX7 member who is willing to step up and allow access to his percious ReSpeed Kit, thank you from all of us sir, and we understandably know your concerns about shipping.

Just thinking out loud here.

My only concern I have and it was mentioned earlier would be any potential legal Registered Patent / Trademark issues replicating it, without Billy's and/or the new ReSpeed folks legal consent to proceed with our planned endeavor. People can get really weird about such things, like a law suit that none of us need LOL!

If someone knows how to get ahold of Billy that would be a huge step in the right direction.

I wish I could get a hold your R&P hoang5659. If we can work the details out, I'm also willing to drive down to Texas and pick it up myself to have drawings made.

I dont know a lot about cad & 3d scanning. Im sure thats the best way to do it. But couldnt u just measure the dimensions of the crossmember and other critical parts. Take a picture of the parts with the measurements written on them with dry erase marker or labels. Then everyone at home can make their own blue print or cad drawing. People can do what they want with the info given. Make it themselves or pay someone to do it. It will be used for everyones own personal car. No one will profit from respeed idea. $3500 seems like a hell of a lot of money to measure some parts. Hats off to the very generous and thoughtful member who is sharing this kit with the rx7 1st gen community. :bigthumb:

holy shit! you're willing to drive over 750 miles (one way) to do this?!? that's at lease a 10 hour drive... i feel pretty lucky to have one of these kits. this kit must be worth its weight in gold! lol to be honest, i am a tiny bit worried. however, over the years, this community has been nothing but helpful to me. so this is my way of giving back. it would make me feel more secure if it stayed local, but i know that's not cost effective for you guys... however you guys want to handle it, is good with me. just get it back to me as a complete kit or just get it back to me... hopefully the turn around is short! now i gotta dig it out of the garage. PM me and lets set it up.

Dimensional Engineering, Inc.
5750 N Sam Houston Pkwy E #601
Houston, TX 77032
U can get a quote from these guys. They do 3d scanning of automotive parts in your area.

i reached out to them on their website for a qoute. i couldn't get through over the phone. i got an answer machine. lets see what happens...

that kit is kind of scary.... see how they try to cover their ass by saying it's for racing only... with that being said why not try to improve stability of the stock box.... here an idea l've been thinking about... https://www.roughcountry.com/steerin...html?rrec=true and together with https://technotoytuning.com/mazda/fb...and-drive-cars

not a bad experiment for 135 bucks ... :fingersx: