All,

Last night being bored to death I happened to venture over to the Australia 1 Gen RX-7 site, and discovered this little gem. I provide or attempted to submit a Hyperlink to the article, but if it does not work, search under the heading below.

http://web.aanet.com.au/~arran/car/projectpart7.htm

Project Part 7 - Engine Build, Megasquirt, SDR manifold, rack and pinion steering

 

Keep in mind, the Aussie cars are right hand drive.

 

Understood, and I want to preference all of this steering rack research, with it's my intention to exhaust all of my quality RX-7 circular ball steering box's first. Before ever employing this type of rack and pinion modification.

I am fully aware that there's a mechanical science, with a touch of mathematical calculations required for a quality R&P rack selection and installation.

But I thought this article was a hidden gem that our 1 Gen RX-7 community should be aware of to investigate as others have tried and succeeded in this mod.

 

The efforts of the Australian community to come up with a decent rack and pinion conversion are well documented on the AusRotary forum. Many of us tried to get a RHD version of the ReSpeed kit off the ground, but it was quickly determined that a rear mounted rack setup would work better if you stuck with the standard 1st gen uprights and steering knuckles.

The solution arran came up with is excellent. It might still be applicable to LHD owners. The car the rack was sourced from, the Holden Barina, was sold under the Vauxhall/Opel brand in Europe as the "Corsa". I believe the Opel Corsa was available in LHD throughout continental Europe, but you'd need to check the exact year. The Vauxhall/Opel Corsa also happens to be the car which had the electric-assisted steering column, which the EPAS motor located on the column body. This is commonly used in rally cars and there are a few aftermarket companies which have come up with controller boxes to allow the driver to fine tune steering effort offered by the EPAS motor. I looked into this as an option for my 1st gen RX7, but quickly determined that the space for the EPAS motor was quite limited in our cars - they are not a tall vehicle with lots of leg room like the Barina/Corsa.

You can see some of the discussion on rack and pinion conversions and more detailed photos here:

1st Gen Power Steering Options. - AusRotary
Rack and Pinion conversion, Gen 1 rx7 transplant. - AusRotary
1st gen RX7 Rack & pinion "kit" - Thoughs on direction - AusRotary
Steering box alternatives 1st gen rx7 and early rx - AusRotary
S3 with S5 rack and pinion, suspension and steering...again! - AusRotary

 

The rack kit I installed in a Torino was from a Chevy Cavalier. The Prothane rack mounts were for a Holden Camira (sp?) which was a J body, however J bodies were rear steer, so to make a LHD steering conversion to a rear steer car, you'd need a LHD rear steer rack.

So the guy bought an American rack shipped to Australia, packaged with some pieces of steel and aluminum milled/welded in Australia, and shipped back to the US. Some of the other bits were also made in the US.

The kit was beautifully done, I would like to point out. It kept the bumpsteer and Ackerman geometry correct, because the rack was able to sit off to the side since it was a just a center takeoff rack with a milled aluminum "center link" bolted to it. And unlike a lot of aftermarket "kits", everything really did bolt in without any screwing around. The only difficulty was having to modify the weird longtube headers on that particular car.

 

to Scan the main parts of the kit then. Like the crossmember, rear tension rods & mounts. The rest we can figure out ourselves. Im mostly interested the crossmember. If i could just get the measurements of the crossmember from someone that would be enough for me. Im no master fabricator but i know enough. Plus my coworkers are very good at fabricating damn near anything.

 

If this kit can preserve the steering geometry, safety, and reliability with out interfering with rims and AC, i would be happy to stick one on my car. Let me know if i could help out with the scanning cost.

 

I have met Mike at the races, and he's a stand-up guy who's been around for a long time. I believe he can be trusted with this, if anyone is interested. Also, he is local and I can find him if needed.

 

Thank you, sir! Hope you are doing well.

I am still available to scan.

 

At at this time I am looking for solutions on a rack and pinion or steering box replacement


I really like the idea of this center rack
however the cavalier was not a rear steer car

any center racks available that are rear steer?

 

I am shooting out ideas on potential racks if people were still looking for options out there

As i was changing brakes
VW golfs MK6 and MK7 are rear steer rack and pinions
MK7 are electric
for simplicity a MK6 rack might work better
need to get a measuring tape out now...