CP rack & pinion: the saga continues
 

Got the replacement uv-joint thing from CP very quickly and they were very good about it. The fit was a lot tighter this time, and I'm pretty sure that it won't come off.

Driving it more than a little, I have a number of observations.

First, it's true what another poster said: it is pretty slow in the middle. It's also true what CP says: it is very precise; but to make it drivable, it's slow in the middle. I have mixed feelings about this. I haven't noticed any problems with mine returning to center.

Second, it did take a little while to break in the u-joints, during which it took uneven force to turn the wheel around. This has mostly gone away, but it is still noticable with the wheels off the ground.

Third, you have to hold the steering wheel up a little while you drill the 1/8" hole in the shaft, or it will rub on the column cover. I knew this when I did it (though CP racing didn't mention it in their instructions), but I guess I didn't hold it up high enough. It'd be a good idea to note how high it sits on your car before you do this install. What I mean by "high" is how far the wheel sticks out from the steering column cover.

Fourth, it rattles. Where the CP part fits over the original steering shaft tube, it's not a very tight fit. This means that when you hit bumps it rattles. The whole steering column tube can wiggle some because there's nothing holding it in place at the firewall since it originally fit into the steering box. I am going to try driving a wooden stake in between the column tube and CP's part to hold it in place. It'll be tough to reach though.

Fifth, when I took it to get aligned, there wasn't enough thread on the passenger's side of the rack to line the wheels up correctly. This is probably because I used new locking nuts that are wider than the originals. This was on a Friday and when I got there to pick up the car, the shop was about to close. It is very close to straight, so I think that using a thinner locking nut would do it, but it will be close. They didn't charge me for the alignment, but, apparently, they also knocked my driver's side inner brake pad in a little at some point, because the rattle spring cut a nice groove in my rotor on the way home.

I haven't gotten to raise my engine up a little with spacers for the mounts, so the rack still rubs against the oil pan. I gotta do this one soon but my engine hoist is loaned out currently. Also, I want to mention again that there's no going back from the CP kit without a new steering column/box, because they are one part. I didn't know this when I bought the CP kit; if I had, I probably would have thought about it more.

On the positive side, it did feel real nice on the highway. It's much easier to turn the wheels at low speeds. I haven't noticed any bump steer, though I haven't taken the car on any really rough roads yet. The rack has fewer points of failure than the original system. No more idler arm rebuilds!

Overall I'd say it's a mixed bag: probably better than the stock box for most applications, but not worth $650. I had tightened my stock box last year and it was still pretty darn tight, so there's not too much of an improvement. New stock boxes are expensive, the idler arms need frequent maintenance, and the total cost with all the steering parts is higher, so the rack isn't a bad upgrade. I'll withhold final judgement for when I get a full alignment and all the bugs worked out.

Also, I put tokico blue shocks, suspension techniques springs, polyurethane bushings on the control arm/tension rod/sway bar, and a suspension techniques front sway bar. I also rebuilt the OMP with a kit from Lowe Performance. It turned out only to be the gasket that was leaking, but, I rebuilt it anyway. Works fine.

Only the suspension techniques bar gets a thumbs down from me, because the fitment really sucked. I wrote about this a few weeks ago. The car is a lot tighter to say the least, but a little squeaky from the bushings. Yes, I greased them, but it only suppressed the squeaking for a day of driving or so.

Okay, I fixed the rattling by folding over some stiff tape until it was thick enough to hold the original steering column tube still inside the CP part. Ideally, you should wrap tape around the original column BEFORE you slip the cp part over it, enough to make it tight [no rattling] and waterproof, as water could easily sit in there indefinately.

Im glad someone is making intellegent observations about this, and reporting it. I also hope that CP sees this, or you relay the information to them. THis will help them improve the product in the future.

Yea, I too am very pleased to read your posts. As hornbm said, you might wanna send CP a small report and see if they might want to improve things a bit. Also, I see you have driven on highways and liked they way it felt, does it wander less with the r/p? I ask because my box makes it wander quite a bit, you have do a lot of little back and forth adjustments on teh wheel to keep it going straight.

Thank You for this post Im on the fence with this whole Rack & Pin deal still holdin out

I'm glad that all that typing wasn't wasted. :)

I didn't get to take the car to get aligned today because of the weather and the fact that I'm a full-time student (even during the summer...).

I think that I've got most of the squeaks and rattles solved, though my steering column still squeaks when turning the wheel short distances and there's a very disturbing rattle when hitting bumps while turning sharply. I'm not sure what this is but I really want to get it figured out.

After I get it aligned I'm going to pull the steering wheel and re-center it. Hopefully I can find the squeaking when I do this. I may have to drill out the 1/4" pin in the column so I can move it up a little. We'll see.

By the way, I don't know if I emphasized it enough or not: turning the wheels is much, much easier. You'd probably notice it more than I did if you had aftermarket wheels and wider tires.

If I can get the rattles and squeaks taken care of I'd say I'm very close to being happy with it -- and it isn't even aligned properly yet.

Does it wander? Well, actually mine pulls a little to one side only, but that's because it's not aligned properly. I never had a problem with "wandering" with the stock box (even when it was loose in the center), so I think it might be outside the box. You'll get a certain amount of that if you have wide, sticky tires no matter what. If it's more than that it's probably a worn steering part. Let's see: you have a pitman arm, an idler arm, two ball joints, and four tie rod ends to check. All of mine were okay before this work (I verified this when I took it out) with the exception of the driver's side ball joint. The outer tie rod ends were a little loose but not bad. You could probably check them with the front wheels in the air, but if you can't, you can always unhook the steering knuckles.

here is my question... would you have been happier putting in a second gen front crossmember (and having to go through getting custom engine mounts and various other mounting issues overall) or would you still shell out the 650 for the CP racing kit? Discounting the fact that with the second gen crossmember and rack you also can get those nice 4 pot brakes :)

I don't know anything about 2nd gen crossmembers. It would probably be a lot more work. I don't think I could do it.

As an update, the weather here has been terrible as of late. I did, however, take the car to get aligned yesterday, but to a different shop (since the other one is near my parents house 45 miles away) and this one is near my apartment. They said they "couldn't" align it because the inner tie rod ends were not the same length. I told them that it doesn't make any difference and they told me to take it somewhere else. Assholes.

Ah, this is starting to become a real pain in the ass.

I took the car back to the first alignment shop. With me hovering over them, they replaced the thick ace hardware nut with a thinner mazda OEM one. Even with the thinner nut, aligning the wheels with the rack centered wasn't possible. So I said "fuck it" and turned the steering wheel a little off the rack's center and they "aligned" the wheels. A car in another bay was smoking terribly so I went inside. It was about 4:30 (they close at 5:00 and I was the only customer still there) and they said "okay, it's done." So I asked for the specs and I noticed that the computer wasn't on -- they said that they didn't use it because it "wouldn't work." I am sick and tired of hearing that when someone just doesn't want to do something. So, I say, fine, but I'll be back if I have any problems. The boys got to go home half an hour early and I get a car that STILL PULLS TO THE LEFT. It is much better, but there is an unmistakable urge for it to drift left. I checked tire pressure and it was fine on both sides.

Getting home, I decide to re-center my steering wheel. Pulling the wheel motivates me to find the squeaking in my steering column. I couldn't find it, so I removed the column tube and wondered why I didn't do this before: it is very easy. The squeaking turned out to be coming from the intersection between the upper and lower steering column peices; during the install apparently the lip of the upper column had been bent a little and was rubbing a little due to the slight play between the stock upper and cp-racing lower steering columns. While I was removing the column tube, a few wires came out of what I think is the sensor for the "your keys are in the car and the door is open" idiot beeper because of bad soldering. I had to disassemble it and repair it. It's not hard but not fun either.

man, i really hope my install isn't plauged with this many problems. Thanks again though for doing a thourough writeup, I'm sure many of us appreciate it.

Great Work!!

This is a very cool writeup. I have a friend that just ordered one and will sure apreciate this info. Ya see, this is why this forum is so damn succesful:)

Sounds like you have a caster problem causing the pull to the left. They should have found the center of the rack travel and set the toe that way. You could have pulled the column loose afterwards to straighten the wheel. Sound like someone was being a bit lazy at your alignment shop.

what the weasel says is true.

if i'm not mistaken.

toe isn't a direction angle, only tire wear. though while adjusting it, the wheel may go crooked. but there is a difference between a pull and a crooked steering wheel.
the difference being, the car will still drive striaght in some position even if that position is 90 degrees off of center. if it pulls it will do so regaurdless of wheel position.

a car pulls to the side with the most positive camber and least positive caster, i think. maybe visa versa, i always forget.

hope you get it settled.

I didn't adjust the wheels at all. I just took the steering wheel off and re-centered it. Very easy to do.

I decided to take the column tube (cover) off to find out why it was squeaking.

Also, my account is a bit abrievated. I asked them why they weren't using the computer and they said it was because my car wasn't in it. Then I told them that I had all the specs in the car and then they said that it "wouldn't work." Yes, I know they were being lazy.

Does cp racing do a RHD version of this !?

Wow, thats bullshit, I would never go to that shop again. I doubt its that hard to do without the info in the computer. When I brought mine to get aligned last year they had to look it up in the "old book" and do it that way.

The worst part is that this is my dad's friend's shop. I got the old man to take it back himself this morning and surprise, surprise, it's straight as an arrow now. I just can't seem to get any respect.

Though I had to borrow my folks' "extra" car for the weekend. Went through a highway roadblock in BFE at 1 AM and got $1150 worth of tickets. How, you ask? A 1994 model car with NO brake tag ($150) and no proof of insurance ($1000). If I couldn't get tickets fixed, I'd be pretty pissed.

BTW these people are really annoying. I told them to ignore the position of the steering wheel but they centered it, then realigned the car (no doubt losing the rack center and fucking up the turning radius, as it still wasn't straight since I lost my place when I removed the column and it was off-center 1/6 turn or so) but I am sick of screwing with it. I haven't done any lock-to-lock turning yet so I don't know how bad it is.

rack and pinion
 

Thanks for taking the time to post the information gained from your experience, I am planning a similar swap and just recently found CPs kit on line,
Thnks for the post. very interesting.

The writeup is great.. Sounds like alot of work.. I am again thankful that I chose to go the easy way out and swap my stock box for a power steering setup.. Much less fabrication, with similar final results..

Wow, talking about a thread coming back from the dead... From June 26th of last year to Today!

Oh well, gives some good info.

Jon

How long did it take the kit to arrive to your house?