has anyone ever heard of a first gen that can handle great? As on the unibody? and under 10k>

 

What do you mean? They all handle great...

 

lol

 

I had the CP Steering Rack.
Made the steering VERY tight and responsive

Highly reccomended!

Of course haveing great steering show's off the car's tendency to oversteer more, so it might be worth your while to upgrade the rear suspension too...

 

smnc glad to here that kit is good im going to install one on mine other people told me its good too

 

Yup, a great product!

 

What sort of cost is involved and is this a difficult upgrade?

Sue

 

http://www.cpracing.ca/

$600 USD shipped in the US... You'd have to contact Chris for overseas shipping info...

As for installation, it's not too bad. Plan most of a day if you're not too experienced, or about half that if you are...
http://www.cpracing.ca/manuals/rack_pg1.pdf
http://www.cpracing.ca/manuals/rack_pg2.pdf

 

I've never heard anything negative about the CP racing rack/pinion setup.
That said I haven't heard much. It's supposed to be easy. No welding needed.

I'm not sure when I will have $600 to spend on it since there are more pressing things to fix.

 

i started a thread before about the cp rp kit and some guy was saying it makes the steering colum non colapsealbe and therefore it isnt safe or something. but i dont plan on crashing so i dont care

 

Here I go again.
1) You can still have the colapsible steering, for what it's worth
2)Less likely to have an accident with the better control povided by the upgrade
3) Only 2-3 inches or so of the column actually sticks into the engine bay with thew upgrade, so by the time somthing is able the push that into your chest, the ENGINE has already likely ended up in your lap...

 

This post is ******* jibberish.


So we shall make it another CP rack and pinion thread?


WTF?

 

Easy there bigfella...
You don't want to read it, nobody's makin' you...

 

Plus, if you order it now, you might have it in time to install it... In 2008. CP racing isn't known for shipping things even remotely soon.

And their customer service licks my *****.

 

Lol...
Nice $100T2...
I can't defend Chris (owner of CP).
I can say they get real busy sometimes. Chris plus 3 employee's to do all the shop work, shipping, customer service, etc...

I know he's a good guy and works real hard too.

That's no excuse for pissing off the customers tho...

I'll let him know you comments next time I see him...

 

The CP kit is a waste of time.

The steering box is easy to adjust if needs be, but often times steering problems are related not to the box, but to worn tie rods or ball joints. A properly maintained front end combined with a smaller steering wheel will provide more than adequate steering feel and response without having to shell out insane amounts of money for a shoddily engineered setup that actually INCREASES the car's turning radius.

 

question, is there any way to ge that car to stear easer... even at low speeds, its a bitch to get her to be responsive, i know its got alota play... maybe cause im not used to it... i dont think i could get her to oversteer if i wanted too. would the rack and pinion setup be worth the $600? and what else can i do to get it to beable to easly "cut a corner"?

 

I do respect you MosesX605, but I have to disagree on some points.

Yes, often the problems with people's steering is related to parts other than the steering gear, but just as often, it IS the steering gear.

1.) Even properly set-up to factory specs, the stock steering still has 1-2" of play.
2.) As the steering box wears it will need to be adjusted again... and again...
3.) No matter what, the stock steering is still very hard to use at low speeds. A smaller steering wheel only compounds the problem further.
4.) Although I didn't measure the turning radius when I had mine, it wasn't noticeably wider than stock. I'm not saying you're wrong, but if it was wider, I couldn't tell, and I spend a lot of time city driving, with lots of U-turns.
And according to CP, it retains the stock radius.
5.) I don't feel the kit is poorly engineered. It's almost a bolt up part, with the latest revision, and it does what it's supposed to. It's also lighter than stock.

I won't deny that there were problems with older version's of the kit, but that has no bearing on the discussion of weather or not the current kit is good.

And I seriously doubt anyone is going to call the stock steering a good system.
It was included in the car as a cost saving measure, as the parts were already in use on other Mazda products.






*** And for the record, I am NOT affliated with CP Racing in any way. I buy parts from there and am friendly with Chris, but that's it. I simply believe in their products and make my opinions and knowledge available to others ***

 

CP kit gets rid of play and makes for easier low speed turning.
I personally think it's one of the best upgrades for a 1st gen.


As for other things you can to to improve handleing:
1.) Adjust the steering box
2.) Check for wear in steering linkage and bushings
3.) Get better tires

 

The factory manual places the upper limit on play at 18 mm, which is less than an inch.

Not if you do it right the first time.

I'll give you that the steering is heavy when parallel parking. Other than that, even my setup which has more caster than stock is easy to use and never requires great effort.

How many turns does the wheel take from lock to lock with this 'new' kit? I know on the old one that it was not improved at all from stock. If the steering is quicker, then there is at least SOME benefit to the kit, though not nearly enough to justify the cost involved.

I'll admit that I haven't laid eyes on the CP kit, in either revision. But the stuff I have seen of theirs hasn't really inspired me with confidence.

The steering on the RX-7 is a compromise solution, no doubt. My point is that before you go to all the trouble of messing with the steering box, there are all sorts of areas that can and should be explored that improve the handling and response of the RX-7. Quite frankly the cost involved vs the benefit doesn't make sense for me.

 

> > I've never heard anything negative about the CP racing rack/
> > pinion setup. That said I haven't heard much.
>
> Plus, if you order it now, you might have it in time to install it...
> In 2008. CP racing isn't known for shipping things even remotely soon.
> And their customer service licks my *****.

Well now I have.

 

You ordered one?

IMHO, excellent choice...

Feel free to PM me if you need any help and can't get in touch with Chris...

 

Thanks for the offer but I meant: now I have heard something negative.

I'm not sure when I will have time to actually work on my steering. I'm stupid busy these days and I don't have a heated garage to work in so it might have to wait until next year.

If I had spare time and money and somewhere to do the work then I'd probably go for it.

 

Ah... too bad.

Well, as MosesX605 said, tweaking the stock steering helps, and it's a fairly quick process.

 

I also see no reason to "upgrade" to a rack and pinion steering system, especially at such a high price!

My steering doesn't have much more freeplay than my FC, which I know is rack and pinion (more like I'm pretty sure).