When my power steering rack failed on my TurboII I installed a manual rack, and that worked out great. Since there were no 3rd gens (that I'm aware of) with manual steering, does somebody make an aftermaket manual rack for an FD, or what other options are there for racing? Thanks.

 

You can remove your rack and send it to these guys:
http://www.mavalgear.com
They do manual conversions on FD racks. At one time they required a core before they would ship a unit to you, not sure how they handle it now.

 

Thanks. I did a search and read several realted threads.
How hard is it to remove the rack?
And how do you "loop the lines"?

 

removing the rack isnt too hard... the loop line method isnt the best thing. in my mind you might as well get the conversion if your going through the trouble of looping the line. i have the maval rack but my car is not up and running yet so i cannot give feedback. maval required a core rack yet i think that they dont do it on the core basis anymore and do the converison to the rack you send them.

 

how much does it run to have them convert a rack for you???

 

A manual FC rack fits.

 

it bolts right in????

 

I paid $275 last year.

 

Yeah does it? I never heard that before. That would be nice. Then why do people go through all the trouble to pay Maval for the conversion?

 

One thing to consider when considering a manual FC rack is that it's a much slower rack than the FD unit or the FC power units. The manual rack is a 20:1 ratio, and if I'm not mistaken the FD rack is something like 15:1. So with an FC manual rack you'll need to turn the wheel more to get the tires to turn the same amount as before. This is the opposite of what most people want for performance driving, especially for autocross.

 

The FC rack does NOT just bolt right in.....and it has a slow-as-**** ratio too.

And there are several people running the Maval conversion as well as several dozens running a looped rack....if you actually searched, you would have found dozens of threads.

 

That's why maybe puting the vert power steering rack in would be a better choice at 17.X:1. Or even a miata manual rack at 18:1 (if it would fit) It would be right in between the two ratios and could be converted to complete manual operation according to the Flyin' Miata website.

I believe you have to buy new tie rods in order to use the FC rack and you need to use the FC steering linkage. There is a thread with part numbers somewhere on it if you search.

 

I did a search and read several threads. Sometimes asking a specific question is more helpful then doing a search and reading every single related post. Aight?

Looks like Maval it is. Anyone have a spare FD rack I could send out? Also, how do you loop the lines?

 

What's up Roland? How is the ZO6 killing spree going?
I did the Maval conversion a while back. It was pretty much painless. I think you will be happy after doing this. The only downside is the hard steering in a parking lot but that will save you time at the gym since you will get your bicep workout in your car LOL.

Noel

 

Hey Noel! Nice to hear from you. I had a manual rack in my TurboII for years and the low speed hard turning never bothered me. I am setting up a new website with many new videos. How's your car doing? (hopefully not still hurting from whooping that cobra)

 

Pretty good. I actually ended up rebuilding it myself. It took me a month but I also did almost every upgrade (short of going single turbo or non-sequential).
Since you have had a manual on your 2nd gen then you should be fine with the steering feel on your 3rd gen. I think the process is the same as that of a second gen as far as removing it is concerned. The only other thing I can think of is that you will have to buy a ford 5 rib pulley(I don't remember the part#), that way you can bypass the pumps pulley, o yeah of course you will need to get a shorter accesory belt. I'll look for the part #'s after work today.

 

Don't forget that you also lose the A/C when going to manual steering on an FD.

 

The new accesory belt is for the AC. this is why he needs to get the new pulley since now it will act as a tensioner pulling up against the ribs instead of the original that pulls down on the flat side of the belt i.e. no rib contact.

 

What new pulley? Lots of people would be interested in such a product if there was one.....

 

It's not a "new" pulley per say, but I am sure that I can put a kit together that everyone running a manual rack without A/C can benefit from.
Rynberg, can I try and guage intrest here or should I go to the FS section?

 

You can gauge interest here, but any selling information, if you decide to sell it, will have to be done through the classifieds forum or the forum vendor program.

I would be interested.

 

I for one have personally seen the work that Salva does on his own car. Very clean and professional. Me interested

 

Well this is what it looks like in my engine bay. It has been working for over 10k miles, The kit would include the pulley and a belt although they dont make a 6 rib belt this size the one provided would hane 5 ribs which will line up towards the rear (I will provide instructions):

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...alva/Pull1.jpg

What do you guys think?

 

Well let me try again:

 

Thanks for the photo salva, that looks great. To show the photo on rx7club, you need to type "[img]" before the photo's address and "[/img]" after it. Leave out the quotes, and be sure the entire thing is on one line, like this:


"[img]"http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o302/snalva/Pull1.jpg"[/img]"



Take the quotes out and the picture will be displayed:



-s-