Rack and pinion

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A rack & pinion is better than a recirculating ball. Make sure you have no bump steer if you get a rack and mount it yourself.
The problem we have encountered is in fact getting the rack high enough to minimise the bump steer. You may have to jack the engine or massage the sump. The factory setup is not free of bump steer by the way.
The rack we use is from our Holden Commodore range of cars. Our local GM product. Not sure if you have a local car with a narrow enough track.
 
Here in Australia it is very common and works a treat. There are two systems available both behind the K frame.

View attachment 1715972576

View attachment 1715972577

Very similar in appearance to the old Uni-steer systems.

“works a treat” is a bit of a stretch, they have worse clearance issues than the original steering link, sit too low and can induce bump steer, and probably limit the turning radius a bit as well.

And I don’t know about on the right hand drive, but the steering linkage angles to hook that up on a left hand steer are pretty steep.

A rack & pinion is better than a recirculating ball. Make sure you have no bump steer if you get a rack and mount it yourself.

Rack and pinion offers ZERO performance improvement over a worm and ball. None. All you eliminate is the small, on center dead spot. But that should be small. It’s like no one here knows how to adjust a steering box or replace tie rod ends and pitman/idler arms.

Like I said at the beginning, front steer basically requires a full coilover conversion to do it right for geometry. Rear steer is just as problematic for clearances as the worm and ball steering box, except nobody makes the parts to clear it so it all has to be custom. And it’s still not easy to keep the geometry where it needs to be.

The list @go-fish posted in post #22 is what you need to get rear steer to work without hammering your geometry, and modified custom oil pan and custom headers are on that list. As well as some extra steering goodies with the quickener and extra joints. And the Jess Neal ‘Cuda that list is from still has reduced steering angles, although he seems to deal with just fine on his Pike’s Peak runs.
 
And the Jess Neal ‘Cuda that list is from still has reduced steering angles, although he seems to deal with just fine on his Pike’s Peak runs.

I would be willing to bet that he loves that set up a little less since they paved that mountain. But, then again, I don't think there are many 180* switchbacks that would test his turning radius very far. It's a very specific car built for a specific course. I would bet if his chosen sport was autocross he would want something different.
 
The only way I thought of doing a front steer rack conversion was to replace the lower ball joint setup / add a corrected steering arm to get the Ackerman right.
a fabricated arm with a replaceable ball joint , yada , yada yada, its just not worth it, these cars, when properly setup are amazing . Yes the packaging for a Big Block conversion is a PITA ...
 
I would be willing to bet that he loves that set up a little less since they paved that mountain. But, then again, I don't think there are many 180* switchbacks that would test his turning radius very far. It's a very specific car built for a specific course. I would bet if his chosen sport was autocross he would want something different.

Yeah totally. That’s the issue with using a purpose built race car as an example, just because it does what it does well doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for other applications.

I’d also be willing to bet that set up has been on the car for awhile. Which means new replacement boxes probably weren’t available at the time, the Borgeson wasn’t an option, etc. Heck there was a few times you couldn’t get the worm and ball replacements because Mopar stopped making them too, so getting a rebuilt box didn’t necessarily help anything if the worm and ball was worn.

And yeah, since all that stuff was custom built to run that rack I’m sure he doesn’t just want to swap it back because it would mean replacing a bunch of that stuff. Clearly it still works well enough!
 
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