What is your experience with S & T Rack and Pinion Steering?

[KYBlueOval]

I'm taking a hard look at installing the  S&T Rack and PINION kit. Looks good, and I've spoken with " Sparky", the creator / vendor of this kit, and it sounds good.
Now, I'd like to hear from those of you on the forum that have real world experience with this R&P. Without a doubt, you have the best information, and hopefully, you'll share it with me .....good or less than good. Whatever it is, I'd like to hear what you have to say. The forum told me about Drop 'em Stop 'em and I bought the dropped spindles and disc brakes, based on the good advise I got here on the forum, and hope you'll give me your thoughts on S & T , as I only want to do it once and do it right.
Thanks
John

[BBoswell]

I have R&P on both my Custom 300 and Ranchero. I love it and would never change back. Both of my conversions were from Wurth-It designs but the owner there passed away and they are no longer in business. From what I have read on the forum S&T produces equally as good a conversion. I will tell you from my experience that the end result has a lot to do with the car and the steering components in your particular vehicle. I love both my conversions but my Ranchero steers like a brand new car and my 300 steers like a '57 Ford with power steering . . . if that makes sense. The only obvious difference in the two cars is that the Ranchero has dropped spindles which I understand from my front end dude creates a little different geometry because of arms and such. I also was told that the shorter steering column in the Ranchero puts less angle in the u-joints and makes for smoother steering. Hope this helps.

[KYBlueOval]

Yes it does help. I have dropped spindles as well. Sounds good. Thank you.
Hope I get some more replies.
John

[RICH MUISE]

Unfortunatly I can't give any road tested info. Maybe next year. Sparky is a great guy to deal with. Pricing is great, quality is excellent. Shipping crate itself was impressive. Installation was a breeze. I did have to modify the bearing support frame mounted bracket to get the bearing closer to where it needed to be on my install. My steering colum is different, but that only invloves the rack-to-column joints/shafts/ etc. I do have an old  thread on that part of the install.

[KYBlueOval]

Unfortunatly I can't give any road tested info. Maybe next year. Sparky is a great guy to deal with. Pricing is great, quality is excellent. Shipping crate itself was impressive. Installation was a breeze. I did have to modify the bearing support frame mounted bracket to get the bearing closer to where it needed to be on my install. My steering colum is different, but that only invloves the rack-to-column joints/shafts/ etc. I do have an old  thread on that part of the install.

Thanks Rich.If I pull the trigger on the R&P, I'll get back to you regarding that thread.
John

[RICH MUISE]

I looked for it last night. Actually wasn't my thread, just one I finished up with my project. I had lots of help from Bill and Gary on it as you'll see. Not to change the subject, but that reminds me...haven't heard anything from Gary (Gasman)for quite a while...hope everything is ok with him.
http://57fordsforever.com/smf/index.php?topic=518.0
Lots of good info given me on that thread. If you go that route, you'll probably need another ujoint. I got my stainless double joint(matches what JT supplied) from Unisteer, and ss double d shafting from Borgenson. You may consider Banjo metric to sae adapters for the rack as they make fitting the lines much easier. They can be had from www.purechoicemotorsports.com
I realize we may be getting ahead of ourselves here, but while it's on my mind...the one thing I may need to change is the phasing on the ujoint. double D shafting doesn't allow for any changes..only 180* increments. I may need to go to a round shaft and have the ends machined with the double d's 90* apart...won't know till I can test it.