rack and pinion systems

RICH MUISE · 2012-07-10 06:57

I got a matching stainless single joint ordered from Unisteer...Sparky's (S & T Fabrications) source for the u-joints he supplies with the kit. Brandon at unisteer informed me that the u-joints are in fact stainless steel, but their shafting is a plated milder steel. Once that comes in and I can take a break from my episode of "this old house...a rebuild", I'll get the borgeson s.s. shafting done and figure out the firewall support.

RICH MUISE · 2012-07-24 06:53

OK...picked up a couple of construction angle pieces from Lowe's and a piece of formed angle and got a start on the support bracket. Now I need to get the shafting done so I can finalize it's location before I do the final tweeking for the firewall support location. once that's finalized I'm going to try and make a sheetmetal cover for the big hole....Hmmm hindsight is wonderful...I sure wished I had closed off that steering column hole way back when.

RICH MUISE · 2012-07-25 08:31

A few steps closer. I got the Unisteer joint in and the Borgensen DD shafts fabed up. I moved the single joint a little further outboard to make sure there was no interference with engine components....and as near as I can tell there does not seem to be any binding....if I disconnect the double joint from the rack, I can turn everything easily with my fingers.
Flipping the firewall bracket around so the formed angle stiffners are facing inside will make fabing a hole cover a little easier, and I've got to build up the frame bracket 3/16 to compensate for drilling the new bearing support hole a little too low.
Once again..I could have had a much easier and cleaner job if I had filled in the big hole before painting.

Ford Blue blood · 2012-07-25 13:29

Looks like you have that bad boy nailed Rich!

RICH MUISE · 2012-07-25 14:03

With help from you and Gary..thanks. I had thought all along the late model steering column was going to make my rack connections a lot easier and thankfully i was right.
I just got back from the hardware store to pick up some aluminum window screening. I'm thinking if I'm careful, I can shape the screen over the large opening, then cover it with fleece or fiberglass cloth and then fiberglass resin it. I may have to build in a rigid 'ring' of sheetmetal to keep the cover (and rubber sheet gasket) from cracking when attached with screws. If that works out...and it may not (I seem to get caught up in that Edison theory of finding out what doesn't work that Bill L. reminded us of)...I'll post some pics.
Rich

gasman826 · 2012-07-25 17:49

CAKE!

RICH MUISE · 2012-07-26 09:58

speaking of cake...I'm having to eat the aluminum screening I bought. They just don't make it like they use to in the "good ol' days. It use to be pretty substantial and fairly stiff..the 'new' stuff is made from very light gage wire and doesn't have much more body than fiberglass screening.
went back to the store and picked up the 1/4" hardware cloth that I should have gotten in the first place, and it's working great. I also remembered how well por-15 worked in place of fiberglass resin, so I'll be using that to impregnate the fleece material...pics to follow when I get 'er done.
Rich

RICH MUISE · 2012-07-27 08:34

This is going to work out well I think. I'm out of por-patch ( the thickened version of por-15) to make the cover smooth and a bit more rigid. Last night I soaked the fleece material with all of a 4 oz. can of por-15. My supplier has ordered me a tube of the Por-patch, so I'll have to wait til Tuesday to start finishing it up. In the meantime I'll get the bearing support cleaned up and painted and mounted, and I'm going to go look for a small rubber boot for it today, and spray a few coats of rubber on the inside to help it seal.

gasman826 · 2012-07-27 11:51

Some of the foams work well for air seals. Just use the kind that is not a sponge.

Ford Blue blood · 2012-07-27 22:03

That would be a closed cell foam.....

RICH MUISE · 2012-07-29 10:26

This is probably boring stuff...but not much other posting going on lately.
I sprayed the inside of the cover with that "flex-seal" stuff you see on T.V. ads...actually works pretty good. I also put a strip of 3m rubber electrical splicing tape around the firewall flange. This 'tape' is non-adhesive so I glued it on with 3m rubber contact adhesive.
I found a boot that worked very well. It came off the front clip of a Pontiac mini-van steering/control arm thingy. LOL..I lucked out twice there. I saw one on a GM car that was still assembled, and thought that would work well, but sure wasn't going to disassemble the front end to get to it. Next row of cars had a van that someone had dropped the clip out to pull the engine, and had even pulled off the tie-rod end. I just cut off what I needed of the boot with a utility knife and slid it off. I also found several other boot, but this one worked the best. The counter man gave them to me as a freebie.
I had to turn the boot inwards because of the location of the single joint, but that'll be ok...looks neat.
Now I'm just waiting on the por-patch so I can finish it up and button everything down

RICH MUISE · 2012-08-01 12:39

Finished finally. Was going to finish it smooth and paint it red..decided to put a little texture in the por patch as it was setting up and leave it black.

wildhog · 2012-08-01 14:05

Rich, That looks great, take it off and send it to me, and .I will let you know how good it looks on my Ranchero!!!!!!!! Tom

RICH MUISE · 2014-02-26 09:37

The st fabrications website won't come up...so..I can't find my instuctions that came with the unit. I need to know the fitting sizes for the fluid lines. Tom? anybody else?

wighty · 2014-02-26 17:47

Rich, for what is worth, I installed a rack that looks like yours, but had trouble with binding so I ended up getting rid of the double U-Joint and the center support. I now have single U-Jonts at both ends and the angles are well within the maximun for these joints and no binding.

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rack and pinion systems