ERA 427 Steering Adjustment

[6TNCRZY]

I had an issue with 649, the rack would slide back and forth under pressure.
I would turn, then on a straight the steering wheel would be crooked, turn the other way and the wheel would be crooked the other way. If the rack is twisting in the frame on turns the steering could feel very strange. New bushings fixed the issue on my car. My new ERA car uses a Mustang 2 rack mounted with through bolts, a much better setup. You night want to make sure the shaft bushings in the rack and the inner tie rod ends are tight.

[patrickt]

You'll note in the vids that I posted in the thread that is referenced above that I put a magnetic dial gauge on the rack and measured it both before and after my repairs. There actually is a relatively common industry standard out there for steering rack slop. OK, they don't call it steering rack slop but that's what it is. And they like to call them “steering gear insulators” and “steering gear isolators.” If you don't use their particular lingo then they won't tell you what the slop value is. Regardless of their specs, less slop is better than more slop. Here is one shop manual:

Check for movement with the front wheels normally loaded (on the ground). If the housing moves more than 1.5mm (0.06 inch) the steering gear isolators may have deteriorated or the steering gear mounting bracket nuts should be tightened to 37-52 N-m (27-38 lbs-ft). If the housing movement is still excessive after tightening the steering gear mounting bracket, replace the steering gear isolators.

[frankym]

Ok, I think I solved my issue. From the Youtube links Patrick provided, I could see that the old style rack mounting allowed for way too much slippage inside the C clamps. I will show a before and after. In the before, there was a 1/4 inch sway and now: 0. It's not as pretty as I would like it to be but I made a square clamp to attach to the rack as an anchor point and welded 2 studs onto the outer plate. I made 3/8 rod connectors with stainless fender washers and bolted them to one of the C clamps. Posting videos in a minute.