Steering Quickeners

[andyl]

Has anyone used steering quickeners to overcome slow rack problems and are these things safe & legal for use on a road car i Aust ? I understand they use them a fair bit in speedway and circuit racing.

Thanks -Andy

[boxhead]

Show us what you mean?
Do you have a link.

[CobraEd]

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HRE-522B2/


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[andyl]

Originally Posted by boxhead

Show us what you mean?
Do you have a link.

CobraEd's link was spot on. They are a tiny gearbox that go inline in the column or unions between the column and the rack that step up (or down but who'd want to) the speed of the rack. Common ratios are 2:1 and 1.5:1. So if you have 4 turns lock to lock install a 2:1 and you now have 2 turns lock to lock.

I have a really slow rack in mine and given I'm a big fella and there's not much room for elbows if doing circuits I'd struggle with crossing hands all the time, and also if I was to get the cobra crossed up id have a hard time catching it. My choices are build/buy a new rack or install one of these.

-Andy

[hogster]

I recall that racing ratios were being fitted to some Police pursuit vehicles back in the 80's in the far north. In regular traffic, they were great, but at speed, with regular suspension bounce and movement, on ordinary road surfaces, they were dangerous.
There were a few police pack VK commodores parked at the workshops for parts vehicles in very quick time. Having said that, I think the ratios were a bit more radical.
from memory, half turn to full lock. Crazy

Hogster

[Tom Wells]

andyl,

I'd research those quickeners thoroughly. If it introduced any slop at all into the steering, I'd run away.

My steering had 3 u-joints originally. When I was able to reduce to two, I had a whole new car!

A quicker rack (which is what I have and really, really like) is a much better solution if it is practical and economic. The change from a 1993 Mustang 18:1 to a 15:1 was just what the doctor ordered. I agree with the other poster that a 2:1 up-ratio might bring the opposite problem.

Dunno what rack you now have, and whether there's one you could substitute for 20% or so quicker. Not familiar with the available parts over there, sorry.

My two cents,

Tom

[DocDirk]

Tom, did you re-engineer something or did you eliminate a joint? I've got a little side to side play in my steering linkage with a new rack and a virtually straight shot through my rag joint I'm considering installing a steel connector ("rag joint eliminator").

Any advice?

Thanks!

Dirk

[Rog246]

Originally Posted by DocDirk

Tom, did you re-engineer something or did you eliminate a joint? I've got a little side to side play in my steering linkage with a new rack and a virtually straight shot through my rag joint I'm considering installing a steel connector ("rag joint eliminator").

Any advice?

Thanks!

Dirk

Dirk you won't believe the difference of just getting rid of the rag joint ! I used to work in the steering industry 20 something yrs ago and we used to fit urethane replacement rag joints with great success. We had owners coming back after taking delivery of their cars asking "What did you do....it feels like a whole new car !" make the chane you won't regret it.
Rog

[Tom Wells]

Dirk,

I endorse the elimination of any sloppy or unnecessary joints in the steering. As Rog says, the difference can be dramatic.

In my case, the original E-M design involved three steel u-joints and a pillow block bearing to locate the center shaft.

From the steering wheel there is a short shaft and a u-joint, followed by another short shaft and a second u-joint; this second shaft was supported by a pillow block bearing since it had a u-joint at each end. Then a third short shaft connects to the rack via a third u-joint.

Kinda like this:

------(X)-------(X)------(X)-|
Strg
Wheel - - - - - - - - - - - - - rack

After the mod, the center u-joint is gone, leaving something like this:

------(X)----------------(X)-|
Strg
Wheel - - - - - - - - - - - - - rack

The original steering layout was designed to clear the headers for a side exhaust setup. I have the undercar exhaust so the clearance was fine with a one-piece steering shaft. Something to assess before you start changing things.

If you have a rag joint anywhere, substituting a steel joint can likely offer improved steering accuracy.

None of this has anything to do with how quick the steering is, as requested by andyl in his original post....

Tom

[Jerry Clayton]

you can also eliminate a u-joint by using the pinto oem flex shaft--did that on my pro stocker and it works super

[CobraEd]

eliminating various types of joints will improve responsive "feel" but the amount of turns lock to lock will be exactly the same.


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[Ant]

I have seen a gear reduction setup half way down the column which was very much like a set of timing gears, this worked well on a vintage mustang.

Does this make the steering heavier, and the part from Summit must have 3 or more gears working together to keep the same direction.

[andyl]

Thanks for your feedback everyone, and yes any extra slop has to be bad.

Originally Posted by Ant

Does this make the steering heavier, and the part from Summit must have 3 or more gears working together to keep the same direction.

I think they have slightly offset shafts and a large outside cup gear with teeth on the inside and a smaller drive gear running inside the outer gear so they both spin the same way, just the outer slower.

They will make steering heavier even disregarding friction. A 2:1 will reduce turns lock to lock by half but will make the steering twice as heavy. There is always a tradeoff. The one I'd get is the 1.5:1

Thanks again -Andy

[Rob. Smith]

Yep..I installed one and at parking speeds it feels like power steering with the pump not working. Extremely heavy..I am watching the uni joints for damage.

[Aussie Mike]

Why not just fit a power steering rack? They are usually fewer turns lock to lock than their manual equivalent. You can run one with no pump connected or hook up a pump to your motor and have the best of both worlds, light steering and a quick rack.

I'm putting a commodore power rack in mine at the moment.

Cheers

[Rob. Smith]

Originally Posted by Aussie Mike

Why not just fit a power steering rack? They are usually fewer turns lock to lock than their manual equivalent. You can run one with no pump connected or hook up a pump to your motor and have the best of both worlds, light steering and a quick rack.

I'm putting a commodore power rack in mine at the moment.

Cheers

How heavy is the power steering rack without the pump ? I've seen some tiny ones on Howard Racing .com

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by Rob. Smith

How heavy is the power steering rack without the pump ? I've seen some tiny ones on Howard Racing .com

The difference in weight between the Commodore power rack and manual rack is not much, perhaps only a couple of kilos.

I'll try to take a pic tonight to compare.

The other good thing about PS is you can run more positive castor and still have light steering. After driving Phil Mizzi's PS equipped car I'm a convert. The steering was nicely weighted but still had heaps of feel.

Cheers

[Rob. Smith]

Not physical weight but the weight used to steer the car. without the pump I guess that it would be heavy....how heavy ? I also thought that the steering would get slightly lighter with more castor ?