<VV> Fwd: Rack and pinion steering on Corvair

[jvhroberts at aol.com]

Actually, you can get favorable geometry either way, the control is how 
far offset from center when straight ahead, are the inner tie rod ends. 
If you had front steer, with the rack or relay rod well back from 
center, when you went from lock to lock, you'll increase toe out.

Your point about rack length cannot be stressed loudly enough. Getting 
the inner tie rod end center to center distance is utterly crucial. Not 
sure if there's a rack out there that can be shortened enough. However, 
some GM J cars as well as some Audis had the steering arms up under the 
spring seats on the front struts. The rack unit was on the firewall, 
and the inner tie rod ends came off near the center of the rack. If one 
were to replace the inner tie rod ends on one of those units with a 
long bar bolted to those inboard tie rod mounts with the Corvair tie 
rods attached at the ends at the stock spacing, you'd have it. Also, 
rear vs. front steer can usually be accommodated by inverting the rack 
and putting the pinion in the other way. You'll need to bore a new hole 
and mount a new seal, but this has been done before.

Just some food for thought. Personally, the stock setup works rather 
well, the only caveat is that *&?^ %$#@ rubber bushing attaching the 
relay rod to the Pitman arm. That needs to be a precision needle 
bearing sealed setup, IMHO. The rest is plenty stiff enough.

John Roberts

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Pepke <kenpepke at juno.com>
To: Vair Views <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Mon, Mar 7, 2011 9:24 am
Subject: <VV> Fwd:  Rack and pinion steering on Corvair



Not to worry!  Rear steer generally favors proper Ackerman action.  You 
will
probably not be able to get information on tire slip angles and dynamic 
chassis
loading to ever know what is really the proper angle for turning nor 
will you be
able to tell when driving.  But, rear steer also changes the force on 
the tie
rod assemblies from tension to compression on the outside [loaded] 
wheel.  Sand
dunning or autocrossing might warrant larger diameter tie rod ends and 
sleeves
and perhaps reinforcement of the steering arms.

Rack length is of extreme importance to control 'bump' steer.  If one 
'must'
have R&P and cannot find the needed length it is possible to arrange 
for the R&P
to drive the original steering center bar.  [Minus the pitman and idler 
arm.]
Ken P

> From: "Clark Hartzel" <chartzel at comcast.net>
> Date: March 7, 2011 7:31:30 AM EST
> To: "Virtual Vairs" <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Subject: <VV> Rack and pinion steering on Corvair
>
> Thanks for the responses on VV (except TLH).  I have always heard that
> reversing the steering arms for rear steer screws up the Ackerman and 
your
> wheels don't align properly when turning.  In fact I have read that 
you have
> to heat the arms and rebend them to make this work.  Anybody have a 
comment
> on this?
> Clark (chair buster) Hartzel

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