To power steer or Not to power steer.

[NES304]

The fire fighters I work with cut up an exel. Shame really.
The rack is power steer and so dam close to fitting (although I need 50mm out of the tie rod ends).
Just wondering how much my arms need to increase in muscle size if I use the manual rack with 225 tyres? Or if it's worth pursuing power steer?
Thoughts?

[JB]

I have power steer in the ute and its light as a feather. 

[fe350chev]

I think it's a personal taste thing. I don't like steering too light. Sometimes it can be things like castor too that can affect it. It would be good if you could try it by driving a power steer car. But I've driven cars of same model before and it's quite noticeable how each are different even when similar.

[Ol_Girl_58]

Personally, I don't think it's worth the hassle, NES - a rack will be suffice, especially in a relatively small, lightweight FC.

The Torana rack in my FC is precise and not too light, and a HUGE improvement over the draglink. I suspect you're running a rear mount Commodore rack? Also, are your Simmons 15s or 16s? Will 225 R16s fit up front? 205 R15s are just enough for mine.

Regards,

Josh.   

[Ol_Girl_58]

Just to add -

if you really, really want power steering, I understand that Camira racks are a closer fit, as are later Cortina.

For what it's worth, I got by steering my FC when I ran the standard draglink and 14" Bridgestone Eagers (9 inches wide on the front and back), although I imagine the steering box was under a huge amount of stress. The car was hard work to steer at crawling speeds.

[FCRB26]

.too light feels weird
Leave it and run 215 or 205 on the front.

[Ol_Girl_58]

[fe350chev]

Just while your all here can u run 215 by 15" on the front using vn to vs commo brakes on a hr front or will the caliper be too close. I'm running vs commo disc on rear.

[Ol_Girl_58]

I wouldn't imagine it to be an issue, as VN Commodore Executive had 14" wheels from the factory. 

[fe350chev]

Has anyone seen the steel 16" police rims used on an fc with big vt to vx commo offset. I haven't taken notice of any adapted trims to make it look old school. Keep a look out for dress trims. Do anyone know if there's any interceptor or chaser style rims that are 15" or 16" that have positive offset more than 50? I saw Pedro use them but without caps etc.

NES, Bretts "injected v8 fc" build commented on the steering but I was unclear if he had already fitted the manual rack. You might wanna pm him.

[Ol_Girl_58]

There was a thread on here somewhere, or perhaps on the FB-EK forum regarding this topic. VQ statesman or VP Berlina have the correct offset?

I'm pretty sure NickZ knows which offset is correct.

[FireKraka]

Hey NES my manual rack (V6 Conversions) is more than enough and I think power steering would be too light but you do have an extra couple of cylinders than I do mate.

When I had my sedan weighed for rego it came in at only 1280kgs you will be a little bit more but not much I would imagine.

JB said his was light; it gets expensive mate if you get it all done and then find you have to change things.

Regards
Neil H

[NES304]

They are 15" rims. They sit very close to the wish bone and the steering arm where the tie rod meets it. VS calipers are fine in fact I chucked on a VT calipers and it fit too. 
Rack is shortened VH rear mount. I cracked the shits yesterday and slapped it all in and dropped it on the ground and tried to dry steer. Didn't feel too bad actually. I did work out that if I used power steer the shaft would go exactly where the exhaust goes where as my manual rack intermediate shaft hugs the side bay wall creating room for those pesky pipes. Think I'll stay manual rack.
Here is a photo of the VT caliper on

Obviously that rotor is way too small so I can't use the caliper.

[Ol_Girl_58]

The stepped lip on your Simmons wheels gives you 14" centres - I previously ran a similar setup with ROH 3 piece wheels.

Good choice to stay with the manual rack, I think.

[fe350chev]

Did you use vh intermediate shaft as well or the other donor. So I need to keep it over towards the inner guard....note taken.  Looking into this setup
I figure that volkswagon transporters must have big brakes so I'm going to check out a wheel tomoz. Some nice dress caps and centre caps available. I recon those gm ones would fit. I'd like to have old school steel wheels and mag wheels for it so trying to accommodate both.

[NES304]

I have a triple uni setup with a Heim joint (or eye joint) to stop it from twisting up. Bitch of a setup but the angles were skewed as I had the rack so far back and the column so far into the engine bay area to accommodate the shifter on the column.

[fe350chev]

Perhaps a rack with a different input angle could be the go in future. Or some of these newer flexible couplings might get cheaper. The smidt type is interesting but I prefer the flexible slinky coupling. All very interesting. I like the budget beam. http://www.abssac.co.uk/c/Shaft+Couplings/6/

http://technicdelicatessen.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/lego-oldham-coupling-and-schmidt.html?m=1

Maybe even a cool planetary gear system at right angles lol. I've been looking at racks and the Mazda miata, early Subaru and anything with a 1uz conversion have racks that are electric or ones that have input shaft right over or angled. The chev engine isn't as hard in this regard.

[Ed]

Perhaps a rack with a different input angle could be the go in future. Or some of these newer flexible couplings might get cheaper. The smidt type is interesting but I prefer the flexible slinky coupling. All very interesting. I like the budget beam. http://www.abssac.co.uk/c/Shaft+Couplings/6/

http://technicdelicatessen.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/lego-oldham-coupling-and-schmidt.html?m=1

Maybe even a cool planetary gear system at right angles lol. I've been looking at racks and the Mazda miata, early Subaru and anything with a 1uz conversion have racks that are electric or ones that have input shaft right over or angled. The chev engine isn't as hard in this regard.

as you mentioned 1uz conversion…
I might need to consider one of these as last resort in my project.
http://www.wizardsteerclear.com
I think you can get them here from Lonestar in NSW.

Cheers
Ed

[fe350chev]

Yeah, easy enough to make. Not sure if its a chain in there is it? Easy to make but I bet if I made my own the engineer won't like it. If u go electric rack, the input isn't relying on much mechanical input so I think ppl might start using them more. The reason why Subaru is sourced is cos with the boxer and 4wd it is often tight in those cars.

I see people have used vs and up columns but is the input shaft bigger? On VL it is so I would have thought this will affect the steering? Not sure if anyone has a comment on that.