Saturday, 6 June 2015

New 2.4 Quick Steering Rack


Steering rack upgrade; Intended to avoid me getting 'behind the car' on those fast/speed change corners which tighten mid way. The new rack is a 2.4 replacing the old 2.9.

At the same time I'm upgrading the mounts to billet alloy:


First trick, I didn't want to take the radiator out and drain/refill the cooling system unless I had to. The rack cannot be extracted or installed from the side - it doesn't fit through the panel openings - so instead a convoluted route, threaded down the side of the engine and then up and out at the front, new one went back in the same way:

New (foreground) and old, identical external appearance:

It could have been a simple bolt in job, but changing the mounts also meant some adjustment of mounting holes on the nearside chassis bracket - again not easy due to leaving the radiator in place - but the results are tidy:

The bonus - steering wheel now straight, I actually checked it this time while setting up the wheel alignment:

Excuse for a test run this evening around 70 miles towards Faversham, via some great country lanes near Norton and back along the A2; the 2.4 rack does make manoeuvring, especially reversing, a little heaver. At medium speed not a huge difference, but when accelerating or driving at speed the slightest nudge on the wheel has a dramatic impact - like it!

5 comments :

  1. Hi Richard. Fantastic way to get round not having to dismantle half the car to refit the new steering rack.
    Can I ask where you got the new rack/billet mount's?
    From GBS/Kitspare's or elsewhere?
    Regards
    Kevan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Kevan/Nicola,
    Re the mounts - search for:
    "Ford Escort MK1 MK2 Aluminium Rack Mounts Kit Car Alloy Heavy Duty RD848"
    On ebay - seller 'Rally Design', or direct from Rally-Design.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank's for that Richard.
    Was the rack also from Rally-Design?

    ReplyDelete
  4. MSTRD816 - Escort mk2 mk1 High Ratio 2.4 Steering Rack quick rack
    Motorsport-tools.com

    You can pick them up at most shows cash in hand - just depends on your timing.

    ReplyDelete