Best Manual Steering Rack (Junkyard)

What's your favorite manual steering rack? Preferably something that I might find in a junkyard. I'm looking for something good and light to replace a Pitman arm (Booo) setup in an old Toyota. Will probably see some auto-x and track use at some point and don't mind if it needs some muscle around the parking lots.

I really loved the manual rack in my CRX Si, so that's what I'm leaning towards. I also recently put a 240Z manual rack into my 280zx (again to replace a Pitman arm setup), and don't like that quite as much.

I've heard some of the older British sportscars had nice units too.

Let me know what you think.

I had a de-powered rack in a Miata and liked it.

Yeah, I like the de-powered miata rack too - that's a good one.

Do you need front steer (Mustang) or rear steer (Omni)?

Rear steer.

I used an early porsche unit on the Wartburg, can be used upside down for front steer or standard for rear steer. It's a symmetrical rack with the steering connection in the center so that's very useful in some situations and absolutely pointless in others.

The Neon is the same basic rack as the Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon.

Early Porsche 944 manual rack, hands-down.

The manual rack on my early MR2 was quick and light but maybe that was because there was no engine over it.
All MR2's are manual.

mkII mr2s (at least some) had electric PS... but all mkI are manual

This always bugs me. How far do you need it to travel? How long are your steering arms? How many turns lock-to-lock do you want?

When you go to bolt this sucker in make sure the at ride height angle of the steering arms intersects with your suspensions at ride height Instant center otherwise you will have bump steer (If the width is way off you will have bad bump steer).
If you are keeping the steering arms the same figure out a way to measure them and be sure the rack you get is used with similar length arms or be intentional about your difference in relation to the arms on the car you are taking off. If yours are shorter your steering will be quicker/heavier at rest than if yours are longer, you also may need to run stops to keep wheels from rubbing things as the rack may not limit steering angle. If they are longer you may not have enough rack travel and your turns for a given steering angle will be higher. Again depending on what you do with steering arms you will want to get the front/rear positioning of the rack at a good place for the ackerman built into the steering arms. If it's wrong you may have ill high or low speed behavior. The good news about this is it is a fairly wide margin but still needs considered.

I hope I am just telling you stuff you know an that you'll go.. "Silly Nocones I already knew all that". If this is all news to you please please please read at a minimum Carrol Smith "Tune to win", and Alan Staniforth "Competition Car Suspension". If you want to blow your mind I would read Milliken "Race Car vehicle dynamics" as well.

Now that I scared you the good news is if you know what you are looking for a lot of steering geometry/part location can be of the close enough variety. Since it is one area where the driver has direct control over the suspension and in a corner the outside tire is carrying so much more load due to weight transfer the mess incorrect steering makes is minimized somewhat for the occasional competition car. It most impacts immediate corner entry behavior and quick transitions. This is worth a lot when you are competing for the win but if you are just a occasional user its more important to ensure it's safe and doesn't do anything really weird which I feel you can get pretty close.

Good luck. If you needed front steer I would recomend the Fiero and the MG Midget rack. You could run those if you want to run RHD!

Fiat X1/9, Fiat 128, Yugo.

In reply to nocones:

Thanks for the detailed reply. Yeah, I actually just re-read the Tune to Win chapter on steering systems a week or two ago when I started thinking about this.

At this point, I'm just taking a survey of what's available in the salvage yards that might be suitable. Unless by some miracle I find something that's the perfect dimensions I'll modify the mounts and arms as necessary.

Javelin wrote: Early Porsche 944 manual rack, hands-down.

Which is front steer. I was going to suggest the 924 rack, but the problem is the same. Except that the 924 rack is more or less a RHD Rabbit rack.

So I'd suggest a Mk1 rabbit rack with the Quaiffe quick ratio gear swapped in.

Escort has a rear steer rack. A lot of Escort guys like their depowered racks while a few of use enjoy real (and hard to find) manual racks...mostly in the Pony models.

I have bought rebuilt in both power and manual racks and the manual rack is 3 times as much!!??!!

Bruce

donalson wrote: mkII mr2s (at least some) had electric PS... but all mkI are manual

I have an MKII MR2 electro-hydraulic pump installed in my 240

MKI and early MKII VW Golfs have a decent manual rack.

+1 for the Mk I MR2 rack, that's what I swapped into my AE86 SR5.

If, in your search, you happen across a manual rack for a Neon, send it to me. I've depowered the one in my IT car because it absolutely would not keep the belt on at 7400 rpm, but its nasty stiff, and not actually legal for the class. Tough to find a manual one, though.

How much are you looking to spend? You can buy most racks mentioned in this thread for <$150 rebuilt/new. IIRC the manual Miata rack is super cheap even from Mazdaspeed.

FWIW, most of the manual racks in this thread have awful steering ratios. If I were building something custom/light, I'd just de-power a low-ratio power rack instead.