65-66 Mustang? or 68-70? And our frame rail width? Most like 65-66 or 68-70? The reason why I am asking is because Unisteer make a Rack & Pinion kit for the early Mustangs that is supposedly a bolt it. ( I know, me and my front end posts...) Firefox isn't cooperating..Go to Jegs, and search Unisteer 65-66 Mustang Rack and pinion kit.
Our steering is closer related to a 70 Stang, but the frame rails are narrow as, or slightly narrower than the 65. Even though the width of the engine bay is like a 65, the bay is shorter firewall to radiator. Dave
I've heard that some guys have installed the Total Control Mustang rack and pinion into Mavericks. It bolts right in but the car's turning radius really suffered. Something about the center tube being too long.
Our steering is most like.... a 64 Ranchero/Falcon. The frame rail with is 1/2" narrower than the Ranchero/Falcon. The track width is very similar. A rack designed for the Ranchero/Falcon is almost a bolt in.
Hmmmm???? ratio, how much narrower? Do you know? BMC, what year Mustang? Jay, does anyone make a kit for the Ranchero/Falcon? thanks ya'll..
Looks like I didn't remember the facts exactly (old age, memory is the second thing to go, don't remember what goes first). I found this email from Total Control: We have had a customer or two in the past install manual racks in their Mavericks. This is not an application we support but may be able to put you in touch with someone who has done the conversion. Basically the Maverick is much narrower than the Mustang or Falcon platform. This requires the rack itself to be shortened by two inches. This loss of length results in less travel and also an increase in turning radius. Those who have completed the install far prefer the responsive steering over the tighter turning radius. This does take some creativity in mounting the rack as the Maverick does not have the bolt in cross member. (I may be wrong about the crossmember, not sure)
RRS makes the Falcon / Ranchero kit. The brackets to mount the rack to the frame rails from this kit "almost" bolt right in to the Maverick. The RRS mounting brackets bolt to the original steering box and idler arm holes on the frame. The drivers side bracket needs one hole drilled and another elongated by about 1/8". The passenger side bracket needs to have a new bracket made as the holes in the frame are quite a bit higher on the frame of the Maverick. The bar that mounts the inner tie rod arms would benefit from having the mounting holes redrilled in a slightly different location as the Falcon / Ranchero used a shorter inner/outer tierod length than a Maverick does. This would allow the correct geometry to be retained and make allignment easier. I have had access to Total Control racks, Unisteer racks and RRS racks for various applications which I have trial fit on my car. The only one I am considering at this time is the RRS rack. The design of the Unisteer rack is similar to the Mustang II rack with the tierod ends directly on the end of the rack. This sets up some interesting suspension / steering geometry when you now have much shorter inner / outer tie rod length than you had with the stock setup using stock spindles. Bump steer is much more evident. The Mustang II rack is very narrow so it is often required to add an extension to the rack to widen it and still allow use of the stock length tierods. Also, the length of the steering arm on the spindle can allow a rack with a shorter range of motion to have just as small of a turning radius as the stock steering setup. We don't have any other spindle options so must find a rack to work with what we have. The RRS rack has the necessary range of motion to allow for a tight turning radius. Isn't Hotrod_Bob a Falcon/Ranchero man? If so, I bet he could confirm the frame width and track width of the Falcons and Rancheros for us?
