steering setup

[minirailguy]

I am working out the A Arms and such for my front end and am curious how to properly setup the rack and pinon. *Must the ends (of the rack) meet edge of the frame for proper control arm articulation? *I have strayed from my plans and widened my frame causing it to be wider than the racks I have seen. *How do I approach this correctly?

[Bugpac]

It does not necessarily matter if they line up, what rack are you using, got pic?

You will need to adjust your rack and steering arms up and down to get rid of bumpsteer....Trial and error type thing...

[nutnbolt2002]

But Bug arn't you just moving the bump steer around it is still there isn't it?

[minirailguy]

how far inboard can the rack and pinion ends be and still work correctly?

refering to bump steer, what is it and how can i avoid this in my design?

[Bugpac]

Originally Posted by nutnbolt2002\";p=\&quot

But Bug arn't you just moving the bump steer around it is still there isn't it?

Bump steer comes from position of the rack and control arms, you remove it by positiong these two things were you dont have any, or minimal i should say....

[Bugpac]

Originally Posted by minirailguy\";p=\&quot

how far inboard can the rack and pinion ends be and still work correctly?

refering to bump steer, what is it and how can i avoid this in my design?

To many factors to say how long or short it could be...
Bump steer is were the wheels turn and the steering wheel dont, this happens as suspension cycles up and down...

[minirailguy]

that makes sense, just wanted to make sure the ends of the rack didnt have to reach outboard of the frame

[Rorty]

Originally Posted by Bugpac\";p=\&quot

It does not necessarily matter if they line up, what rack are you using, got pic?

You will need to adjust your rack and steering arms up and down to get rid of bumpsteer....Trial and error type thing...

You may need to move the rack up, down, forward or backward to remove bumpsteer.

minirailguy, no two cars are the same (unless they came out of identical jigs), so there isn't a right or wrong size of rack, nor a standard position for the rack ends. Everything to do with the steering has everything to do with everything else in your front suspension.

The only remotely accurate method of establishing the correct location for the rack is to draw the whole front end assembly to scale (1/2 scale works really well) using the tried and tested Cardboard Computer method.

Locating the rack is probably the most important aspect of building a car - dare I say, even more important than sprocket alignment (in a chain-drive car). A rack that's even 1/64" out can cause problems – it's that precise!

In all my buggy manuals, I stress that the rack mounts should only be lightly tacked in position until the remainder of the car is finished and only then should the steering be checked and the mounts fully welded.

A chassis can pull out of shape if not constructed carefully, and the rack can easily be misaligned if not left until the very end of the build.

[Bugpac]

^^^^ what he said, i did forget to mention forward and back....Thanks Rorty *

[masterfabr]

It can be extremely frustrating for a first timer also.Be VERY patient and get it right.Opinions vary as to how much bumpsteer is acceptable but the less the better.