I am planning on installing power steering in my replica. Has anyone considered using a power rack from a 84 corvette? The specs look very similar. What pumps can be used with a power rack? Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Mike

I have heard of using a Merkur rack. I think Kasdan has one on his car.

Hey Mike,
I bought a Corvette rack ('84 in fact!) just to see how close it is. It's actually a bit shorter and the mounts are totally different. I also have the Merkur XR4Ti rack. I haven't done much with it yet, but the dimensions look very good. A Chevette rack is another popular choice, and is probably the easiest to mount, but is also too short. Do a search of this forum and you'll find a decent amount of info.

thanks for the info. i thought of using the chevette rack and possibly machining new ends. any suggestions for a pump? i am assuming the rack has to have a pump with the correct output pressure. anyone???
thanks
mike

GM pumps have a relieif valve in the body right where the pressure line exits. You can pull it apart and change the spring to vary pressure. The Chevette pump is actually a nice little unit with a remote reservior. Of course you won't need to change the pressure if you use a rack and a pump from the same car. I'd bet that all the mid 80's GM stuff is the same pressure. To use a Chevy pump with a Ford (Merkur) rack, I think you need to lower the pressure.

if the Chevette rack is too short, why not use longer inner tie-rods? The A car and U-van rods are pretty dang long.

To keep bump-steer to a minimum, the actual rack must be lengthened so that the inner tie rod pivots are at the same location as stock. Using the shorter rack with longer tie rods will create bump-steer, but that's how it's normally done anyway. A better way would be to make adapters that go between the rack and the tie rods to move them out.

The Merkur rack is exactly the same length as the Fiero rack. The Merkur rack has female threaded ends instead of the male threads on the Fiero rack. The thread size and pitch are the same, M14x1.25, so all that is needed are two short pieces of 14mm threadstock to attach the Fiero tie rods to the Merkur rack. I haven't yet investigated the mounting possibilities of the actual rack housing to the crossmember. It has a strange triangular input shaft.

Good point. Ain't Mr. Suspension here.

I had one guy look at my pictures of my power steering parts I took before I installed them. He said there were 2 Merkur racks. One that is very common and one that is somewhat rare and he felt the one I have is the rare one. He was looking to make a power steering kit for his replica something. Lambo?

Yup, sure enough, i have a merkur rack. IT looks liek it was basicly a bolt on - it looks stock. Not sure what the pump and res are from though. The pump is bolted on top of the water pump via a welder aluminuim bracket attacked to the top 2 water pump bolts.

------------------
Tyler Morgan, 1986 GT

Aftermarket Power Steering, Rebuilt 2.8
http://www.geocities.com/mtyler14/index.html