Rack in an old truck

Has anyone considered this option or done it? Looking at the 94 up steering rack to get rid of the multiple pieces that’s there now, 7 rods and 6 joints or one rack.

Define "old truck".

My concern would be the difference between the width of the rack at the inner tie rod pivots, and the width of the center link you are replacing. If there is a big difference between those two widths, you could be introducing a serious bump steer to the old truck. When the length of the tie rods is different then the length of the average length of the upper and lower control arms, the toe in can change with suspension movement.

It the "old truck" has a beam axle or is a 4x4, the quick answer is: "NO, do not do it." Gene

I saw somewhere on the interwebs where a guy attached a rack to the beam axle of a 60's era truck. Didn't look like a good idea to me.

71-92 2x4. I know about what you are describing, wondering if someone had come up with one that would meet that criteria. Thanks for reply.

Not on a specific truck application, but on a 39 Plymouth coupe street rod. I installed a rack off an early 90s Chevy something (the name of the car line escapes me right now), it was a 4100 lbs car (may be pretty light for a truck) with rear steer (an early 90s Dodge intrepid uses a similar rack but the Dodge rack is a front steer). Those racks have the inner tie rod attaching points at the center of the rack rather then at the outside edges. I made a center link that attached to the two inner tie rod bolts that extended out to where the original vehicle's inner tie rods attached to the center link. Then I was able to use the original vehicles tie rod assemblies. On that vehicle, the goal was to add power steering to a vehicle that didn't have that option. There were a few draw backs, one being a wider turning radius.

That would be a huge amount of work with little savings if the only thing your after is fewer parts to replace.

I believe the biggest problem would be the width of the truck, and the possibility of the weight of the truck. Then you really need to pay attention as to if the donor vehicle has the steering in the same location (in front of the spindle is a front steer, or behind the spindle is a rear steer). If the tie rods are on the wrong side of the spindles, the truck will steer backwards. If you are serous, I think I would be looking at a rack from a newer truck, but expect to do a lot of adapting. Lay on the ground (or put one on a hoist) and compare the things that are different between your truck and the possible donor truck. Occasionally, some newer stuff looks like it was designed to be bolted in place of something on an older vehicle, but not often. Gene

I used steering rack from volvo, no bump steer.


[img]https://scontent-hel3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...8c81ead3d5d8446fabddfd17&oe=60EA65BF[/img]

Sounds interesting