Qa1 coil over rack & pinion k frame

Has anyone used the Qa1 coil over rack & pinion K frame set up any info would be appreciated

I bought mine when Carl Gerst owned the company , he sold out to QA1 ..nice piece

https://gerstsuspensions.com/products/gts-front-suspension-qa1/

I've installed one. They are pretty. Steering radius is reduced. The manual rack is high effort. Very little weight saving. The geometry for bump steer takes a BIG spacer to get it correct. This was an eyeball guess at proper tie rod location. But its close. My car is also a B body. But with stock steering. Even with header to tire contact mine turns with a way tighter radius. I've driven an A body with this conversion as well. It's also stiff with a large turning radius.
Doug

Mine works great, zero issues

Bigdad did you find the steering took a lot of effort as mentioned

No , drives nice .. I don't have any complaints , well thought out and built

Might be worth checking out what each one has for a car/driveline to see why there could be such big differences.

Fact is, there is many, many , many aftermarket K-Frames out in use ..

There is a couple mfg's that did in fact make junk , they seem to have muddied the water a bit for the ones out there that work , often the only people that like to answer the question are the people that don't own any aftermarket ones and want to hang on to stock T-Bars and K-Frames

I have two different brands , I like my Gerst better than my alterkation one , it takes a little less room in engine compartment , made a little nicer , not sure which brand Doug has helped put in , or what car he has driven with one , I know his 64 has some self done stuff on it .

I made "parts" for my silver 64 , I notched the K-frame , put tube A arms on it , and tube lowers , built a bracket to support the rear of the lowers so nothing would break off , it had coil overs on it , sat nice and worked well ..


so, I've messed with a few options , the HDK ones look pretty nice too


Mine drives great , straight , no bump steer . drives like a go cart

The car I put the QA 1 stuff on was a 64 Fury. Did it last fall after QA 1 acquired Gerst. I called QA 1 about the bump steer issue. They told me I didn't understand bump steer. Then later the owner received this (see picture). This is basiclaly what I did months earlier. I talked to them at a QA 1 booth at a Mopar show in Minnesota. They said they had never seen anything wrong. I showed them the pics. They had no answer. The A body I drove is Butch Leals old Dart Sport S/S car.
Doug

I don't have , nor do i need any of those spacers .. not sure where all that came from but, never came in my kit .. Maybe qa1 does things different, those funky looking hourglass shaped ones did however come with my alterkation kit to use on the upper a arms to space them out to elimatinate rub..


My car has made many passes wheels up , 126/127 mph drives perfect , does not kick the wheels out like stock stuff does


Did Butch leals duster have a Qa1 .. ? doubt that since Hemi Denny did the car .. and he makes them but, possible I suppose

If you look at the sleeves QA 1 stamped right on them. Entire kit was new in the box. Mine runs stock parts except outer tie rods and a trimmed K frame. Went 8.99@148 Friday night.
Doug

The kit comes with power rack are you using the power rack with bye pass or did you covert it to manuel rack.

tires wont kick out if you have a travel limiter.i always set mine at 3 inch travel limit for a drag car

Mine is Manual

Interesting reading for sure. Mine is still 100%stock and will leave on the bumper and has been 8's over 150. Have been thinking of looking into some of these available kits but never used any of them. Always used stock stuff, trimmed K member and maybe uppers but just to drop some weight. Sounds like maybe we will just keep doing what we are doing and trim the K member...

By the time a guy puts light disc brakes on, coilover shocks in place of torsion bars, can't be a lot of weight savings left. I put a rack in an early A body using a modified stock k frame, and bolt on control arms using longer bolts for the lower ball joint so I could bolt them to the inner side of the stock ball joints. Done right, Ackerman is perfect, bump steer less than 1/32 throughout travel. Link
https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/home-built-rack-and-pinion-coilover-build.254464/
It takes time, but can be done and you will end up with a great front suspension.

Weight , was never really my concern but ..

I've cut into a few stock k-frames, they are now approaching 60 years old, a lifetime of poor roads, duty cycles , horrible weather , salt air, salt on roads .. etc. , the one on my 64 , which that car somewhat lived charmed life being a race car for many years , metal was horrible thin many holes on it
were wobbled out , the welds looked absolutely horrible ( someone told me they ( k frames) were subbed out to AO Smith the water heater company ) ..

I guess saying the Gerst one is heavier , in my mind isn't a bad thing . they surely are built with more precision than one from a 62 Dodge was from factory


I installed mine because ;

I wanted R-P steering .

I wanted more room for headers .

I wanted coil overs .

My stuff was all worn out , was expensive and hard to source everything it needed to be replaced plus the hours it would take to fix it ( where does one find a jig to put it in to keep it from moving while you and weld on it , to do it right )


Up to the person that does or doesn't want to buy one , tell yah this .. they place where it was aligned and he does lots of high end cars and race cars, commented on how nice it was and how easy it was to get the car set right