Bowtie Boy

What is out there besides BMR and Madman. What can be bolted in with little or no mods. Only thread I see mention something said S10 but only ones I have seen have power racks, so what year is best to look at/other cars?

Very interested in a manual conversion but cannot justify 600+ bills for it at least right now that is.

lt1badbird

iTrader: (-1)

I made my own setup with a Pinto manual rack from the parts store

lt1badbird

iTrader: (-1)

litch2004

iTrader: (1)

^^^ do you have a write up on that? does it bolt to a factory k-member as well or just a tubular k-member setup for the pinto rack?

lt1badbird

iTrader: (-1)

I had a tubular k member set up for a stock rack. I simply cut off the stock mounts and used 3/4'' .058 wall chromoly welded to the bottom of the k member for mounts. The pinto rack comes with the black bushing you see and they will slide right onto the 3/4'' tubeing. I used a large washer with 3/4'' hole welded to the tube as a stop for the rack to butt up against then a 5/8'' bolt through front to back. I made triangular support brackets to connect the outside of each tube to the kmember and a peice of 3/4'' tube between the two for support

lt1badbird

iTrader: (-1)

litch2004

iTrader: (1)

i see it gave you plenty of room for all that piping. Looks good. wish i could do all that around here. Im just a traveling welding inspector, but cant weld worth a ****. lol

cumminsram06

Very interested in this, looks pretty simple. Should be able to mock it into place and have it welded for pretty cheap. I'm not a welder by any means but it looks like it would be easy to get fabbed up and just have someone weld it.

Assuming you went with this and ditched the ac as well what would you do for a belt running just the alternator?

cumminsram06

Did anyone read why it isn't so good to use a stock Pinto rack on an F-body? BMR's site explains that the pivot points on the tie rod ends on the rack do not match with the pivot points on the a-arms which gives you bump steer. Another site also claimed a pinto rack wasn't designed to work under the higher weight of our F-bodies, which can lead to over-stressing the Pinto rack.

Are both of these items just claims by manufacturers to stop people from making their own manual steering setups? I don't know, but the explainations sound good to me. I guess both points are voided if you are talking about a lightweight strip only car as well.

lt1badbird

iTrader: (-1)

the differnet pivot points is corrected by a bumpsteet kit, all the sponsors kits use pinto racks with different pivot points they sell a bumpsteer kit with it to correct that. I made that also. see the hex stock on the tie rods, 5/8 rod ends, and aluminum spacers at the spindle. that corrects it, you want the tie rods to move on the same arc as the A-arms during compression and extension. the weight thing ive never heard as many shps just sell their own re worked pinto racks

brucer

pinto racks been around a long time.. i've seen them and mustangII racks on f100 pickups, chevrolet 1/2 ton trucks, fox body mustangs, all kinds of streetrods which weigh alot more than any f-body camaro or trans-am..

cumminsram06

Makes sense, it was just something I read and you know about 10% of what you read online is true. I understand the bump steer kit, I didn't realize it was such a simple fix.

Silvy6.0

iTrader: (5)

I'm interested in this too. What rack is everyone else using? I have a tubular rack right now. I'm pretty sure it is setup for power steering right now though. Can I used it as a manual? Just plug off the holes? Thanks guys, and sorry OP. Just looking for some info too.

litch2004

iTrader: (1)

You can do this ^^^ but the point of going to a manual rack is that the gearing inside of the manual gear box is geared differently to help assist with the steering of the car without the hydrolic assist of the power steering pump. Hope this clears stuff up a little more for you.

robsquikz28

iTrader: (246)

Madman ftw

quik95lt1

iTrader: (7)

i just installed a bmr........it was a piece of cake it installed perfectly and everything fit well.....no issues at all....and it looks great...id highly reccomend it!!!

94Z28rag

iTrader: (10)

Madman manual rack here. Nice setup.

BMR Tech

iTrader: (9)

Thanks for the recommendation

We have refined our rack over the years by modifying the actual rack width itself to help with bump steer issues and moving the steering shaft over towards the frame rails to provide the most header room possible.

We offer both kits for our Pinto rack style K-member or a K-member that already has the existing factory rack mounts.

Our kit is a true bolt-on no welding required or guessing on steering shaft alignment.

quik95lt1

iTrader: (7)

ive got hooker super comps on my car and the header tube is close to the frame rail it fit but i did have to adjust the shaft position in the cv joints on my application........but again it was a piece of cake it wasn't a show stopper

joelster

Exactly how much lighter is the manual rack?--the rack itself. I run a stock power rack with the lines looped, ie:manual. I am sure the weight savings aren't going to be much in my case, but I know that a dedicated manual rack will be easier to turn than a power rack with the lines looped. If the manual rack is noticeably lighter than the power rack I might do this.