CarlB

You might look at Performance electronics or Innovate motorsports.

You did not need to disconnect the drive shaft from the differential. When you put it back, use blue thread locker and clean the bolts and what the bolt screw into. The drive shaft will come out of the transmission tail shaft. There isn't anything holding it in. To get the engine out you have to have it on an angle and all the transmission oil will spill out where the drive shaft goes. My car has a ford transmission and they do not have drain plugs. Your car might have a drain. They make plugs to put in the hole when the drive shaft is removed, but make sure you have a pan under the back of the transmission to keep from getting oil everywhere. When you put the engine back it, you have to get under the car and start the driveshaft back in the back of the transmission before the engine is completely down in the engine compartment.

I have an older car, but it is probably the same. First you might not have to remove the column. My car is a 2000 S-3 with a Zetec engine. I did not need to remove the column until I added an extension on the water pump housing. I wanted to get a better fit for the hose. If you look just where the steering column comes through the fire wall in the engine compartment. The shaft that extends down to the steering rack goes in a tube that extends from the back of the steering wheel. A portion of this tube is cut away where the shaft from the steering rack sticks up the tube. The shaft has a flat cut on it and the flat on the shaft lines up with the part of the tube sticking through the fire wall. The shaft and the tube are held in place by a clamp. The clamp has two bolts on one side and a set screw and jam nut on the other. Losen the jam nut and back the Allan screw out. Then remove the two bolts. The clamp will separate in two pieces. At the steering rack end is a universal joint. Remove the bolt that clamps the shaft to the universal joint. You can then push the shaft back out of the universal joint. You can take the shaft out the steering wheel side, but it involves removing the lock and that is a big job. Much easier to remove the radiator and bring it out the front. I do not know your car, but I suspect removing the steering shaft is not required.

I am going to be very interested in what the tariff is. When you go on line you get different numbers. Tariffs are a tax and these rates are ridiculous. Hopefully the courts will take care of it.

From paying, I think it was about a week. It was either 7 or 8 days. He used FedX and they sent a tracking number when they picked it up.

I got a package from Redline today. I was expecting a call or email to pay the tariff, but the package came without paying the tariff.

We have, or had, a confusion about names. The steering rack assembly is made up of a housing, a round gear, and a rack gear. There are bearings and other things, but the basic function is controlled by those components. You turn the steering wheel and that turns the round gear. The round gear is connected to a long flat gear called a rack gear. All of this is inside a housing that holds it all together in one place. On the ends of the rack gear are joints that allow the tie rods to move up and down and side to side, but not in and out. What is centered are the joints on the end of the rack gear. When you project a line vertically through the center of the lower inner control arm bushing to the center of the inner upper control arm bushing the inner tie rod joint (joint on the end of the rack gear) should be centered on the projected line. The other part of eliminating bump steer is the outer joints, and the center of the tie rod end need to have the same geometry. If one tie rod is longer than the other the joints are not on the imaginary line through the suspension joints. When you hear racers talking about bump steering their cars, they are improving the accuracy of the components being in the correct alignment to each other. There are always tolerances, and the racers are trying to improve the tolerances. On regular street cars the manufacturers often design in bump steer to make the cars understeer. When you are trying to drive a car quickly you want to judge the tire slipping, and you are looking at very small amounts of slip. If the steering angle is changing because of bump steer the car isn't as predictable.

The tires are made in Portugal. I just ordered a bunch of stuff from Redline. I thought auto parts were 25%

What you are doing measuring the threads works. Someone said the rack wasn’t centered. I should have quoted that statement. This misunderstanding probably has more to do with the meaning of rack. The rack meaning the housing is centered. I measure the tie rod length from the blocks that hold the rack down.

I was just on NOVA"s web site and they list ZZR and ZZS tires like they are available. NOVA Motorsports.pdf

On my car with a quick steering rack the wheel turns about one and one half turns in each direction. Maybe a little more, it has been a while since I did it. Are you going lock to lock on turning the wheel?

On my car there is a small hole in the crossmember just under the steering rack. That is the center of the car. I spent a week measuring the pickup points on my car to see if it was strait. I am confident that Arch used that in their jigs when they made the chassis. I also measured to the blocks that hold the steering rack, and they are equal distance from the hole in the chassis. At one point I played with stock cars. They are always getting driven into walls, so you spend a lot of time learning to measure stuff.

Tom, I enjoy inviting myself over for some fun. Thank you - Let us know when you are thinking about going.

The issue with measuring total toe with toe plates or adjusting the toe on one side of the car is bump steer. When the wheels go up and down vertically the toe can change. This primarily affects how the car feels to the driver. It adds some unpredictable handling and driver confidence. If you draw a line between the upper and lower control arms on the inner and outer pivots, the tie rod joints should fall on those lines. That way the wheel can move up and down without inducing extra steering. Correcting this on a 7 is not hard. The way I do it is at where the steering shaft goes into the rack. Turn the wheel all the way in one direction and make a mark vertically on the shaft and housing. Turn it the other direction and make a similar mark on the rack. The wheel will turn more than one revolution. back out the one complete turn and the center is halfway between the two marks. Create a mark there. Use that mark to center the steering rack. Do a string alignment to set toe, or toe plates and make sure the tie rods are the same length.

When I got my car it had a blue rack quick rack. I got a new one and it wasn't painted.