Power rack and pinion

[wagonman100]

I'm new to the forum and I know the question has been posed on here before, but has anyone successfully put in a power rack and pinion setup in their car yet? I have a pro-street '83 Malibu wagon converted to a 2 door, done Nomad style and it will be street driven and I want to convert it to R&P, but I want it to have power steering. I know the TRZ setup uses the narrowed Pinto rack from Flaming River and that it is manual, which is great for racing, but I am assuming the steering effort would be high at slow speeds. I have found a narrowed Corvette rack at http://www.flatout-engineering.com, but I haven't spoken to them yet about the actual width. Is anyone familiar with this particular rack and it's dimensions? If not, I guess I will post some pics if the install works out and it can help someone else on here. Thanks. Here's some pics of the project in question:

 

[1980PontiacWagon]

Sweet wagon... I wanted to do a rack and pinion swap...but like you my wagon is street driven and power steering is nice to have..deffinatly going to closly watch this thread...keep us all updated if you find that the corvette rack works.

 

[wagonman100]

Unfortunately from everything I have found out today, there is not going to be a rack and pinion in the wagon. I spoke with a guy that said the rack would have to be about 15" wide ball to ball to work correctly and no one can even custom make a power rack that narrow. He said even the manual racks being offered for our cars are still not as good as far as driveability as the steering box.

I did find some dwarf car and dirt car type racks that are that narrow and power, but they are not meant to street use and probably would have durability problems. He did say there was a company developing a scratch built rack specifically for the G-bodies, but they are stalled right now due to the economy. Even when they start back up the R&D, they will release some other racks first that are in more demand, and they will be quite expensive, in the $3,000.00-$3,500.00 range. But they will be bolt in, so no frame mods required.

 

[t5montecarlo]

was that a wagon or an El Camino to start with?

 

[wagonman100]

It was an '83 wagon bought new by my in laws. The header from it is on my '78 El Camino with Caprice composite headlights and a narrowed bumper. I was originally going to do the wagon delivery style and bought a coupe parts car and used the roof and quarter sections from it. I later decided to do it Nomad style and bought an El Camino roof from a yard to get the sail panels and the weatherstrip channels. I thought I'd never own a real Nomad so I'd build the wagon like this. Meanwhile I picked up a '57 Handyman wagon figuring that was as close as I'd get to a Nomad, then I got a '57 Nomad a few years back. I also have the El Camino I've owned for 15 years and a '72 Monte Carlo I've owned for 22 years and they are all projects right now. I know, long answer to a short question.

 

[t5montecarlo]

So, the rear side lites will be clear, not a panel?

 

[wagonman100]

That is correct. Right now, the angles don't match each other at the B and C-pillars, so I would either have to use Lexan or custom glass, but when I get the wagon back from the chassis shop, I will try to figure out a way to change the pinchwelds and use flat glass instead. I don't like Lexan and the custom glass is really not an option. It isn't too expensive, considering it's custom made, but the company will own the molds and if they go out of business, I'll be in deep doo doo and even if the glass ever breaks, it will be a long turn around time and pretty pricey to be buying it again. The trick will be to alter them and make the glass look right in the opening.