Has anyone else encountered problems with this system? My brothers alignment shop would not align his front end because he says there is to much flex in the mounting brackets. Also, the cylinder is leaking fluid. Is this a common problem with these systems?

 

:lurk:

 

I've probably got 1500 miles on mine. No problem with leaks or alignment that I can tell. Who knows in the long run though. I hope to take it on the power tour this month. That will test a lot of new stuff I've put in.

 

if the cylinder is leaking it must be a bad one. As far as flex goes, mine seems very solid.
~Jay

 

Something doesn't sound right regarding the supposed flex in the steel mounts. I find that hard to believe, because they are very rigid. The drivers side mount alone is bolted in place with 7 bolts if I remember correctly. It must not be installed correctly or something. If you look at how the brackets are made, you will see they are triangulated, there is no flex in them at all.

The leaking cylinder is obviously a problem, but it's certainly not common. I'd double check the hose connections first before blaming the rack for failing. If you reverse the hose connections to the rack, you'll blow out the seals.

 

Monty, I am holding any opinions on the mount thing untill many more comments are in....I think they are fine personally, but well......I know MY mounts on my own install are solid as the frame now...but when you see the car standing still and a buddy turning the wheels...with out assist..engine off...he flips wheel side to side, I look at mine...the only movement seen is associated with twist of the frame also...in other words, can't do no more....

as for the racks leaking, mine is too, it was dry when installed...but it was a junkyard piece...it IS the later iron/steel structured one that Jim Shea recommends...the early ones were aluminum just like my '87 vette rack and not worth a damn.....my rack now came from a '92 grand am..and as such was either the later GM design OR a replacement of decent quality....
at any rate it 'leaks' not what I"d call a LOT, but the bellows are moist, and if I drop off the linkage some drops of oil come out....but the reservoir is ok on level....so I dunno.....as usual, i'tm keeping track of it...

GENE

 

Gene,
Did you ever make drawings of your brackets?
I'm gonna have some wrenching time on the ol car this summer I think an would like to build my own rack...

 

:iagree:

 

427V8, No not yet, in fact as is usual with these type projects I had a last minit modification to them because of the way the rubber mounting was doing on the driver's side, and the way the passenger side was handing down....both side of the mounts are fine now, I tried once to raise the center two tie rod ends, from the position shown on my pix there, to another position 1.5 inches igher, as recommended by Pete here on the forum, Norvan seem to know of him pretty well, and in fact Yeh, Pete is correct...so I went to do the job, but due to circumstances of NOT being able to tear my car apart taking a change of being stuck with something going wrong, I messed us and had my buddy weld that center wrong yet again...SO, it's back to the drawing board again, and rip that piece out again, and turn the tabs on the end about 90* worth, and it should at that point be fine....

as long as I have the center down at that point I plan on pulling everything out and documenting it all.....should be done by then.....hopefully maybe this evening I can do some of that work, got a lot of work on a '64 coupe here from a friend up the road, everything from a/c to carb, to tranny...
first it's nice to get it running....that and my welding buddy got a ton of welding to do over there in his garage, and the old neighborhood biddies in the HO assn. are on his as s about it too boot, down to zoning and fines and such....PIA.....so YES it is a top priority along with everything else.....and yes I will get to it sometime in the next week or so....and I"m thinking Saturday is the best day.....

GENE

GENE

 

As others have stated they haven't had any problems with their systems. Either something isn't installed properly or the alignment shop doesn't have a clue. I'm not trying to call anybody stupid and I'm not questioning the intelligence of the installer or the alignment tech. The facts are that the system is plenty strong enough and that even with the stock steering you will see movement when the wheels are turned with the car stationary. Give me a call (or have your brother call) if you have specific issues or questions that you need resolved, Eric @ 888-425-2776.

 

Nice to see Speed Direct jump in and help resolve this.

I also suspect that the alignment shop dosen't have a clue.

The system is on my shopping list for next year.

Dave

 

I tend to support Eric at SD there, as their bracket from all the pix I have seen APPEARS plenty strong enough,....even MY bracket waves a BIT in the breeze there, but mine is triangulated back to the fram nearly on the other side, and so i't stiff as can be, their should be too, even without that...
the frames are not quite as solid as we think, really a lot of flex in there, thaty's VBP makes a frame spreader for the upper inner CA shafts, and so on...I bet if that VBP spreader was in there the amount of flex would be reduced to near zero in either case....

GENE

 

I bet they just did not want to mess with a custom application, if for no fault of their own the car will not align the customer would blame them.

 

I personally have not went to my brothers to witness this appearent bracket flex personally. But, i suspect it is a combo of the shop not wanting to mess with a custom setup, and that they do not understand that the front end is going to flex regardless of what steering set up you have on there. It is a matter of physics. All metal has elasticity. I was more curious about other people having problems with leaking cylinders. My brother has the same engineering background as i do, i am surprised he did not school the shop on the issue of the frame flex.

 

I suspect the shop is scared somehow of some insurance claim if something happens and since it's not stock they don't want to take a chance....
the way insurance companies are these days, It would not surprise me if there was some sort of disclaimer in the policy covering that situation....
damn lawyers.....

GENE

 

Gene,
Sounds like a normal project then :crazy:

Don't hurry on my account, I was just curious. I'm actually going to lookinto using a rack out of Dodge Caravan. Looks like a nice rack, It's a rear steer, Hmmmm.

See my new thread on the subject.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zero...=newtopic&id=3


[Modified by 427V8, 11:46 PM 5/8/2003]

 

I had sometime to check out the flex problem and it seems to be do to poor installation by my part! The front plate that the tie rods connect to does have a little flex to it. The shop told me it shouldn't. They only works on performance cars and came highly recommended. Is it normal that they flex?

As for the leak, it seems that it has slowed down a bit. It's not dripping anymore. I'll keep checking it.

 

It is normal for the tie rod bracket to move a little. This is because it is physically bolted to the rack shaft and the rack rotates a few degrees (about the centerline of the r&p unit). As I said, a small amount of movement is normal. The bracket shouldn't rotate about the mounting bolts nor should it "rock" at the mounting bolts.

 

The only prob I had with mine is I hooked the hoses up wrong and blew the seals. They sent me replacements for a small charge and all is well. When I went to get it aligned they were delighted that it was so easy to adjust.