I recently had a problem finding the correct steering rack for my car. Problem is, there are two racks listed for an '89 at most of the parts houses and they are only designated by the NS or FH stamp on the dust cover of the rack. Nobody seemed to be able to tell me for sure which rack was which, I even googled half the internet, and couldn't find any info on it other than other people with the same question.
Anyway, my car is a FE1 '89 Auto with all the HD stuff: power steering cooler, oil cooler, etc, and it had an NS rack in it. I went out and measured it and it is exactly 2 turns lock to lock. Hopefully this will help someone looking to upgrade to a faster rack in the future. I have also read that the 88-89 NS rack is the only suitable replacement rack that will fit if you want to get faster ratio steering on your later c4 (89-96).

 

FE1 cars got the "slow" steering, Z511 cars got the "quick" steering rack. There was a FE7 Heavy Duty suspension and that option may have also gotten the quick steering.

If you have exactly 2 turns lock to lock, then you have the quick steering. Does your Service Parts Identification decal (the RPO sticker) show RPO B1X? That is the RPO for the optional steering gear ratio.

If you have the base FE1 suspension, it may be that a prior owner had the quick steering rack installed. If you have the PS cooler, that is part of the quick steering and should have only gone on cars with Z51 or maybe FE7.

 

Steering ratio is one of the things I check when considering an '89, and that amounts to over 200 cars (personal or "paper" checked) over the last 3+ years. Antonicks book "Cor-vette specs", p138 states the "fast" 13.0:1 ratio (NS ?)(yes, almost exactly 2 turns) was phased out during the '89 model run in favor of the "slow" 15.x:1 ratio (FH ?)(about 2-3/8 turns).

From my experience, that happened about midway thru the model year or about SN 13,200. Cars I've checked myself or had the owner check, when the SN was close to mid have indicated that's correct. Z51 (FE7 susp.) '89s definately had fast steer until GM ran out of units and I've verified many early build standard (FE1 susp.) cars that had fast steer also. I tend to think GM used the fast units in all '89s until they ran out. There was no Z52 in '89, which also had fast steer in prior years. I've never seen an '89 SPI label with the B1X code on it whatever the ratio was and I check them all. One of my lists of RPO codes indicates it's a valid code for "optional steering ratio". I'd bet that code is on the build sheet along with the NS & FH codes. I've never read where the buyer had any choice in the matter other than by choosing one of the Z options.

I've also never seen a PS cooler on an '89, regardless of the steering ratio. I've read that the Challange race cars and B2K Callaway builds had PS coolers and sometime later ('91, '92 ?) GM was putting them on the 'vette as standard. I wish '89s had them, I think it's a good idea what with all the burnt smelling PS fluid I've sniffed over the years.

I also read somewhere that all replacement PS rack units for '89s would be slow steer but I can't find where I saw that. From your experience, I suppose I'll have to make sure any new rack I ever need is the slow steer version I favor--assuming I ever find "my" '89!