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Nov 23, 2015 | 12:39 PM

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ffracer11

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Need help to identify

hello,
First I am building a 55 Ford f100. I purchased a wrecked I think 1984 vette as a donor for the front suspension. The car used a 15" front wheel and has R&P steering. Car is long gone.
I need to rebuild the rack but I cannot figure out what year. Rock Auto list the 83 as having a box, and I looked and found the 84 has 16" wheels.
So I am very confused... Did the Pre C4 have R&P? and what happened to the year 1983... C3 or C4??

Really appreciate the help, I need to get this rack rebuilt before I can go any further.

Chris

Nov 23, 2015 | 01:28 PM

c4cruiser

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From: Lacey WA RVN 68-69

NCM Sinkhole Donor

Quote:

Originally Posted by ffracer11

There was no production 1983 Corvette although the '84 model was built in 1983. However, there were 40-some built with a '83 VIN year code but they were all used for testing and never sold. The one remaining 1983 C4 is at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. The early C4's did come with 16" wheels and tires, '88 had 17'" wheels and tires as an option. The engineers did experiment with a 15" wheel but never went into production.

The '84 was the first year for a rack and pinion steering setup. There were two version early on, base suspension cars had a 2.5 turn lock-to-lock rack while the Z51 performance suspension got a 2 turn lock-to-lock rack. In terms of installation, they are interchangeable.

Nov 23, 2015 | 02:53 PM

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ffracer11

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Thank You Sir!
Looks like I messed up, it was the difference from a 16" to a 17" rim. NOT 15 to 16...
Now to get my C4 non-FE7 rack rebuilt...

Again Thank You,
Chris

Nov 23, 2015 | 05:14 PM

WVZR-1

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ffracer11

Thank You Sir!
Looks like I messed up, it was the difference from a 16" to a 17" rim. NOT 15 to 16...
Now to get my C4 non-FE7 rack rebuilt...

Again Thank You,
Chris

Check your caliper brackets to the front spindle bolt dimensions, '84 only used 12mm hardware brackets to spindle. '85+ used 14mm hardware. Post the casting number off of the spindles also and that information can be used to ID what you actually have. All of the C4 racks are the same but inner tie rods determine actually the application. '87 and earlier are dimensioned differently than '88+.

You might like to check the rack you have for turns lock to lock. You can do it by just turning the input/pinion of the rack. It's either 2 turn or something closer to 2 1/2 turn. It might be good to have a 2 turn rack with a "big diameter F-truck steering wheel".

Nov 23, 2015 | 06:19 PM

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ffracer11

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have not taken the calipers off yet. Casting # 14084048 RH.
2.25 Turns lock to lock.
Steering wheel won't be the stock unit, I have a Nardi that my Dad gave me many years ago.

Thanks,
Chris

Nov 23, 2015 | 07:39 PM

WVZR-1

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ffracer11

have not taken the calipers off yet. Casting # 14084048 RH.
2.25 Turns lock to lock.
Steering wheel won't be the stock unit, I have a Nardi that my Dad gave me many years ago.

Thanks,
Chris

I believe that would have 14mm hardware and be likely an '85 part. That's a plus. I believe that that the casting is often resold as '84 & '85 because there's no ABS but I don't believe they shared the same casting. I haven't seen any '84 product for many years but best I recall there wasn't near enough material to do 14mm hardware on them. The left needs to be a 14084047 to be considered a pair.

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