dj how is your 240 rack n pinion working out?

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:11 pm

I have an EVO 8 rack in one of my Stars, not a bad install. Not driven yet, I am just getting to building the rear control arms.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:53 pm

No it is rear steer still. The photos were taken for the brake mounts for a guy in N.Z. so they are not the right angle for the rack or lower arms.
The rack is mounted up snug to the crossmember, I have not taken picks of the pinion end or the column yet.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:28 am

It is a bit longer, I do not recall exactly but it was a shorter then DSMs and 3KGTs. The responsive quality as well as 2.1 turns is what I went for. Not to mention the fluid pipes can be worked with.
I want to get an MR2 rack to look at and am also interested in the 240 rack.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 2:24 pm

Interesting, Curious to measure up a Pulsar rack and see where it's fluid fittings are.
I have an AWD Mazda Protege, it is just over 2 turns with nice feedback.
one of the fluid fittings will interfere with the engine, common when trying FWD racks for RWD.
I am looking for a short but quick non power rear steer rack for another project.

I might have to apologize to Mike since this was a thread for his opinion on the 240 rack and it got jacked to being a general rack thread.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:22 pm

Starions are interesting in that respect. Some steering boxes go bad in short order. I have replace boxes in a few cars.Yet the one that was in my silver 87 that I bought new was beautiful. I ran 160K miles and all was fine. One thing I learned with these, when I replumbed under the hood the lines had less restriction and the steering became very light and sensitive. I could not ware driving gloves at events. I had also gone to the coilovers and adjustable dampers at that time.

I am striving for light weight in the white one I am building and that has some factor in the rack I chose.

jeffball610 · Post by **jeffball610** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 7:31 pm

I'm also looking for a good rack for my 510. Some of the Aussie guys run 240Z racks upside down. They take our Left hand drive rack and flip it. A couple guys here in the states have done the same with RH drive racks. If you can find a good front mount rack from a RH drive car, that might be an option. Especially with all the JDM stuff being shipped to the states lately.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:30 pm

If you are working with a power rack flipping them some time doesn't work. Most racks you can reindex the servo but the fitting into the cylinder can face weird directions.
But since you are working with a 510 I expect you are not going with a power rack. and it will be a similar swap as in my Colts.
The MR2 has caught my eye. I have a shortened VW GTI alloy housing rack, That is if I can find all the bits since I moved years ago.
Neat thing with non power racks is you can shorten them. If the rack had wear on center and you shorten it, you run in a fresh part of the rack. A good thing.
I have shortened a power rack, What a PIA.
On the EVO rack I have in the Star I did have to shorten the outer ends a few inches each.

Sparetire · Post by **Sparetire** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 7:29 pm

Quick question:

How similar are the dimensions of the 240 non-power rack to the stock 1G DSM rack?

I have a manual rack in my 1G right now, and its proving to be a bit worn down and not really suited to me. The splines to connect it to the steering column also seem to be a bit short, making it hard to get a good solid connection.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:16 am

I wonder if I will have any issues trying to run a starion ps pump on a 240sx rack?

Possibly will. With a little fiddling the DSM pumps will sit in the Starion cradle. I helicoiled the 10mm holes down to work with the 8mm mounting. Then swap the pulleys.
This should be a better flow match for the rack.
Now option 2, these pumps have two different fluid outlet threads, the outlet valve from a rack pump may thread into the Starion pump housing to adjust the flow.

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:18 pm

I think its 2.6 turns actually.

My impressions are.. OMG. I only got a few runs in until the power steering belt came in, but let me tell you. Nice tires, Tein coilovers and power rack and pinion was just amazing.

Once the belt came off though it was a different story. Very very hard to drift a car without power steering. Its fine to go on drives around the neighborhood and stuff, but I've been too scared to do too much due to the weight of the rack without the pump spinning.

I also raised the crossmember up quite a bit as to improve my control arm angles. I think this along with a matching width rack/crossmember help massively.

If you need any info on AN adapter fittings for the 240SX rack I have all that written down in my

No worries about thread jacking. I'm happy to see so many responses. I'm waiting for a full writeup about this EVO rack.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:04 pm

I will get pics of the crossmember when it comes apart for finishing.
I should be able to have a parts list but I think I am going to make my own upper column for weight reduction.
This car has so much neat stuff Starion buffs will enjoy.
It is not getting a 4G6x swap so it may not belong here, but it will have a 6G7X something at times as well as the original engine.

Some of the neat stuff you will like are extended wheel base.
Elimination of all rear crossmembers with the tubular control arms and diff mounted on the rollcage.
Titanium diff mounting with quick removable diff for ratio changes.
Long aluminum driveshaft with short diff housing.
Engine moved over down and back.
Triple masters.
20 gal cell.
It has had Wilwood brakes for a dozen years but may get a set of AP Racing Magnesium calipers, I got them I might as well use them.
Headers, intake and all coolers behind the radiator support.

Some of this is sure not pioneering but it will be a light and stiff car.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 8:18 am

And here are a few of my E8 rack and front lower arms.

And now from the underside,

The only production part that is not Mitsu here is the swaybar, it is , I apologize, Camaro. Happens to be 1 1/4 hollow bar.
And up to the padals,

And a general cage shot, far from done,

Sorry about the background in the pic.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:08 am

How did you go about eliminating the torque tube.

I have an early pic of the new rear subframe in my car, this is an original test fit a few years ago.

I do not have a pic of the nose of the diff with the mod done, when it goes back in I will get those shots.

But what was done, the rear fof the diff is hung from a crossbar on a pair of wheel studs. This allows you to simply slide the housing forward an inch and let it down to swap another one in.
The driveshaft mod is swapping the splined coupler for a D50 flange and hanging the diff from the four bolts that the extension mounted to. These loads are carried up into the cage.
The driveshaft is extended to 43".

This mod saves about 16 pounds maybe more.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 3:37 pm

I've got some motiviation to go pull a rack and pinion now Cool I thikn im gonna go snag one from the yard.

When you grab one we should start compiling dementions somewhere unless they are on a Starquest list or something.

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 3:46 pm

Granted that 16lbs is from the best spot to add ballast... but anyways

. How much stronger are the D50 Flange / u-joint setup compared to the stock flange and u-joint?

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:14 pm

Granted that 16lbs is from the best spot to add ballast... but anyways Very Happy. How much stronger are the D50 Flange / u-joint setup compared to the stock flange and u-joint?

I agree, it is the last spot to remove weight from a car. I finally made the decision for the overall weight reduction.
I have been planing to go with an alloy shaft and just making it a bit longer makes sense here, I think.
I have decided to put a hardpoint up where the extension would mount also so it is backwards compatible.
The first goal I went for other than weight reduction was to do an underslung mount of the nose on the diff so I can get it in and out of the car easier.
It sucks to have four different ratio rears and need a couple hours to change them. I found I was leaving 3.9s in when the event needed 4.62 gears.

I forget what the spline into the extension was, I know it was different and the Starion flange did not mount on the pinion. But the D50 is the same shaft, joints and flange as a Star.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 6:48 pm

The dimensions I find important are at the ball end in the boots. The outer ends are easy to run a 14mm die down and shorten them to suit the car they are going in.

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:55 pm

Whatever the distance between your lower control arm bolts on the crossmember is what you should try to match. A little shorter is okay for a rear mounted rack and a little larger for a front mounted rack.

The goal is to keep the axis of the lower control arm / tension rod lining up with the ball joint of the rack.

Matt.. I didn't just remove my 3/4" spacer.. I removed about 2.5" of material. This was a real pain in the ass as I had to redesign my engine mounts which are still crooked to this day. I also had to raise the engine up a little which changed a bunch of stuff in the engine bay.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:49 am

It looked like a short crossmember, I had seen the conversion to the Nissan knuckles but I see you did a bunch of work to set the rollcenter where you wanted it.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:22 pm

My eye was looking at the height of the rack and lower are pivot from the frame rail.

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:34 pm

I'm not sure if I'd say I put it where I wanted it. I put it as far up as I could and even that made me need to tilt the engine up a few degrees.

Next time.. tubular. I'm never going to be competing in a series that has rules for stock crossmembers anyways.

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:11 pm

I'm never going to be competing in a series that has rules for stock crossmembers anyways

And there my friends is one of the best things about Mitsubishis, now one knows what stock is!!

Old Colt · Post by **Old Colt** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:38 am

I like the lower arms, I take it that is one of the cars that Chad collected?

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dj how is your 240 rack n pinion working out?

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