Hello
Has anyone taken on the challenge of converting our older style steering boxes and converting to a front steer rack? My father and I are working on converting my w123 to front rack steer but was wondering if anyone has done anything like this already.
thanks a lot and have a good day
jake
(ps i know about the "bad benz" with the mustang rack.)

When I put a small block Ford into a 190 a few years ago there wasn't room unless I put a rack in. Mine is a rear steer with shortened steering arms to make up for the lack of travel a rack has. I also made my own bumpsteer gauge to calculate where to mount the rack. Also made all the linkage from the bottom of the column out to the arms, fun! When shortening the arms be sure to anneal them first and to re heat treat them back to the original Rockwell when done for safety.

Good luck....time consuming job!

Tobias MB
190/5.8

hello
thanks for the reply! can you supply some photos please? i started milling out the new steering arms yesturday and am evaluating ideas with my dad, hes the boss. any help would be great, plus id love to see your car, i want to do the same thing someday...we have a few mustangs and hot rods and this is great fun.
thanks
jake

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Proper location of the rack is the key to proper handling and tire wear. It took me longer to get the rack positioned correctly than it did to mount the motor. The length between the racks outer pivot points are important as is the height to eliminate bump steer...the one thing you don't want. That is why I made my own gauge to be sure there was none or as minimal as possible. I had the car up on jack stands with one spring out and a jack under the knuckle going up and down and after each reposition of the rack, documenting what changed until I found a pattern.
Very time consuming process but required!
I'll dig some photos out and post them.

Tobias MB
190/5.8

PS Clean install but what is the chassis and motor??

Hello
my car is a w123 1980 european 230.
its motor was killed in 1996, i bought it from a friend for 500 bucks. my neighbor gave me a free 1988 aerostar for power, i was 15 at the time looking at college. my father took me through the steps of conversion. as far as the rack, we are using right now a 1994 v6 mustang rack, sitting in front of the mb cross member, my sump sits behind. i am making new steering arms to be used inside of my 17s. hope this helps us both understand what is happening. thank you for your time and aid.
jake

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here is a close up of the exhaust we had to make to clear the steering box.

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this car has been my daily driver since 1997. here is another shot for you.

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the steering link drop that we did for it the first time is fine. but now that college is finished we are working on a blower for it and i want to install headers - steering box has to go.

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I've seen a 114 chassis with a Ford 351 in it and the driver side exhaust was cured by using a right side manifold on the left side and running the pipe forward around to the right and joining in with the right side pipe behind the front mount. Looked strange but worked!!
Tinkerers and gearheads always find a cure somehow!

Tobias MB
190/354"

Here is the very start of the rack. I would like to know what you think, and how close to whats been done it is. My dad and I checked the suspension travel and found almost no/no problems with jarring. The one concern we are noticing might be turning radius, but so far in mock up it is very close to factory.
Jake

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Here is the arm on the spindle, I took off a bit too much material I think under the front bolt, but it is solid all around and 1.25 thick.

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Here is the rack mocked up, the bungie is holding it with tension on the factory cross member, and the jack stands WERE supporting the rack (not the car) before we got it mocked in.

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Here is the rack looking at the passenger side motor mount area. never mind the engine she has 225k on her and is being replaced as the next project. once we like how it is all working this area will be reinforced and guseted too for lateral torsion.

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Here is the rack looking perpendicular to it. We mounted it ~3/8 from the rack ends at the bellow. the back arm swing of the rack is close to that of a fox chassis mustang and othe modified cars I looked at.

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If those arms are made of steel they should hold up quite well in your car. Must have taken some time and measuring to create them but they appear long for rack and pinion. As you know racks don't have as much travel in them as recip steering does
and leads to three point turns which suck!
I have not had time to find my pictures and scan them to forward.
Now preparing to go to VIR this wekend for three days of track time and wanted to change a couple of things beforehand. May need to mount my snow tires before going...hope not!

Tobias MB
190/5.8