Power rack and pinion conversion ?

Hello guys,

Thanks for the Reply MAP.

The Delphi 600 box shares only the pitman shaft with the older 700/800 series box. It was a complete redesign.

Was that Roush car a "Car of Tomorrow"??? COT cars can only use a Delphi 600 because of sway bar location. 700/800 does not have the clearence to work with these. Busch/Nationwide, Craftsman, Hooter, and ARCA series cars can still use the older boxes if they chose. This is to the best of my knowledge.

The 600 box is lighter than the older boxes. Even if it is just a few pounds. A few pounds to a NASCAR team is alot. If you are building a hard core drag car then P/S boxes and pumps shouldn't be on your car. Those guys would use the GM 525 manual gear.

This box is meant for the guy who wants the best possible handleing in there car. More for an everyday or a cruizer car. If you have upgraded your front end and are looking to get the best possible handling and have not replaced the old gear, you only went half way. In my opinion your not making all your upgrades, $$$ and time spent in bushings, tubular control arms, sway bar, shocks and springs work to their full potential. This gear will install in 3 hours tops and you can do it in your driveway one weekend. Also, if your worried about your cars originallity being compromised, you just save the old steering gear in you garage. If you sell the car and the next guy wants to put it back in they can. There was no cutting or welding so nothing had to get molested on the chassis.

Your idea of using the front end setup from a 4th gen F-body sounds interesting but like a lot of work.

I have included a picture of the 600 gear. If anyones has any questions or would like to find where you can order a box, call us at 1-800-790-7244 Mon-Fri 9-5PM.

Thanks Elky,

From your photo, I have to conclude that the box I saw in that Roush-prep'd car really was a Saginaw 800 box (I didn't hear any mention of "COT," incidentally, when I queried the Discount Tire salespeople who surrounded the car.)

I agree that for the hard-core racer (and even a handful of street-handling enthusiasts,) a few pounds up front can mean a lot. Years ago, I settled on a figure of $20-$25/pound as the treshold below which I'd make a front-end change to the car. Today, that figure's probably closer to $30/pound, but again, that's just a personal judgment. YMMV.

Now, combine the weight savings with the improvement in steering effort and road feel, and that mid-$500-ish figure could look quite attractive.

Question: has anyone here made this swap, and if so, what were your observations about before/after handling characteristics?

About the F-body front end swap being difficult: quite so! That's why I didn't do it (yet?)

Best,
MAP

that "Roush prespped" race car you saw was probably 5 or more years old, and was probably wrecked so bad that they just decided to make it look pretty and use it as a "show car". each race team has fleets of old race cars that were too banged up to be sold to racers in lower classes- yes, there are some lower classes that use old NEXTEL Cup (or even Winston Cup) cars- so they send them to tire stores and shopping malls for sponsors.

If some one wants to do a write up on the 600 gear or the 525 manual for the site, call me 1-800-790-7244. I have also uploaded a picture of the 525 manual here for everyone to look at. If you have any other questions please let me know.

Ok, to get back to a rack & pinion front end, my friend is painting some front end parts off his 86 Monte carlo and I weighed some pieces for the discussion..The box,pitman arm, centerlink, inner & outer tie-rods weighed 42.4 pounds...The pic isn't the best but its all that the rack would replace except for the power steering pump, lines and fluid... This was weighed with a digital bathroom scale and a digital fish scale..

Hi GDNF2ET,

Thanks - 42.4 sounds completely credible. If you now add the weight of the PS pump, bracketry, and interconnecting hoses, you'd probably be up in the 60lb range, and certainly not more than 80lb. I know a comment had been made at one point in this thread about removing 100lb from the front end by converting to R&P steering, so this serves as a good sanity check.

By the way, this highlights a curious thing I've noted over the years about the topic of reducing car weight: parts that are claimed to reduce weight either actually add weight to the car, or the amount they save, is far less than the amount claimed. A close corollary to this would be that the OEM part being replaced is far, far heavier than it needs to be, and was probably cast from foot-thick lead just to spite us poor car enthusiasts who are scrambling to remove every ounce of unnecessary weight from the car...

(Yes, having some fun with the topic, but still true to an unpleasant extent, no?)

Best,
MAP