’67 Mustang Unisteer power steering rack n pinion

Oh my! it’s me Dne’ once again! A long time ago in 2008, I bought my first project car, a ’67 Mustang. There are so many decisions when “restoring, restomoding”  a car. The decision on this particular blog was regarding which type of steering that I wanted to use at that time and what it has today;)

Like anyone, I want the best for the least amount possible! At the time, The Flaming River Rack system sounded very good and at that time was still quite expensive. Though I wrote good things about it, I never did really like it all that much. It had a short turning radius, bump steer was always present and quite irritating. But it took a hurricane to change all that!

http://axd.qfc.mybluehost.me/2012/09/01/67-mustang-flaming-river-power-rack-and-pinion-installation-2/

After hurricane Harvey, my ’67 was 6′ under flood waters for two weeks and it would be a year or more later before I’d get my hands back on it to bring it back to life. There was a lot going on to get life back in order. I took this picture and I was more heartbroken than one can imagine.

Eventually, I bought a used engine from a Craigslist seller, the engine came out of a ’90 Mustang with the T5 transmission (it was a police car and had 64k miles on it at the time of the crash, I got it for 1200. It originally was an EFI, but I converted it to carburetion. This pic is to show the Flaming river power steering pump and reservoir. This was a restoration, pull the entire car apart, luckily the paint held up! 😉

Prices for a power rack n pinion system range from 1500 and Up and I mean UP!  This system from Unisteer was right at 1500 bucks and has good ratings.

On the early mustangs, this unit bolts in place where a funky little crossmember goes, but is only held by the two large bolts, kind of scary, but it’s tried and true or visa versa;)

Well gosh Dne’ of CC&T, why couldn’t you just fix the old system?? Well my dear classic car enthusiast friends, take into consideration, the mustang had been submerged by a hurricane and I just thought it may have survived, but alas, it did not! One day, it just started gushing power steering fluid. When I took it apart, i was actually not surprised, but emery cloth isn’t going to bring this back to life! lol

You know what the hardest part was, getting up the gumption to tell my husband I need 1500 bucks to buy another rack! 😉  But he knows I wouldn’t ask unless it was absolutely necessary, besides, this will get the Mustang back on the road!! wahoo!

After ordering the system, a feeling of, not dread, but hopeful wishes that it goes well. I had already read that some of the frame has to be trimmed off for the system to fit. I can live with that, but the system I found did not just “bolt up”. The pic below is of the passenger side mounting hole and have already trimmed away some of the frame material.

I can’t tell you how much it pained me to cut away perfectly good frame! 🙁

There is also something else I didn’t take into consideration (What, me?) you see that gold looking bolt? That is the camber adjustment, it’s an eccentric and see the hole they made to access it? Do you think you’d be able to get a 3/4 socket or wrench on that?  Luckily, I’m the one who aligns the beast, and at least I can whine about it if I have to align it.

Below a better pic of the camber adjusting bolt for the drivers side.

Lucky for me having a sweet husband which bought me a 4 post lift a little while back. I cannot imagine having installed this Rack without a lift! here I have the rack supported by some wood, yeah yeah, 4×4’s and the other, I had lifted it up and down so many times my arms were killing me!

I don’t know if you, my faithful observer can see where the rack bolts up, but I had to elongate the rack hole by alot! Now it’s a slotted hole and now it bolts up, but I also made a strengthening plate to re-enforce the rack mount.

Ok, let’s not forget this is a POWER steering rack, I don’t go for manual labor steering, I do like a littler modernization in my classics;)  The new braided lines are really nice and I compliment those and the fit was perfect;)

So here on the Drivers side, I had to remove the long tube header to make things “easier”, not that pulling a header is easy. It’s a royal pain in the buttocks! meh ,I needed to clean it up anyway and repaint it, darn, now I have to do the same to the other side soon;)  You can just make out the steering u–joint (after this pic) from the rack to the steering column.

***This is probably my favorite part of this system, is the power steering pump with reservoir, and of course the steel braided lines! Really cleans up the engine compartment!

At this point, though not complete, this is how it sits. All that’s left to do here is fit the steering shaft, and re-install the header;)  It really looks nice and I’m pleased!

Of course the real test is the drive~ I had already test driven it and what a difference! The steering is tight, responsive, no bump steer and makes a nice sharp turn!  Here I am at the Nifty50ees recently showing off my ride, well, one of them! It’s all worth it when with Classic car buddies and those who follow me on my journey’s on CC&T!! 😉  Maybe next year I’ll splurge on some new wheels??? 😉

It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun and challenging work, something one can take a few steps back and go, “I did that”!

Thank you for reading my blog and following along! I hope this has be educational and hope I inspire others to get busy doing what they love!

dne’ 😉  of CC&T