Another
This notch must be knocked back flush so you can remove the end. I used a little flat head screwdriver and a rubber mallet to bend the lip up.
Very interesting, the tie rod has the female threads & screws over the end of the rack. I'm used to the rack having the female threads & the tie rod screwing into it like a bolt. I'm surprised you were able to use vice jaws directly on the rack. Most racks I've seen have rubber seals or o-rings that the rack slides thru & would be damaged by any marks made by the vice jaws. The seal area must be pretty well inboard from the end.
Looks terrific! Very educational. Does anyone know if the 308 and Mondial rack are similar, i.e. would a superformance quick kit fit a Mondial? Many thanks Russ
Atlantic paints the racks black with spray paint. It doesn't last and I wasn disappointed that they couldn't clean it rather than quickly spray some cheap paint on it.
I've just installed the Suerformance quick rack on one of my customers 308's. Did the whole job in 8 hours start to finish including r+r, alignment and road test. One of the best tweaks I've ever had the pleasure of doing. It made the car really responsive and a delight to flick around roundabouts without armfulls of lock and flailing elbows. I decided to take a bit of caster off, as the car has sticky tyres on and the weight was just a little excessive, but I'm just fussy I guess. Luckily for the job, the existing rack was "as new", with all good bushes and mounts etc. I changes the mounts anyway, as the superformance ones are harder, but the internal rack bush was fine...which otherwise would add about 3 hours to the job. The parts are top quality and I had NO hassles what so ever.....
Thanks Phil, good info... I'm looking forward to the responsiveness of the steering after the changes. But driving the beast is still a ways off, as I'm only working on the car when I have a little spare time each week.
Hi Russ, I'm not sure about the rack for a Mondial. But we could do some comparison measurements and see.
Sorry to hear of your problems with Atlantic. I guess some have a higher standard of work than others, but this sounds unacceptable. While I am far from being a perfectionist, I can still get a little anal about my work... After I removed the rack, it was degreased, glass bead blasted, prepped with contaminant remover, washed with clean water, dried, spray primer, and then painted. I can see where it would start to up the cost of shop work if you had them put this much time into a restoration project.
Russ, without getting the tape out if I remember right, The tracking on your front end is 59.8 inches with a width of 70.7... And mine is 57.5 inches with a width of 67.7... They could have very well used the same rack unit with different rod ends. I'll try to measure the rack length when I get a chance.
Dave, While it is fresh in your mind could you write up a detailed proceedure so that we can follow in your footsteps. Next time I do a proceedure I promise to write it up also. The last few things I did by the time I sat down to write it I had forgotten the steps etc. Rob
