1952-59 Ford 55/56 rack and pinion

Thinking of putting a rack in my 55 wagon. Any body done this, any kits out there?

 

I put a cavalier rack in my 54 using a bracket kit from FatMan. Their kit is 400.00 plus but they will sell it for half without the heim joints. A steering shaft out of a late model front wheel drive Buick will give you a rag joint, heim joints and adjustable shaft all at junk yard prices. Only hard part is the modifications needed to the steering shaft, every thing else is bolt on.
Ralph

 

If you have the cash, i think unisteer has a complete bolt on power steering kit with everything you need. I think they are about 1500 bucks thou.
I'm a cheap ******* so i'm doing my own. Put a rack in my 50 and love it. I think i'm going with the old interpid rack, which is also center steer on the 56 as it's a little heaver car. But i havent got there yet.

 

k5mog. Do you have a kit number for that kit? I dont see it listed on their website. thanks Tom

 

Look on page 18 under power rack and pinion kits. They don't list a part number, but year model and price also what r&p works with it. If you just want the brackets you will have to ask when you order. By the way my catalog is a year old I down loaded it from their site.

Ralph

 

Just looked at their new catalog it's on page 17, just down load it from their site.
www. fatmanfab.com

 

Or this: http://wurthitdesigns.com/54-56FORD&MERC.html Some good pictures to check out.

 

Everyone one of these high priced kits don't solve the hard part of R&P steering. They all have to have the steering shaft modified or changed to something after market. Everything else is just bolt on. The only way they make sense is if someone cannot or doesn't won't to source the parts. Just my 2 cents, if I can do it anybody can, getting dirty doesn't bother me. Going to the pick a part will definitely get you dirty.

Ralph

 

The only thing some guys complain about is the increased turning radius with the rack and pinion,I noticed that with my '54 Fords stock steering (our cross street is only one house down) when I move our cars out of driveway the Ford can make a much tighter U-turn than our Chevy Cavalier to get back in the driveway,and Cavalier racks seem to be the donor of choice.Earlier posts here converted to a Jeep power steering unit,but these members have not posted feedback to my knowledge and one member had the adapter brackets for sale.

 

I made my own brackets because I have a FE block with 4spd and installing headers on it from crities preformance. So far I havent ran into any problems making them. I just wanted to see what Fatman had. When I get it finished I will post some pics on here. That kit from fatman just looks to home made like out of s**** iron laying around. Also there is two different racks that were in the cavalier, same over all size and body only diffenence is number of turns from stop to stop.

 

Wurth it is where I got my ideas from JEFFB2. Looks like a good kit but he wont sell just the brackets he wants to sell the complete kit including pump, rack and hoses.