I have a 1963 Mercury Comet With a J.P.L. power rack conversion that doesn't have enough steering - steers way too wide. I have 1979 Ford Granada spindles and disc brakes. It take takes 3 tries just to make it into my garage. I didn't do the conversion, but can see nothing wrong. The travel on the rack goes all the way to the stops but needs at least an inch more travel for the wheels to go to the end of their normal travel. The steering is centered and I have equal lack of steering both left and right. I called J.P.L. and they were no help (told me I had the right kit). Has anyone had this problem or know how to fix it? I don't care if I have to buy a new rack. I just want the car to make it around a corner on the first try. I think a bus can make a sharper corner.
I have a 1965 Comet and have been doing some research on front suspension mods. Apparently, it is not uncommon for some for these rack and pinion conversions giving a much larger turning radius. Short of going to a different setup, I don't know what the solution to your problem would be.
I'm not familiar with 'J.P.L' or their kit. The Falcon-ch***is cars tend to have pretty wide turning circles to begin with. In my experience and observation there's several categories of rack and pinion setup for the Falcon-ch***is cars, most targeted at the early Mustang: 1) Kits that use the GM J-car rack get the bumpsteer right (center-hung tie rods) but tend to end up with even less steering lock than stock. 2) Kits like Flaming River that use an off-t******lf rack with end-mounted tie rods tend to have tons of bumpsteer because the tie-rod position is incorrect relative to the lower control arms. 3) TCP and maybe a couple others get the bumpsteer right but you lose the lower crossmember on Mustangs and similar cars; I have big problems with this because those cars are weak enough down there as it is. 4) Setups like RRS that end up replacing most of the front suspension. If you can't find something in this mix you like, you can go for one of the Borgeson integral-***ist recirculating-ball steering boxes, this retains stock steering geometry, uses a modified Aisin steering box common to many Japanese products of the past 20-30 years. Much better piece than the Saginaw 605 sometimes used in steering-box conversions. I know they sell them for various Mustang and Falcon applications, probably would fit in the Comet.
i have the unisteer set up (JPL?) on a 64 ranchero . if i did it again i would do the complete MII frontend. it takes a while to get used to.
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