Opel GT steering rack in an older vehicle?

Has anyone used an Opel Gt steering rack? It looks about the right length for my Studebaker.

I'm curious if it is adequate strength wise, as my vehicle is around 3200#, and the Opel is 2100#.

Thanks for responding.

 

They are made go cart strength. They were a good unit but I don't think I would want to depend on one at speed in my Stude.

Weren't they a front steer? I don't know what stude you have but most of the older ones are rear steer.

 

Might look at Jag sedan r & p's, for strength and loads.

 

I have one in my tube chassis car which happens to be a opel gt, and it doesnt look strong enough to trust it in a big car. Also the tie rods are too small. IMO

 

I would not use and Opel GT rack, even if it were strong enough. If you are going to go through the process of putting a rack and pinion, I'd put the most modern one in that I could find that would fit.

They are not making any more Opel GT's, they only made them from 1968 to 1973, they did not sell that many in the U.S., and only made 103,463 through the whole production run, globally.

You'd be might be screwed if you even need a replacement unit.

 

I priced a new rack from Jaguar for an 1989, $1400.00, glad mine is good.
I used Opel GT front(narrowed 6") on my Anglia, about 2600# worked great.
I am real big on M-II front for "if I get a" Studebaker
OpelGTsource.com for parts

 

Thanks to everyone for the input. Yes, it is front steer. Thinking now fabricating a narrowed Mustang II rack.

 

check out volvo racks

 

Any idea of what year/model? Looking for something near 22.5" from center to center on the inner pivots.

 

Have you looked at an 88-04 Cavilier rack? The are sort of an inside-out rack, with the inner tie rod pivots about 4" apart.

Some good pictures of one can be found in this thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140107

 

I'm speaking under correction, but I'd suspect that the GT rack was used in other Opels of that era. The GT was based on a lot of Kadett/Ascona/Manta architecture, and I wouldn't be surprised if they all used the same rack and pinion - or if they had different ones that they interchange readily. The basic platform continued long after GT production ended. That pushes up the pool of available parts considerably, even if most of it is in Europe.

Come to think of it, the Chevrolet Chevette was based on that platform: but the way these things go it probably had a completely different set-up that doesn't interchange at all! But there's enough commonality there to make it worthwhile to investigate at least.

That's not to say that that r&p will be suitable for the application, though.

 

there are picts in the Jaguar suspension discussion using the cavilar rack and making a longer adaptor bar attached to the 2 close holes . then the inner pivots can be moved to the right location to get minimum bump steer. there is a racing rack for early mustangs that used the adaptor bar in the center.

 

yes, the racks are the same from the GT to the kadett etc. I have one in my Opel Olympia which is 1400 lbs but I'd tend to not go much more than the weight of the vehicle the rack came out of.

When I was fabbing up the front end on my Olympia, the big concern was how narrow it was in relation to upper control arm interferance. If I'd used a MII unit, the spring hats were so close that my motor would have been above the hood line or pushed most of the way back into the passenger compartment. Actually the carb would have been under the dash. I went with a strut set up instead of something with upper control arms. Make sure you consider the narrowness of and the motor you are using...

 

Thought this was a vintage hot rod site????????????

 

I don't understand the narrowed part, are you talking about shortning the tie rods? The length of the rack is the important thing. If the rack is too short or too long you will have horrable bump steer. The rack should be about the same as the distance between the lower control arm pivet points. There are sites that show how to calculate the exact dimension required. I've put racks in old cars and it requires some thought. You need to find the correct lenght and spend some time at the junk yard measruring racks from cars of about the same size as your project. I've also seen some conversions that you couldn't turn around in a Walmart parking lot. The lenght of the steering arms is also part of the equation.

 

Well...the Opel cavalier rack are same types as,Chevette,Buick &Pontiacs, some newer Caddy, etc.. And, Steeroid make a set for the Corvette using this, then this should be strong enough! All "center" steering rod mounted.

Trouble with using a part, ended in production is to get new/parts when needed......