What caster setting are you running? Mine is around 3 and it is hard as hell to turn. I have the P/S knuckles too if that makes a huge difference...I'm thinking dropping it to around 1 would help out, hopefully pretty substantially?

Are you saying the quaife qsr rack takes more effort to steer than a regular manual rack? I personally wouldn't run less than 2.5* of caster unless you have to.

I have the qsr with t3 tie rods and knuckles (ps length) with 3* caster. It feels pretty standard for a manual rack to me. So far I've found that running 360 mm diameter or larger steering wheel and sticking with the stock sway bars helps with the steering effort.

Can you describe your setup more? Also what are your camber/toe settings?

Yes, it's very difficult to turn. It feels like when you're trying to turn the steering wheel when you're sitting still, but all the time. Camber is -1, toe is 0. I have brand new stock Moog inner and outer tie rods, stock sway bars. The only other thing that might contribute to it is that I have 205 series tires on there, but I don't think that should matter THAT much while the car is moving. It's seriously almost undriveable with how tough it is to turn. Isn't there an adjustment to the heaviness of the steering feel on the rack? Where the u-joint is connected to? Maybe I set it too tight when I assembled the rack...

Strange. Power knuckles effect it alot my friend

I was running 2.8 caster 3.0 camber 0 toe. It was a little tight but very drivable. I was also running 205 r888.

Hmmmm...there is a rack "heaviness" adjustment, correct? Maybe I need to fiddle with that...

^I'm not sure.

Our alignment specs are identical. When I installed mine I had the rack completely rebuilt by PASS racing, and I'm also using moog inner tie rods.

I've never tried a manual rack with manual knuckles in an ae86, but I've always been curious how much it would affect steering effort and feel compared to power knuckles. Obviously feel should improve and effort should decrease with the manual knuckles due to the added leverage with the extra length. Wider and stickier rubber will increase steering effort some (same with wider wheels and lower offsets), but probably not much. I've also heard to widening the front track with adjustable control arms increases steering effort also.

I'd check the u-joint to make sure it's not binding. What size steering wheel are you using? I had a 325 mm wheel when I first installed my manual rack and the steering effort/feel was terrible.

2.5-3.5. No issues on mine. 350mm steering wheel, 195 azenis, power knuckles. 2.5-3.5 camber.

I have a Momo Competition steering wheel, which is 350mm, so I don't think it's that.

Assassin10000, is there a way to lessen the heaviness through an adjustment on the rack? I remember reading your walkthrough and I thought you mentioned something like that...other than that what do you suggest? I'll check the u-joint for binding but that's the only other thing I can think of.

The wheel definitely isn't your problem.

After thinking more about it I vaguely remember another member having a similar problem a few years back. IIRC it had to do with how the rack was assembled. Did you try turning the rack at all before installing it on the car? Did it turn smoothly?

I have the same exact problem with the tightness as you. I'm trying to figure it out also. Are you running coilovers also? Also how far down do you have the shaft installed into the u-joint? I was thinking on mine either it's binding in the u-joint or the suspension preload has something to do with it.

For reference, my intermediate shaft only goes as deep as the red line:



I also haven't tried coilovers. I'm using tein camber plates, uncut megan springs, and tokico blue shocks.

too much grease packed in?

I'm not running coilovers, and my intermediate shaft is about half an inch farther in than where Deuce Cams is. I turned the rack after I assembled it, and it felt pretty nice. I don't think I have too much grease either, since when I was turning it before I installed it it felt good and smooth, and it wasn't doing anything weird IIRC. My suspension is actually mostly stock too, I'm running Tein camber plates with Eibach springs.

Same thing happened to my friend, it was really stiff even while moving.
Turned out the preload was too tight, he took the rack apart, loosened it and it went back
To normal. If you can find the old write up I shows the adjustment

16v Justice wrote:I'm not running coilovers, and my intermediate shaft is about half an inch farther in than where Deuce Cams is. I turned the rack after I assembled it, and it felt pretty nice. I don't think I have too much grease either, since when I was turning it before I installed it it felt good and smooth, and it wasn't doing anything weird IIRC. My suspension is actually mostly stock too, I'm running Tein camber plates with Eibach springs.

Check your rack preload. The big nut and allen on the backside. Doesnt take much, 6-8in lbs of drag or something super low similar to that.

Andrew

Oh wow, yeah, mine is a bit tighter than that I know for sure. When I assembled the rack I tightened that rear adjustment until the rack was just tight enough to not have play when moving it back and forth. I guess that might be too tight...does that sound right? Or is the rack supposed to have a tiny bit of play?

As it happens I have just been through the same thing albeit not with a Quaife rack.
The first thing I did was to measure the turning torque of the steering with the front wheels
off of the ground, this was 34 inch lb
I then disconnected the steering column from the rack at the universal joint.
re-measuring the turning torque at the centre nut on the steering wheel I got 20 inch lb. Changing both bearings
in the column reduced this to around 2"lb
The steering felt a bit better but was still too stiff.
A little time spent removing the rubber boots from the rack allowed inspection of the inner balljoints, driver side was perhaps
a little loose but the passenger side was almost seized, upon changing this inner joint the steering loosened up nicely.
So in my case the problem was column bearings and a balljoint.
In your case it would be worth checking these but also look very carefully at the universal joint that goes between the
column and rack.
TC

Well my inner and outer tie rods are brand new, and the column is pretty smooth, so I don't think that's my problem. I'll look into it though.

I'm also using a power steering column, does that make a difference? I wouldn't think so.

That won't make a difference. I'm also using a power column fwiw.

If the wheels don't have a strange offset and it turns easily when off the ground, then it's steering exactly like a quick ratio manual rack should.

assassin10000 wrote:

16v Justice wrote:I'm not running coilovers, and my intermediate shaft is about half an inch farther in than where Deuce Cams is. I turned the rack after I assembled it, and it felt pretty nice. I don't think I have too much grease either, since when I was turning it before I installed it it felt good and smooth, and it wasn't doing anything weird IIRC. My suspension is actually mostly stock too, I'm running Tein camber plates with Eibach springs.

Check your rack preload. The big nut and allen on the backside. Doesnt take much, 6-8in lbs of drag or something super low similar to that.

Andrew

Are you saying 6-8in lbs of drag when you pull the tie rod to move the rack? Like the rack should only have 6-8in lbs of resistance from side to side?

No. At the pinion gear that the column rotates.

Andrew

Ok, so when I twist where the pinion gear goes in, the resistance until it starts moving should only be 6-8in lbs until it starts moving. Yeah mine was way more than that before I put it in, probably a couple foot pounds. To adjust that loosen the tension nut on the back of the rack? Just trying to get this positively correct.

16v Justice wrote:Ok, so when I twist where the pinion gear goes in, the resistance until it starts moving should only be 6-8in lbs until it starts moving. Yeah mine was way more than that before I put it in, probably a couple foot pounds. To adjust that loosen the tension nut on the back of the rack? Just trying to get this positively correct.

Make sure you do the test with the wheels off of the floor.
Adjust the nut on the back of the rack. The big outer nut is just the lock nut and when you loosen it expect the inner adjuster to turn too, the factory use a locking compound on the lock nut.
Before you loosen the lock nut it is a good idea to mark with paint or Tippex where the adjuster nut is in relation to the housing this is a reference point that you can return to if necessary.

6-8in lbs is pretty low pre-load, especially if the thingy to set the gears is spring loaded.
It should be setup without the spring if going by a torque value, IMO.

16v Justice wrote:Ok, so when I twist where the pinion gear goes in, the resistance until it starts moving should only be 6-8in lbs until it starts moving. Yeah mine was way more than that before I put it in, probably a couple foot pounds. To adjust that loosen the tension nut on the back of the rack? Just trying to get this positively correct.

Loosen large nut, back off adjuster until in the proper range. Do it with the rack out of the car or at least the tie rod ends disconnected.

Andrew

assassin10000 wrote:

16v Justice wrote:Ok, so when I twist where the pinion gear goes in, the resistance until it starts moving should only be 6-8in lbs until it starts moving. Yeah mine was way more than that before I put it in, probably a couple foot pounds. To adjust that loosen the tension nut on the back of the rack? Just trying to get this positively correct.

Loosen large nut, back off adjuster until in the proper range. Do it with the rack out of the car or at least the tie rod ends disconnected.

Andrew

Ok, I'll do that. Just FYI though, when I reassembled the rack I tightened this adjuster *just* enough so that there was no lateral play in the rack. If I back off it at all the rack will be a little loose in the housing, is that normal? Also, now looking that your write up that just came back online, a few people seem to complain about have a small amount of play in the steering wheel before it catches. Mine is like that too, and I can "clunk" it if I turn it side to side. Everything in the steering department is new, tie rods, rack, bearings, etc. Do you think I need to tighten down the pinion tension nut? I followed your write up to the T when I assembled it, I don't know what I did wrong...

Ok, I just re-looked at the FSM and it says to adjust the pinion preload until the turning tourque is 3.2 in-lb, then down to in between 2.0--2.9 in-lb, then lock it down with the lock nut. Set the lock nut to 83 ft-lb. Then, the "rack guide spring" (the one on the back) is to be torqued to 18 ft-lb. After this, you retest the pinion turning torque and it should be at between 6.5--8.2 in-lb. If it's not then tighten or loosen the rack guide spring nut. I guess I'll pull it apart and redo it to the proper torque specs, I suppose eyeballing it wasn't good enough.