Installing Randall's Rack and Pinion

I took a break from the mustang for the last two to three months. This was primarily due to the fact of having to spend $1500 on a rack and pinion - something I was not looking forward to. In addition, the installation did not look fun. So last week, I purchased Randall's Rack and Pinion. This rack was recommended as a reliable and tough rack as good as TCP's - but a grand less.

I ordered the kit without the power steering pump as I have my own 5.0 pump. The kit comes with the rack, a universal joint for the steering column, and a steering coupler/adapter. I suspect the steering coupler and u-joint are not his designs but rather from a GM or Mopar kit. Anyway, the rack does have a couple of welded on brackets that he obviously made.

The installation required the disassembly of the old steering system. This required sawing off the steering column from the steering box. I did that from inside the interior with an air 3" cutting wheel. The rest of the assembly was unbolted off using a tie-rod separator.

Once the steering column was out the of the car, it had to be shortened to 28 3/8" inches. Then the steering shaft inside the column is shortened to a lenth 2.5" longer than the column. Got it. Good. Finally, the shaft is machined with a Double-D or Double-Flat for the last 6 inches to fit the steering coupler. The latter part was done by a machine shop. The shaft is slipped inside the column and then the into the coupler. Finally the shaft and column are welded together.

Randall's kit only comes with a hose to fit old style power steering pumps. That would not work with my new style 5.0 pump. Therefore, I had to go to a hydraulic shop and have them fab me a new hose to fit my pump. Sixty bucks, if you're counting!

Fitting the rack onto the car took me two hours. 40 years of driving moves the frame a little here, a little there, and of course the rack would not fit. After lots of pushing and shoving and cursing, I finally squeezed her in there. The next step required slipping in the column. The kit comes with a firewall bracket that bolts on the interior side (who knew?). Connecting the rack and steering column via the univeral joint took another couple of hours.

The kit requires everyone to buy a specific inner tie rod ($60 for the pair) and installing it via an adaptor to the stock tie rod. The alignment is done by twisting the inner tie rod - pretty easy!

After the installation was complete, I aligned the car using a ten dollar Toe adjuster and on the road I went. I took the car up to fourth gear in my neighborhood. It sputtered a little, so I may have a vacuum leak or perhaps bad timing, who knows. On the drive back, I sprung a leak in one of the power steering fittings, and to the chagrin of my wife, spilled fluid all other driveway. I reinstalled the fitting and checked for leaks, so far so good.