Rack and pinion help

I am in need of some help.  We are in the process of building a frame and chassis for a 99 nissan frontier.  Most aspects are finished and work well.  One sticking point is the steering.  Although we gave much thought to pinion angle, instant center, roll center, anti-dive, camber, kingpin inclination, and so on, I did not think much about steering.  The suspension we designed doesn't have much room between the lower control arm mounts, 14" to be exact.  I know I need to find a rack and pinion that has pivot points as close to that figure in order to combat bump steer.  I don't know of any racks that come close besides a custom made one.  I am trying to avoid that option because of the price.  Finally the questions- Does anyone know of a factory rack that have pivot points close to 14"?  What is the widest rack I could run?  The lower control arms are 15" if that helps.  Thank you in advance.

Hey there,  I recently had the same problem on a ranger custom ifs I built. What i did is took a mustangII rack and and where the inner tierods attach I had adapters machined that allowed me to bolt a cradle to the rack. What this did is let me put my steering points where ever I wanted and the rack moves that cradle. You could also do a steering box with idler for the other side with a custom center link to accomplish the same thing/ Good luck JR.  Im sure max has something equally awesome to chime in with ! Later

I appreciate your response.  Daniel and I had thought about making a cradle like you did.  Do you have any pictures of the install?  I have been all over the net looking for info.  I have even considered hydraulic steering, but that is my least favorite option b/c of the cost and possibility of losing steering if a hydraulic line should fail. 

---------------------------------------------Originally posted by Master FabberHey there,  I recently had the same problem on a ranger custom ifs I built. What i did is took a mustangII rack and and where the inner tierods attach I had adapters machined that allowed me to bolt a cradle to the rack. What this did is let me put my steering points where ever I wanted and the rack moves that cradle. You could also do a steering box with idler for the other side with a custom center link to accomplish the same thing/ Good luck JR.  Im sure max has something equally awesome to chime in with ! Later--------------------------------------------- I'd like to see pics of this as well. 

This is the only pic I have and please disregard the tierods The owner wanted them that way and I wanted to bend some., You can see the ends machined and bolted up on the rack. The pieces on the rack have to clear when it is turned all the way. Just build a cradle that works for no bumpsteer and has ackerman, and than i tack that cradle to the frame so it cant move while youre working. Next locate where the rack will physically fit, than join the 2 . Make sure where you put the rack the steering can be hooked up.  http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g21/stocksux/mikesdigitalcamerapics166.jpg

The cradle idea works, just gets bulky. If you have an engine lathe with threading capabilities, you can narrow a Mustang II rack about 7" max. I did this on my truck because I designed the front suspension as well, and ended up narrowing it 6.25". I dont remember the inner tie rod pivot width now but I can measure when I get to the shop to see how close they are. If you dont have a lathe, there are shops you can send them to that offer the service.

this is what me and larry has to deal with

You are probably going to want your rack to be a little bit wider than your LCA pivots, depending on the type of spindles you used. If the tie rod mount on the spindle is closer to the brake rotor than the balljoints are, you will want your rack pivots to be similar to that measurement if you can manage it.