Minitruck rack and pinion

I am wanting to replace the steering linkage in my 720 and have been told that I will have alot of bumpsteer. If anyone has added a rack and pinion setup to their mini (not the s10 kit) let me know if you have had any problems with it and please post some pics.

You'll be fine as long as you can find the right width rack and pinion and mount it in the correct location. I have a rack in my Nissan for the right hand drive, I get a little bumpsteer but not bad. It was the closest width I could find and was the price I wanted to pay.

by Nissan, I am assuming you have a Hardbody? They have a wider track width than the 720 so if your rack is "a little" to wide for your truck, it will be way to wide for a 720.
You can run a rack but you have to get the linkage right. You cant just throw any rack in there. I personally rather have stock parts and no bump steer rather than a rack and any bump steer

Yea its possible but its going to take some engineering to make sure it is setup correctly, I would do a lot of reading on front suspension design if you decide to tackle the project. Check out Chassis Engineering by Herb Adams, its a good place to start.

--------------------------------------------

Grant Kustoms said:

by Nissan, I am assuming you have a Hardbody? They have a wider track width than the 720 so if your rack is "a little" to wide for your truck, it will be way to wide for a 720. You can run a rack but you have to get the linkage right. You cant just throw any rack in there. I personally rather have stock parts and no bump steer rather than a rack and any bump steer

--------------------------------------------

Yes I have a Hardbody but the original poster asked if anyone had a rack in their mini that wasn't the S10 kit. I never said that my rack was wide (just that I got a little bumpsteer but not that bad) nor did I tell him what rack I was running and to run out and buy that rack. Like I said in my first post "You'll be fine as long as you can find the right width rack and pinion and mount it in the correct location". It is ok to have some bumpsteer, about .010" to .020" per inch of suspension travel is reasonable from what I have read.

So I am picking up a strong "DONT DO IT!!" vibe...

I wouldnt say dont do it but it will take a bit to get it done. You can narrow just about any rack if you have a lathe, or a machine shop nearby. The most popular are the mustang-II racks, theyll narrow down to about 7" wide, altho the ball socket where the tie rod pivots is the key dimension..

easy Mr Allred, I was simply pointing out what may have worked for you would prob be way to wide for him because the odds are your rack is wider than it should be and a hard body is already a wider track width than a 720 (witch I know he has). The only thing I said that was directly about your set up is I rather have no bump steer and stock linkage, then to swap it out with a off the self rack that isn't the right dims. That is still my opinion. The 720 has a vary well designed steering linkage. As a matter of fact the only real weak link on a 720 is the vary short UCA's.

back on topic, if you can get the ball sockets in the same spot as your inner tie rod ball joints you would be golden. So like AVTekk said, it sounds like a machine shop could make a Mustang II work for you