We old guys grew up without power steering. We called it power steering by arm strong. Once you get rolling, it's completely manageable. The slower you go the harder it gets. Sitting still is the worst. Another great vid!
Greg Agnew I was also going to recommend that. I have a similar rubber cap over my custom made clutch stop. It works flawlessly and you don't have to hear a "thud"
Revisiting, love the Fairmont series. Interesting 🤔 fact a lot of people don't know and my fellow mechanics do probably know, even in a vehicle with power steering, once the vehicle gets to about 40-45 MPH, the computer PCM and BCM, turns off the power assist in the steering, so you are without power steering at higher speeds as you don't need and lol honestly it would be dangerous to have power steering at 80 MPH, Weeee! Some vehicles will maintain a constant monitoring and adjusts on the go, newer cars do this. But yeah interesting fact I learned years ago from a ASE Master Mechanic. Thanks again for this series, fun to revisit, and we miss you Eric!
Eric .. you should add a little safety feature to your "self welded" sector shaft :) ... just drill a 6-8mm hole on both sides thru the pipe and the original shaft irons and weld a bolt into it .. it will safe your life if the welds come loose due to rust or a bad bump or whatever! Greetings ;)
I have a 65 mustang that had no power steering, and was a manual. The only problem I ever had was trying to parallel park. Other than that, it's easy peasy. So I am glad you're going with a manual rack.
My 67 Galaxie has a manual box and it isn't bad at all. It's still 4 million turns lock to lock which helps out a bit, but isn't bad at all low speed or stationary.
Making something for your motor is always very satisfying, I made a left foot throttle conversion (i'm an amputee) in my kitchen...saved me £400 :) Car looking good Eric.
My dream is to build an incredible sleeper out of something mundane, as Eric is doing with the Fairmont. Thanks to Eric I can see that with a little money and a lot of hard work, that dream can be realized.
Those tie rods are nice pieces. You will need a bump steer gauge to set them up properly. You can spend many hours correcting bump steer on a fox body. Between the eccentrics on the rack, the toe adjustment, and the tie rod height shims there are many adjustments to get right. If you get it right that car will act like it's on rails!
My first vehicle, an '88 GMC S15 pickup, had manual steering and manual brakes. I haven't found another vehicle yet (and I've had a few over the past 27 years) that felt as perfect as that one did going down the road. I had total confidence on where that thing was going and what it would do. Never had that same confidence in any vehicle with power steering. Mind you, this thing was far from a performance vehicle, but again, I was 16 years old - I made that truck do things it was never designed to do, LOL! Wish they had GoPro cams & TH-cam in those days - I'd have been a hit, HAHAHA! Had a lot of fun in it, and I'm still here to tell the tale. :)
Excellent tutorial. I watch all of your videos. As much as I have worked on cars since I was a teenager, I still learn a good amount of things from your videos. Thanks for posting them.
Hello, Eric. I was informed by an old tool and die maker, years ago, that the heat at a weld joint pulls carbon from the surrounding area and so will cause the joint to be brittle. One has to anneal a weld in order to get the carbon distribution back to its former state. Heat up to a dull red and allow to air cool.
No need to count revolutions on the steering gear. You have it on the bench... Make a mark on the bench at opposite ends of travel and put it in the middle of the marks...
I'm with you on manual steering; better feedback and road feel through the wheel; the only good argument for power steering would be auto cross, but I assume you aren't going to auto-x the fairmont - assuming your ratio is good (15:1 or better) it will be awesome. In a previous life, my buddy ran a 15:1 manual rack in his fox body and I was considering it for mine after driving his car; went to college instead and modifying my fox became impossible.
Eric, good video. Just a thought. That steering column is collapsible. You're able to extend it out towards the engine bay and avoid lengthening the steering shaft. Keep up the good vids!
I have driven a heavy V8 with manual steering and it's not too difficult just a pain when parking. I think I spotted a minor fault with the sector shaft you welded. The uni joints did not look aligned in the video, they look to be about 39 degree off this will cause an odd feeling and a binding sensation when going lock to lock.
Hey Eric, if you are looking for the middle of the steering rack, turn it to the middle so each side is about 1.87 turns to stop. so go all the way left or right, then back to starting in the middle, do this back and forth and you'll get the feel of where the middle is exactly. pretend the pliers is a steering wheel.
Ah yes. I have a 1st gen MR2 without power steering and love it. In a 1 tonne car you can have both tight steering and light steering without power. A 240Z is basically my dream car.
The Honda CRX came without power steering and it's a joy to drive. I'm a little concerned about all the horsepower you're going to have in there and that welded shaft. Ayrton Senna asked for his steering shaft to be lengthened for the 1994 San Marino GP and it snapped at the Tamburello corner...
Wow, the first thing I thought of too was the Ayerton Senna accident - they lengthened his steering shaft at the last minute so to speak with a piece of welded pipe and we lost a brilliant driver because of it. I watched that cockpit clip many times, it happened so fast you could only just see him try to steer for the corner but nothing there and the car went straight off the curve and into the wall. Ayerton was one amazing driver, I watched his whole story and he was really aggressive, pushed it to the limit almost every time -- when another driver might back off he often would not. There was also an old Italian driver from back in the old days who was similarly aggressive as well, Tazio Nuvolari - he could seemingly fly through oil slicks at speed on turns when others would lose control.
yambo59 Nuvolari was crazy. He raced everything - cars, bikes, you name it. The difference between what the Williams team did and what Eric is doing here is that they shortened Senna's shaft, butt-joined it and then welded a u-shaped support around the joint. Eric has lengthened his shaft (no pun intended) with a piece of metal and just but-joint welded the three pieces together. Although this car will never see the g-forces that a F1 car would generate, he's still running a lot of HP. Looks like he's not going to run this steering rack anyways - he's going to switch to power steering. Hopefully that shaft goes in the trash.
Easy rule of thumb for dividing fractions in half, multiply the denominator by 2. so 1/2 becomes 1/4, 3/4 becomes 3/8. So 3 3/4 is 3 divided by 2, 1 1/2 plus 3/8 which is 1 7/8 (1.875). seems complicated but it keeps you in fractions instead of decimals
I had a 1979 Mustang, and that damned "rag joint" (flexible coupler) had dry rotted out and cracked into four or five large pieces; these parts were just hanging loose in the joint. When the flexible coupler's chunks finally fell out of the joint I was on the Interstate and almost had a wreck because I had like five or six inches of slop in the steering and made it nearly impossible to keep a straight line. I pulled over to see what had happened. I knew just about zero about cars back then (1989). I "fixed" the sector shaft with my shoelace. It held well for about a month until I could get a replacement flexible coupler installed. (Scary how stupid we can be when we are young.) I replaced it with one that had been punched from a tire, so it was super strong. It was also less spongy feeling, so the feel of the steering was much improved. It was punched from the belt section of a steel belted radial tire and was in goo shape when I finally sold the car in 1996. The OEM rubber flexible coupler completely disintegrates after about a decade. I think you can find the type of steel impregnated one I got (or better) online, and the steering response is much more direct when you get rid of that rubber disc.
Great adapting eric, This is what makes your car special, making things work together :-D. One thought on the end stops, you may want to find a couple of rubber caps for the bolt heads, soft stop and it wont knock the paint off wheel side :-).
Thanks for the video Eric, the modification you made to the steering shaft is something that is completely illegal in my country and if seen at yearly safety inspection the car is immobilized immediately,
For futureproofing the car body: sandblast or whatever those inner rusted car bodyparts and use somesort of primer or hammerlack to prevent it from rusting.
My Fairmont has manual steering, and the amount of caster in the factory setting is huge! Since your car originally had power steering, I'm betting it came with less caster. Hopefully you'll do a video where you play with the adjustment using the adjustable caster/camber plates. I'm very curious how much you can affect steering effort vs. return to center.
Your heim joint steering needs to have a safety washer on the bottom side to keep the cage of the joints from jumping over the ball in the event that the joint wears out. A safety washer can be a spacer, but a spacer cannot be used as a safety washer. This kind of steering is super common with rock crawlers. Otherwise, lots of good info here!
take it from an alignment guy you should spin the tie-rod all the way on then hold the end and spin the center to get your setup right or you could end up with few to threads holding the tie-rod end on
You can center the rack by turning it all the way in one direction and marking the position of the end. Then turn the rack all the way to the other end, measuring the distance that the end traveled. Divide that distance in half and then turn the rack back that distance. Voila, you've centered the rack. I'm guessing that you won't be taking this car on long cross country drives. The stiff suspension and heavy steering will work you over pretty hard and quite quickly. Driving will become a work out. You will be able to skip going to the gym.
Wonderful job lengthening that sector shaft! Love the turning stops, too! Now when people ask how a manual steering rack can feel so light, you can tell 'em "Just use air components!" ;D
Eric you do realize that the fairmont column was collapsing as you were pounding the upper joint in ? its a collapse able column so the shaft doesn't impale your face in a collision pull the column back out sand the paint off the other shaft and stick it in...if you run it as is at least drill a hole in each end ,pin it with steel dowels and weld the pins
17:06 Eric thats impressive bro, I suggest some kind of rubber stops when turning sterring, also a rubber boot over that custom made part , may prevent debri going in, when it comes to servicing.
I remember driving cars without brake boost and power steering. It took a little more thinking. You needed to keep the car moving to make the steering easier. I wonder if you could get an electric assist steering for that car? It would eliminate the parasitic loss that hydraulic power steering has. I wonder if you could get electric assist for the brakes?
Nearly there old mate maybe rubber headed bolts on steering limiter bolts to stop clack clack sound. Love the small fat wheels they look wheelie tough Merry Christmas.
I learned to drive in '77 Volvo station wagon, weighed 2 tons and no power steering. I don't see a problem, just means you need to do less work at the gym on arm day right? ;-)
Put a dab of grease on the steering stops before running it. It'll give a better feel, and won't make noise when you're driving turned fully in one or the other direction. There's going to be some friction there otherwise.
So how did we all get by until they invented power steering ? I began driving in manual steering and manual braking cars, I didn't get a power steering car for many many years.
They generally would have larger gear reduction so it takes more turns of the steering wheel to go from lock to lock. Erics rack seems to have 2 and 5/8 turns lock to lock. I think my power steered car has about 1 and 3/4. Besides, it's only harder to steer when the car is stationary. Once moving it become much easier, and as Eric said, the feel of a manual rack, the amount of feedback you get is much better than with a powered rack, providing the rack and pinion gears have no wear in them of course. On most cars of that age there is enough wear to move the steering wheel a couple inches rapidly back and forth without weaving at all, removing most of your lovely feedback.
That's correct, up until the 80's many many cars had no power steering. You quickly learn to give the tires a little roll so you could start turning the wheel. But the feel of a manual steering when taking a turn is unmatched by power steering, much less with the new electric assisted steering.
I'm not trying to be negative, but the u-joints look like they're not lined up. I know it's not as big of a deal as in a drive shaft, but it might make for some weirdness in steering.
Right, I think I didn't explain. It doesn't look like they are in phase. Maybe it's the camera angle, but they look to be maybe 20 degrees out of phase? I just wanted to make sure because having u-joints at different angles will cause the output motion to oscillate in acceleration relative to the input by a few degrees. I don't know how much you could feel that though. I'm sure you know that with drive shafts, it causes massive issues.
Whilst the U-joints should be in phase, i'm not sure how well it applies here because the angle of the steering column and the angle of the steering rack pinion shaft are different, so I guess that would make it impossible to get rid of all the "weirdness" caused by a U-joint not transferring rotation at a constant velocity when driven at an angle. But to minimize it I would certainly have them in phase like a drive shaft. EDIT: Having said that, the old shaft was completely wrong so after the modification it will be better than it was.
I did away with the power steering on my car, and it is awesome. I also did away with my power brakes, but only because I like my brakes to be linear, and with the power assist, they were too touchy. I daily my car like this, and it isn't difficult.
You may not have a tire rubbing issue during full lock, with the engine in the car.With the wheels hanging down at full extension,the camber goes way negative(Top of tires goes towards the engine) and may not be an issue with the cars' suspension at normal ride height. I agree about the poster that suggests a plastic cap over the head of the steering stop bolt head. It will reduce the(LOUD) creaks and pops when steering is at full lock. Some day,I would like to see your daughter do some welding. I know that you can weld! Dave in Seattle.
I was thinking the same think about the end caps for the steering stops. They are a nice solution but that arms moves up and down with the suspension so it will rub when at full lock. I also wonder if there is a possibility of the steering arm moving up so far as to completely miss the steering stop and then come back down on top of it, which might lead to the steering stop snapping off. the bolt already seemed to be quite close to the bottom edge of the steering arm even with the suspension at full extension. You see, this is the "beauty" of building a car on you tube. everyone can poke their nose in! LOL.
You guys REALLY pay attention! This is fun,ain't it? I totally missed the control arm angle for the steering stops!!!!! DOOOGH! Volvo's have shims that adjust the steering stops. I found out when we(Our shop) put larger tires one one and the customer came back,complaining of rubbing sounds. FIXED! When the plastic caps get worn out and fall off,it makes a terrible noise when going to full lock! A quick fix is to add grease to the stops. Eric already has the car running and driving. We are SOOO far behind this build.
Usually, suspension at full droop makes for positive camber - lowering or compressing the suspension should always make it more negative. This way, the harder you corner, the more the suspension compresses on the outside, and thus the more negative camber to help with the corner - while still having minimal negative camber in a straight line. I've never seen a car that worked the other way around - turn-in would be horrendous. :-)
Did you know that these cars have telescoping steering columns ? You were hitting it in towards the steering wheel .. you gotta pull the shaft out of the steering column and hold it as you tap the new shaft into it
I'm probably just flouting my ignorance, but did the Fairmont have a collapsible steering column? Is that a concern with older project cars and/or a common safety upgrade? Not that you'll need one, knock on wood.
Hey Eric, I just swapped the power steering rack in my fox mustang. After bleeding I took it around the neighborhood and found the steering wheel tries to turn itself and doesn't return back to center after a turn. Any ideas? I still need to do an alignment.
haven't watched in a while. just watched the front brake install too. gotta say. your a likable funny guy, as such you don't need to be Mr. has all the answers. ei: Eric O., you can just be Mr CarGuy. it's not fun to watch a cool; frustrated person struggle. take care man, all the best luck.
hey Eric our dodge neon just broke down it's a late 90s early 2000s, it's kinda cold but we tried to jump start it and that didn't work it has power you turn the key and it clicks but the car doesn't make a sound, any suggestions thanks
hey Eric I've been watching your videos for a long time and would like to tell you that you've inspired me to create a channel and post my first video!!
If you guys want to see what bump steer is, look up "Project Binky" on youtube. They have a series of building a mini and have a video on suspension. It an awesome series.
Granted since we're 5 months behind on where he actually is in this I imagine he's already found out. Would be interesting to see if this indeed ended up being the case though.
Power steering or not, i drive a VW Polo 6n 1.4 from 1997, and it has no power steering. It drives and steers perfect, the car is lowered and the road feel is very good, a real drivers car. So people who think power steering is must, at least not for me!
I'm starting to wonder if a "This is all subject to change per hindsight 20/20" disclaimer at the beginning of all the vids might remove some outdated comments.
Although you will get used to not having power steering, you're introducing a lot of vibration to you wrists and hands. Not a biggie on a daily driver but if you want to go touring then it will be an issue.
thanks for replying. :) it would be kinda funny and annoying to a lot of people if you would fit a VW Mark20 ABS System to the fox body. that system comes with EBV -> electronic braking force distribution and its able to learn so it always will spread the maximum amount of braking force to each wheel. you can so install a dual brake master cylinder with equal cylinder sizes and there is no need for brake force reduction at the rear axle. greets from germany edit: vwts.ru/brake/g4/g4_brake_45_abs_bn.pdf
Eric dont be such stingy and put a power steering on that thing. Manual steerings are for guys who like to wrestle with their cars. Oops sorry, just read the description now, good choice. thumbs up.
Usually on vehicles with a solid steering shaft like this, at least my Jeep XJ is like this, there is a steel plate under the steering column so in the event of a crash the steel plate is supposed to stop/cushion the shaft from impaling you.
hears a brain tease for you i bought a 1999 dodge Dakota ii put a day permit on it the other day to help my friend and everything started out ok then after driving it for 20 min on a main road about 80kmh i came to a red light the truck started to sputter and shutter i glanced down at the gauges as the "idiot light" came on and my oil pressure dropped to nil luckily it happened right beside a gas station i pulled in shut it down jumped out checked the oil thinking i was out it was fine it cooled a bit and we got back in drove for about 5 min and it happened again this time we let it sit for about 20 min we made it to the job where it cooled for about a hour and a half we drove home having to stop once to let it cool now the next day i sat in the drive way and brought it up to the temp it was yesterday it ran fine lintel i put it in gear reverse or drive the oil gauge would drop and the gauge light would turn on then i put it in park and it turned off no idea what is wrong with it but hope its not the oil pump
We old guys grew up without power steering. We called it power steering by arm strong. Once you get rolling, it's completely manageable. The slower you go the harder it gets. Sitting still is the worst. Another great vid!
I love whomever has decided to convert their car from assisted steering to manual, they are a legend.
I love the step by step vids on this build. it's amazing to see how far the car has come in this build from where it was before. Absolutely amazing.
Yea, it's crazy. Can't wait to drive it.
Awesome!!! I would pop a rubber cap over those stopper screws to help soften the contact point.
Greg Agnew I was also going to recommend that. I have a similar rubber cap over my custom made clutch stop. It works flawlessly and you don't have to hear a "thud"
Eaezfygrq ñ@%
Revisiting, love the Fairmont series. Interesting 🤔 fact a lot of people don't know and my fellow mechanics do probably know, even in a vehicle with power steering, once the vehicle gets to about 40-45 MPH, the computer PCM and BCM, turns off the power assist in the steering, so you are without power steering at higher speeds as you don't need and lol honestly it would be dangerous to have power steering at 80 MPH, Weeee! Some vehicles will maintain a constant monitoring and adjusts on the go, newer cars do this. But yeah interesting fact I learned years ago from a ASE Master Mechanic. Thanks again for this series, fun to revisit, and we miss you Eric!
don't worry eric i have a short sector shaft too
:D
Eric .. you should add a little safety feature to your "self welded" sector shaft :) ... just drill a 6-8mm hole on both sides thru the pipe and the original shaft irons and weld a bolt into it .. it will safe your life if the welds come loose due to rust or a bad bump or whatever! Greetings ;)
I have a 65 mustang that had no power steering, and was a manual. The only problem I ever had was trying to parallel park. Other than that, it's easy peasy. So I am glad you're going with a manual rack.
My 67 Galaxie has a manual box and it isn't bad at all. It's still 4 million turns lock to lock which helps out a bit, but isn't bad at all low speed or stationary.
Making something for your motor is always very satisfying, I made a left foot throttle conversion (i'm an amputee) in my kitchen...saved me £400 :)
Car looking good Eric.
My dream is to build an incredible sleeper out of something mundane, as Eric is doing with the Fairmont. Thanks to Eric I can see that with a little money and a lot of hard work, that dream can be realized.
Those tie rods are nice pieces. You will need a bump steer gauge to set them up properly. You can spend many hours correcting bump steer on a fox body. Between the eccentrics on the rack, the toe adjustment, and the tie rod height shims there are many adjustments to get right. If you get it right that car will act like it's on rails!
My first vehicle, an '88 GMC S15 pickup, had manual steering and manual brakes. I haven't found another vehicle yet (and I've had a few over the past 27 years) that felt as perfect as that one did going down the road. I had total confidence on where that thing was going and what it would do. Never had that same confidence in any vehicle with power steering.
Mind you, this thing was far from a performance vehicle, but again, I was 16 years old - I made that truck do things it was never designed to do, LOL! Wish they had GoPro cams & TH-cam in those days - I'd have been a hit, HAHAHA! Had a lot of fun in it, and I'm still here to tell the tale. :)
Excellent tutorial. I watch all of your videos. As much as I have worked on cars since I was a teenager, I still learn a good amount of things from your videos. Thanks for posting them.
Thank you for posting this series. As someone who is trying to bring an '89 mustang rolling chassis back to life, I find these videos very helpful.
Hello, Eric. I was informed by an old tool and die maker, years ago, that the heat at a weld joint pulls carbon from the surrounding area and so will cause the joint to be brittle. One has to anneal a weld in order to get the carbon distribution back to its former state. Heat up to a dull red and allow to air cool.
No need to count revolutions on the steering gear. You have it on the bench... Make a mark on the bench at opposite ends of travel and put it in the middle of the marks...
I'm with you on manual steering; better feedback and road feel through the wheel; the only good argument for power steering would be auto cross, but I assume you aren't going to auto-x the fairmont - assuming your ratio is good (15:1 or better) it will be awesome. In a previous life, my buddy ran a 15:1 manual rack in his fox body and I was considering it for mine after driving his car; went to college instead and modifying my fox became impossible.
Eric, good video. Just a thought. That steering column is collapsible. You're able to extend it out towards the engine bay and avoid lengthening the steering shaft. Keep up the good vids!
I have driven a heavy V8 with manual steering and it's not too difficult just a pain when parking. I think I spotted a minor fault with the sector shaft you welded. The uni joints did not look aligned in the video, they look to be about 39 degree off this will cause an odd feeling and a binding sensation when going lock to lock.
Hey Eric, if you are looking for the middle of the steering rack, turn it to the middle so each side is about 1.87 turns to stop. so go all the way left or right, then back to starting in the middle, do this back and forth and you'll get the feel of where the middle is exactly. pretend the pliers is a steering wheel.
I agree with you eric, i love my datsun 280z without power steering. Theres just something about feeling the road you cant get with power steering
Ah yes. I have a 1st gen MR2 without power steering and love it. In a 1 tonne car you can have both tight steering and light steering without power.
A 240Z is basically my dream car.
The Honda CRX came without power steering and it's a joy to drive. I'm a little concerned about all the horsepower you're going to have in there and that welded shaft. Ayrton Senna asked for his steering shaft to be lengthened for the 1994 San Marino GP and it snapped at the Tamburello corner...
Don't worry, all of this will be replaced for power steering in a future episode.
Good to hear.
Wow, the first thing I thought of too was the Ayerton Senna accident - they lengthened his steering shaft at the last minute so to speak with a piece of welded pipe and we lost a brilliant driver because of it. I watched that cockpit clip many times, it happened so fast you could only just see him try to steer for the corner but nothing there and the car went straight off the curve and into the wall. Ayerton was one amazing driver, I watched his whole story and he was really aggressive, pushed it to the limit almost every time -- when another driver might back off he often would not. There was also an old Italian driver from back in the old days who was similarly aggressive as well, Tazio Nuvolari - he could seemingly fly through oil slicks at speed on turns when others would lose control.
yambo59 Nuvolari was crazy. He raced everything - cars, bikes, you name it.
The difference between what the Williams team did and what Eric is doing here is that they shortened Senna's shaft, butt-joined it and then welded a u-shaped support around the joint. Eric has lengthened his shaft (no pun intended) with a piece of metal and just but-joint welded the three pieces together. Although this car will never see the g-forces that a F1 car would generate, he's still running a lot of HP. Looks like he's not going to run this steering rack anyways - he's going to switch to power steering. Hopefully that shaft goes in the trash.
Easy rule of thumb for dividing fractions in half, multiply the denominator by 2. so 1/2 becomes 1/4, 3/4 becomes 3/8. So 3 3/4 is 3 divided by 2, 1 1/2 plus 3/8 which is 1 7/8 (1.875). seems complicated but it keeps you in fractions instead of decimals
I had a 1979 Mustang, and that damned "rag joint" (flexible coupler) had dry rotted out and cracked into four or five large pieces; these parts were just hanging loose in the joint. When the flexible coupler's chunks finally fell out of the joint I was on the Interstate and almost had a wreck because I had like five or six inches of slop in the steering and made it nearly impossible to keep a straight line. I pulled over to see what had happened. I knew just about zero about cars back then (1989). I "fixed" the sector shaft with my shoelace. It held well for about a month until I could get a replacement flexible coupler installed. (Scary how stupid we can be when we are young.) I replaced it with one that had been punched from a tire, so it was super strong. It was also less spongy feeling, so the feel of the steering was much improved. It was punched from the belt section of a steel belted radial tire and was in goo shape when I finally sold the car in 1996. The OEM rubber flexible coupler completely disintegrates after about a decade. I think you can find the type of steel impregnated one I got (or better) online, and the steering response is much more direct when you get rid of that rubber disc.
Great adapting eric, This is what makes your car special, making things work together :-D.
One thought on the end stops, you may want to find a couple of rubber caps for the bolt heads, soft stop and it wont knock the paint off wheel side :-).
Not concerned. I'll be replacing all this stuff in a future episode anyway. Made for a good video though.
Thanks for the video Eric, the modification you made to the steering shaft is something that is completely illegal in my country and if seen at yearly safety inspection the car is immobilized immediately,
For futureproofing the car body: sandblast or whatever those inner rusted car bodyparts and use somesort of primer or hammerlack to prevent it from rusting.
My Fairmont has manual steering, and the amount of caster in the factory setting is huge! Since your car originally had power steering, I'm betting it came with less caster. Hopefully you'll do a video where you play with the adjustment using the adjustable caster/camber plates. I'm very curious how much you can affect steering effort vs. return to center.
my method for centering the steering rack would be to remove the boots and measure the amount of shaft sticking out on boths sides.
Your heim joint steering needs to have a safety washer on the bottom side to keep the cage of the joints from jumping over the ball in the event that the joint wears out. A safety washer can be a spacer, but a spacer cannot be used as a safety washer. This kind of steering is super common with rock crawlers. Otherwise, lots of good info here!
take it from an alignment guy you should spin the tie-rod all the way on then hold the end and spin the center to get your setup right or you could end up with few to threads holding the tie-rod end on
Yea, I was concerned about that. When I install the PS rack and new tie rod ends, I'll be sure to look out for that. Thanks for the advice.
+
Use a 1971 Ford Pinto rack in my Vega. Works great, and I also used heim joints to prevent bumpsteer.
You can center the rack by turning it all the way in one direction and marking the position of the end. Then turn the rack all the way to the other end, measuring the distance that the end traveled. Divide that distance in half and then turn the rack back that distance. Voila, you've centered the rack.
I'm guessing that you won't be taking this car on long cross country drives. The stiff suspension and heavy steering will work you over pretty hard and quite quickly. Driving will become a work out. You will be able to skip going to the gym.
Wonderful job lengthening that sector shaft! Love the turning stops, too! Now when people ask how a manual steering rack can feel so light, you can tell 'em "Just use air components!" ;D
Eric you do realize that the fairmont column was collapsing as you were pounding the upper joint in ? its a collapse able column so the shaft doesn't impale your face in a collision
pull the column back out sand the paint off the other shaft and stick it in...if you run it as is at least drill a hole in each end ,pin it with steel dowels and weld the pins
17:06 Eric thats impressive bro, I suggest some kind of rubber stops when turning sterring, also a rubber boot over that custom made part , may prevent debri going in, when it comes to servicing.
Nice...I like the steering stops. Better than the plastic rack limiters.
Nice Fab work Eric. Can't wait to see this beast on the road.
I loved all my past vehicles with manual steering. I dont mind it at all, actually i think i prefer it in smaller vehicles.
I remember driving cars without brake boost and power steering. It took a little more thinking. You needed to keep the car moving to make the steering easier. I wonder if you could get an electric assist steering for that car? It would eliminate the parasitic loss that hydraulic power steering has. I wonder if you could get electric assist for the brakes?
Great job on all that hard work Eric
i like the manual steering....you can always get a bigger steering wheel (for city driving) if you find your arms are doing all the torquing.
Nearly there old mate maybe rubber headed bolts on steering limiter bolts to stop clack clack sound. Love the small fat wheels they look wheelie tough Merry Christmas.
My daily driver has a manual steering box (not a rack) and is not too bad to steer once I get moving. But reverse parking is no fun.
I learned to drive in '77 Volvo station wagon, weighed 2 tons and no power steering. I don't see a problem, just means you need to do less work at the gym on arm day right? ;-)
My car is a 2007 Renault Clio mkII with no power steering. It's not really that heavy, you just need to get used to it.
I prefer no power steering myself. My first car had no power steering, and it was so much fun to drive.
But it was a light weight '86 Audi.
Put a dab of grease on the steering stops before running it. It'll give a better feel, and won't make noise when you're driving turned fully in one or the other direction. There's going to be some friction there otherwise.
So how did we all get by until they invented power steering ? I began driving in manual steering and manual braking cars, I didn't get a power steering car for many many years.
Power steering was included to help the ladies. My mom was only 5' tall so she couldn't drive a car without power steering.
They generally would have larger gear reduction so it takes more turns of the steering wheel to go from lock to lock. Erics rack seems to have 2 and 5/8 turns lock to lock. I think my power steered car has about 1 and 3/4. Besides, it's only harder to steer when the car is stationary. Once moving it become much easier, and as Eric said, the feel of a manual rack, the amount of feedback you get is much better than with a powered rack, providing the rack and pinion gears have no wear in them of course. On most cars of that age there is enough wear to move the steering wheel a couple inches rapidly back and forth without weaving at all, removing most of your lovely feedback.
Larger diameter steering wheels, different gearing, and you had to turn the wheel further (sometimes more than 360 degrees) on a regular turn.
Basically we didn't get by. The amount of people killed in traffic back then was like 10x the amount we get now
That's correct, up until the 80's many many cars had no power steering. You quickly learn to give the tires a little roll so you could start turning the wheel. But the feel of a manual steering when taking a turn is unmatched by power steering, much less with the new electric assisted steering.
I'm not trying to be negative, but the u-joints look like they're not lined up. I know it's not as big of a deal as in a drive shaft, but it might make for some weirdness in steering.
It's fine. The U joints are there to transfer motion through an angle.
Right, I think I didn't explain. It doesn't look like they are in phase. Maybe it's the camera angle, but they look to be maybe 20 degrees out of phase? I just wanted to make sure because having u-joints at different angles will cause the output motion to oscillate in acceleration relative to the input by a few degrees. I don't know how much you could feel that though. I'm sure you know that with drive shafts, it causes massive issues.
Also, I'd rather be wrong in pointing it out than not say anything and have it turn out I was right and could have saved you some grief.
Whilst the U-joints should be in phase, i'm not sure how well it applies here because the angle of the steering column and the angle of the steering rack pinion shaft are different, so I guess that would make it impossible to get rid of all the "weirdness" caused by a U-joint not transferring rotation at a constant velocity when driven at an angle. But to minimize it I would certainly have them in phase like a drive shaft.
EDIT: Having said that, the old shaft was completely wrong so after the modification it will be better than it was.
i was thinking the same thing. yes it would work. but not at great as a if it was lined up.
Now you just need a cool steering wheel and racing seats!
you should use your column shifter to actuate your exhaust cutout until you put in the new steering column!
maintain ultimate sleeper status as an "old slow Fairmont with an automatic"
I did away with the power steering on my car, and it is awesome. I also did away with my power brakes, but only because I like my brakes to be linear, and with the power assist, they were too touchy. I daily my car like this, and it isn't difficult.
Dude - you were trying to pound the steering shaft into the column upside down. It'll only go in one way - one side is flat and the other's concave...
You may not have a tire rubbing issue during full lock, with the engine in the car.With the wheels hanging down at full extension,the camber goes way negative(Top of tires goes towards the engine) and may not be an issue with the cars' suspension at normal ride height.
I agree about the poster that suggests a plastic cap over the head of the steering stop bolt head. It will reduce the(LOUD) creaks and pops when steering is at full lock.
Some day,I would like to see your daughter do some welding. I know that you can weld!
Dave in Seattle.
I was thinking the same think about the end caps for the steering stops. They are a nice solution but that arms moves up and down with the suspension so it will rub when at full lock. I also wonder if there is a possibility of the steering arm moving up so far as to completely miss the steering stop and then come back down on top of it, which might lead to the steering stop snapping off. the bolt already seemed to be quite close to the bottom edge of the steering arm even with the suspension at full extension.
You see, this is the "beauty" of building a car on you tube. everyone can poke their nose in! LOL.
GOOD POINT!!!!
The suspension needs to be at normal ride height.
radbot1 I agree with you...let's see if it becomes a problem.
You guys REALLY pay attention!
This is fun,ain't it?
I totally missed the control arm angle for the steering stops!!!!! DOOOGH!
Volvo's have shims that adjust the steering stops.
I found out when we(Our shop) put larger tires one one and the customer came back,complaining of rubbing sounds. FIXED!
When the plastic caps get worn out and fall off,it makes a terrible noise when going to full lock! A quick fix is to add grease to the stops.
Eric already has the car running and driving.
We are SOOO far behind this build.
Usually, suspension at full droop makes for positive camber - lowering or compressing the suspension should always make it more negative. This way, the harder you corner, the more the suspension compresses on the outside, and thus the more negative camber to help with the corner - while still having minimal negative camber in a straight line. I've never seen a car that worked the other way around - turn-in would be horrendous. :-)
You could measure how much it goes in on one side, divide that by two and then set it to that length.
You could probably try using a protractor as used torquing the bolts on the engine?
You should have measured from the front of the boot to the end of the tie rod on each side to get an accurate 50/50 length.
Great video! Thanks for the advice
Did you know that these cars have telescoping steering columns ? You were hitting it in towards the steering wheel .. you gotta pull the shaft out of the steering column and hold it as you tap the new shaft into it
I would run more narrow tires in the front that should help u w the steering too
why didn't you just measure how far the tierod end moves and divide by 1/2?
I'm probably just flouting my ignorance, but did the Fairmont have a collapsible steering column? Is that a concern with older project cars and/or a common safety upgrade?
Not that you'll need one, knock on wood.
The steering column end slides in and out. Also the steering shaft only fits in the column one way.
I'm converting my 1974 f350 from power to manual steering, do I need a new axle or can I get by with just a manual steering gear box?
1,2,3,4 ... back to power steering setup , LOL !
Would you be willing to do an episode of Jay Leno's Garage with this car?
Hey Eric, I just swapped the power steering rack in my fox mustang. After bleeding I took it around the neighborhood and found the steering wheel tries to turn itself and doesn't return back to center after a turn. Any ideas? I still need to do an alignment.
Dude are you like semi hammered doing these vids? Im-ple-menting LOL. I'll drink to that
haven't watched in a while. just watched the front brake install too. gotta say. your a likable funny guy, as such you don't need to be Mr. has all the answers. ei: Eric O., you can just be Mr CarGuy. it's not fun to watch a cool; frustrated person struggle. take care man, all the best luck.
When installing a manual steering rack for 2001 mustang v6 3.8 what do u put in place for the power steering pump when removing it?
hey Eric our dodge neon just broke down it's a late 90s early 2000s, it's kinda cold but we tried to jump start it and that didn't work it has power you turn the key and it clicks but the car doesn't make a sound, any suggestions thanks
had to resubscribe to your channel. Keep making awesome vids! :)
hey Eric I've been watching your videos for a long time and would like to tell you that you've inspired me to create a channel and post my first video!!
If you guys want to see what bump steer is, look up "Project Binky" on youtube. They have a series of building a mini and have a video on suspension. It an awesome series.
Was that extension needed after driving the column so far up in to the car cause it moved a couple inches into the car while he was hammering on it?
I noticed the same thing.
Eric, you will find that your new shaft is too long when you change the steering column.
Granted since we're 5 months behind on where he actually is in this I imagine he's already found out. Would be interesting to see if this indeed ended up being the case though.
when i turn to the right or to the left i hear a clicking noise from the front, what is it?
POSSIBLY CV Joints. Only under load, or constant? FWD only- or also in reverse?
Both ways, when I take turns
Dhaka Music
"Clickety-Clack" is usually CV joints.
if it is speed dependent to the frequency of the clicking, cv joints almost definitely
Here is a good solution, use a bus steering wheel haha tons of leverage
you may have answered this already, but are you keeping the original steering wheel?
I might not. I like the one that was in the Mustang better.
Power steering or not, i drive a VW Polo 6n 1.4 from 1997, and it has no power steering. It drives and steers perfect, the car is lowered and the road feel is very good, a real drivers car. So people who think power steering is must, at least not for me!
I'm starting to wonder if a "This is all subject to change per hindsight 20/20" disclaimer at the beginning of all the vids might remove some outdated comments.
Hi, Eric- *@**17:14* I noticed a "toothed" ring on the hub? ABS? Merry Christmas to you and your Family.
Prolly just what was in stock. Most CV axles I get for FWD cars have the abs ring but the car don't have abs.
Although you will get used to not having power steering, you're introducing a lot of vibration to you wrists and hands.
Not a biggie on a daily driver but if you want to go touring then it will be an issue.
are you retrofitting abs? i see the sensor rings!!! :)
No need for that. I know how to pump brakes if I need to.
thanks for replying. :)
it would be kinda funny and annoying to a lot of people if you would fit a VW Mark20 ABS System to the fox body. that system comes with EBV -> electronic braking force distribution and its able to learn
so it always will spread the maximum amount of braking force to each wheel.
you can so install a dual brake master cylinder with equal cylinder sizes and there is no need for brake force reduction at the rear axle.
greets from germany
edit: vwts.ru/brake/g4/g4_brake_45_abs_bn.pdf
Whats that horrible grinding sound the car makes when he turns the steering wheel to the left?
Tires on the shop floor.
what brand lift do you use?
Are you located in Florida?
Eric dont be such stingy and put a power steering on that thing. Manual steerings are for guys who like to wrestle with their cars. Oops sorry, just read the description now, good choice. thumbs up.
cripes... it wasn't 3/4 of a turn. It was about 2/3. Half of 2/3 is 1/3.
I think i should have cut the ends off of that shaft and just put in one piece of pipe, but to each his own! As long as it works.
I did use just one piece of pipe.
EricTheCarGuy Your the expert, what happens in a crash? Is the dmv okey with this?
Usually on vehicles with a solid steering shaft like this, at least my Jeep XJ is like this, there is a steel plate under the steering column so in the event of a crash the steel plate is supposed to stop/cushion the shaft from impaling you.
Okey, thanks for good answer! :) Cheers!
OK OK I'll fill in the missing phrase after ("I know, I know") (that's. what. she. said.!)
I hate when my shaft is to big for the hole 2
hears a brain tease for you i bought a 1999 dodge Dakota ii put a day permit on it the other day to help my friend and everything started out ok then after driving it for 20 min on a main road about 80kmh i came to a red light the truck started to sputter and shutter i glanced down at the gauges as the "idiot light" came on and my oil pressure dropped to nil luckily it happened right beside a gas station i pulled in shut it down jumped out checked the oil thinking i was out it was fine it cooled a bit and we got back in drove for about 5 min and it happened again this time we let it sit for about 20 min we made it to the job where it cooled for about a hour and a half we drove home having to stop once to let it cool now the next day i sat in the drive way and brought it up to the temp it was yesterday it ran fine lintel i put it in gear reverse or drive the oil gauge would drop and the gauge light would turn on then i put it in park and it turned off no idea what is wrong with it but hope its not the oil pump
sorrey if its the wrong place to ask Eric
The shaft jokes lol
you keep the u joins in phace ?
Properly installed, no.
Eric, viewer question, do you ever get recognized?
I mean by random people in the street, not friends and family lol
man please just put a washer under that bolt under the rack where it didn't fit up tight. please maybe to save a life. but good show. thank you.
Why would you not want power steering
steering u joints are out of phase its going to bind up
I drive a manual steering truck every day.
Please replace the steering wheel too.