OK, so from experiance... not hear-say and he-said she-said, how is the manual rack?
I'm thinking of doing this on my car, but I'd like some impute, it will be on a car without skinnies lol, in fact, the widest possible tire up front. also, some road racing will be done.
so far I've heard its not bad, its terrible, and its fine and that skinnies actually make it harder.
so, who has one, and what is it like?
I don't have a manual rack per-say, but I don't have power sterring. It's not too bad to drive, but it's not a sport ratio. It's not too hard to drive but from a stop on loose gravel driveway is intresting
Only car ive driven with manual steering was a VW fox, and thats a 2000 lb car. My dad used to drive his 94 ranger with the power steering out on it. The TC aint too drivable though, ive tried shutting the engine off and steering around in it, not too good at all. Small steering wheel and quick ratio.
A buddy had an '82 or so Mustang with the 2.3 and a manual rack. It wasn't hard to drive at all, but it only had half an engine sitting over the front wheels, and those wheels were only 185/75R14's. Parallel parking was a bitch, but once moving it felt like any other car. It was much lighter than a T-Bird, though...
Fila, your non-power power rack would be nothing like a car with a real manual rack. A manual rack is geared much differently because it's designed to be... well... manual.
my v6 cougar 1986 was out of power steering for a couple of weeks, and didn't work so it was like manual steering. It was really hard to turn the wheel at a dead stop but on the road it was easier but my steering wheel was a bitch to turn on sharp turns. Its a great set up for going straight and it will make u stronger :-p from using all your strength to turn 1/4 LOL LOL. maybe a full manual rack would be easier theN I had it but I hated it on that car...
a real manual rack is not bad to deal with but a huge tire on the front will just make it that much worse.
My car has 165's on the front with a stock T/C power rack dissconnected and it steers just fine with a 215/65 on the front the effort is about double
I'm actually curious about a manual rack as well. Thinking about putting one on darkthunder. From what I've read (on the Mustang forums), it's all personal preference. Some people love it, others hate it.
You'll need to change the alignment specs unless you have the arms of Hercules. To start with, lots of caster gives better straight-line stability, better self-centering, and all that "sporty stuff", but requires a lot more effort to turn. Less caster lets granny drive your car to the supermarket.
And while less caster makes the car easier to turn, less caster makes for worse cornering performance.
The decreased ratio between mechanical and pneumatic trail makes it harder to "feel" how much grip remains in the tires as you corner at the limit.
Also, more caster (to an extent) helps the outside tire gain negative camber while cornering.
So, if you are going to get a manual rack, then decrease the caster, and try to run on road courses - you end up decreasing the overall performance of your vehicle.