When performing any major modifications to your race car’s steering system, one of the most essential projects along the way is completing the linkage between your steering column and the steering box or rack-and-pinion unit. This scenario is precisely where our Project Rover Camaro stands as we are “teaching an old dog new tricks” by finalizing the steering assembly.
We set ourselves a big goal of dropping over 600 pounds on the front end of our Camaro. Replacing the stock front steering assembly not only dropped serious weight, but greatly improved our steering quality.
With Rover, we are not just working towards a much lighter front end, but we are also eliminating 55-year-old hardware that is now a little sloppy, especially for going fast. We previously installed an IDIDIT Steering Columns and Accessories Pro-Lite steering column. This new addition improved upon the old factory column, which was quite loose and just as tired.
We also removed the original, and comparatively, heavy manual steering box along with the iron center link, pitman arms, idler arm, and drag link assembly. These related steering pieces have been directly replaced with an aftermarket Pinto-style rack-and-pinion steering unit and lightweight aluminum billet steering arms.
Just stripping the original iron steering box and related steering gear had us excited about swapping in a new and much lighter Pinto-style rack-and-pinion steering, along with the related steering shafts and joints from IDIDIT.
The final step is the very involved effort of connecting the steering column and rack together with a proper steering linkage. There are typically two variations of steering joints and shafts used in drag racing.With a lightweight tube chassis, most builders use chromoly tubing and related aircraft-style steering joints. With our Camaro still using the factory front subframe, we opted for a heavier-duty steering system using solid double-D shafts and related steering joints designed to fit these shafts and the splined connection at the steering column and rack steering unit.
Eddie Mohr, Sales Manager at IDIDIT, added some of his experience to our steering project. “Remember, you might need to think out of the box when routing your steering around the chassis, suspension, and headers, while also designing a route with the minimum steering joint angles possible.”
We heeded Mohr’s advice when we realized that it would require some extreme fabricating compared to simply…
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