Early A, Rack and Pinion conversion, more Qs
Been investigating a R&P conversion for my 66 Dart, primarily for header clearance around the 392. Still have some questions, which might be obviously dumb Qs, but not if you don't know the answer!
The manual Dakota R&P I see mentioned alot. Apparently its the right length but the dumb Q is... will the tie rod ends simply bolt into the stock steering arms? same size studs?
I know the spindles have to be swapped side for side.
Is it as simple as that?..fab the mounts for the rack, swap spindles, connect steering shaft. How does spindle swapping affect disc brake conversion, i thought I read something somewhere about front/rear mounting of the calipers, one being better than the other. If I remember correctly a disc brake swap involves changing also the upper control arms, that shouldn't directly affect the R&P should it?
Bump steer... how do you plan ahead to minimize it? Must the R&P be mounted at a certain height re: control arms? How about front to back alignment? I've seen some pics of finished installs where it looks like the tie rod ends are working at an angle to the steering arms, that is to say the tie rod ends are not parallel to the rack itself, and the rack looked lower in the frame than the lower control arms so tha tir rod ends were angled up towards the spindles. My hunch is that parallel would be the way to go if possible??? If not, how much off parallel or too low/high in its mount could you go before bumpsteer becomes a major concern?