I'm changing the steering system on my 1948 Desoto Suburban (9 passenger, 4800 pound vehicle) from the original pitman arm steering to rack and pinion steering.
I purchased a rebuilt back-steer rack and pinion (45" long) that was for a
1995-2005 Chevy Cavalier or Pontiac Sunfire. I built the mounting housing, new steering shaft, new power hoses from the pump, and new tie rod ends. I still have to cut one side of the motor mount (1" x 2") off to make room for the double D U-joint coupler so the rack can turn (not done yet).
I found the travel on the rack is only 2.5" on each side. This does not give me enough turning angles on the wheels (I need at least 4").
A couple of solutions I thought of are:
- To get a rack from some other vehicle (maybe a truck) that would have more then 4" travel on each side. Trouble is - I don't know which trucks would have this type of rack.
or
- To make a shorter steering arm for the existing Desoto but I would have to find a shop that could do this and I don't know if this would compromise safety as the tie rod ends and the rack will carry more stress when turning.
Would anyone have suggestions on other ways to (safely) resolve this? I can email pictures of the steering configuration.