[TPR] Ferrari Steering Rack Comparison

[TeamPantera]

A Ferrari rack?
Are you kidding....your not stock anymore...and Mark got one too?  

Not even stock now huh..what CHEATERS ;-)

Asa Jay Laughton via TPR <tpr at teampanteraracing.com> wrote:

>My apologies, some of you will get this twice (once as POCA and once as TPR)
>
>Hi all,
>Since I've not seen another real comparison yet, I figured I'd pop in 
>here.  Attached are all the photos that accompany this comparison.
>
>I recently needed a steering rack to do a comparison with the one 
>installed in my Pantera.  This was because a friend drove the car and 
>said he felt the rack was dangerous and should be fixed or replaced.  
>The easiest thing to do was to make a comparison.
>
>Peter (The German) Menyhart of The Whitehorse Ranch, fellow Pantera 
>owner and racer, just happened to have one of the ebay Ferrari steering 
>racks everyone has been talking about.  He graciously shipped it to me 
>so I could do my comparison.  Peter is in the midst of a restoration 
>project and is able to part with it for a while.
>
>The rack is very well packaged in an oversize box.  It does not come 
>with tie-rod ends installed.  The boots are a big larger than stock 
>DeTomaso, and they are clamped on with those funny one-time use on the 
>large end and a friction/spring on the small end.
>
>The movement of the rack feels rather stiff, not as hard as the one out 
>of my car but still not quite "like butter."  However, you'll note from 
>the photos the tension can be adjusted without the use of shims.  I will 
>work with that later.  So far, one plus for this rack.
>
>I took measurements of the tube diameter in the mounting bracket areas.  
>The two tubes are within .005" at each location.  The overall length is 
>the same as my Pantera rack.  The big difference, as has been mentioned, 
>is in the drivers side bracket area which contains raised ribs for 
>either side of the bracket.
>
>Now, here is where I discovered something interesting.  I was having a 
>very difficult time getting a good reading with my inside calipers of 
>that area.  The bracket was easy to measure at 0.624" outside dimension 
>but the space on both racks measured at about 0.555" in width and that 
>didn't make sense.
>
>Well, I had to put my grandpa glassed on, but found the reason.  Nearly 
>the entire ridge on the Pantera rack has a shoulder on it, that goes 
>from about 0.055" at the bottom against the tube, to just under 0.624" 
>at the outermost edge.  Looking at the photos of the bracket you'll note 
>it too has a bevel cut into the semi-circle.  In my case the brackets 
>still don't fit quite flush to the Pantera rack.
>
>The brackets -don't- fit the Ferrari rack at all.  You'll note from the 
>close-up of that rack, there really isn't any bevel to it at all; it's 
>nearly 0.555" from tube to outer edge.  In order to get this to the 
>0.624" it needs to be to accept the brackets, I'll need to machine about 
>.070" split more or less equally on both sides of the channel.
>
>The last thing to note is that the tie-rods are a bit beefier.  However, 
>they -are- cut with the same diameter and thread as the Pantera rack.  
>In the photo of the tie-rod ends, you see the Pantera rack with the lock 
>nut on the tie-rod end, and a used/spare/old Pantera tie rod threaded 
>onto the Ferrari rack.
>
>So there you have it.  The rack is nearly identical with the exception 
>of beefier tie-rods (good thing), adjustable tension adjust (good 
>thing), and narrow mounting bracket channel (bad thing but workable).
>
>Mark Skwarek recently did one of these for his Pantera as well and used 
>an end mill with the rack mounted in a vise, cutting a path, turning the 
>rack and cutting again until he got all the way around.  That's probably 
>what I'll do as well.
>
>The best thing would be to completely disassemble the rack and chuck it 
>up on a lathe, but I really don't want to take it apart; after all, it's 
>not really my rack.  :)
>
>There, any questions?
>Asa  Jay
>
>-- 
>Asa Jay Laughton - W7TSC, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
>&  Shelley Marie
>Spokane, WA
>******************************
>http://www.racingagainstautism.com
>http://www.teampanteraracing.com
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>
>
>
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