Thread: Mustang II rack & pinion POS

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I'm sick of this mustang 2 suspension crap.Seems like I work on that more than anything else between squeaky bushings leaky racks, noisy coil springs and twitchy steering.I now have six thousand miles on this thing, and my second rack is leaking all over the place out of the steering shaft which I believe same as the last one. I blamed the last one for sitting around too long before I got to it, but now here we go again. I've got the relief pressure dropped down well below what it needs to be for a mustang 2, although I don't remember for sure what that was. I think it's 700 lb? I'm so sick of this front end, I'm ready to clip an S10 or Dakota on it and be done. Before I do that, is there anybody who makes a rack and pinion for the GM Saginaw pump that's not a POS. The last one was from carquest. My advice to anyone who is just starting to do a build, do a complete frame swap !. Venting over !

Heidts was once a good system. I have been out of interest since the 90s. They may still be The Stuff.

I can't recall who had a kit that uses
Pacer complete front suspension.
Steering wheel, I do not recall either.
Welding was involved.
Maybe it was FATMAN FABRICATION?

Admittedly I have not seen 1 installed other than the
Assembly // Installation Manual 20some years ago.

However, I do believe
the original frame is not cut out, nor off.
Some boxing may have been involved.

Chevs Of The 40s has the basic steel parts.

I read on a Chevy Truck Forum the big problems are
weight and Pacer parts availability.

1 guy mentioned Volaré complete suspension.

Good Luck with sorting it out.

For right now I'm looking at keeping what I have. I get so frustrated with new junk parts though, It's one of the reasons I bought new gaskets for my 160k water pump on the 5.3. A new water pump was about $30, I was mad just thinking about it leaking in 10k miles. This rack is supposed to have a warranty so I guess I'll take it off and replace it again.

All I can do is empathize. The first rack I put on the 37 lasted less than 500 miles hopefully the second one will do better.


.

Whatever you do stay away from Helix/Hoffman Group distributed junk. Unfortunately they are now dealing through many channels of distribution without that brand name evident.

i have never been a fan of r/p of any kind except manual . they leak . i would get a factory rack from a salvage car . if it leaks have it resealed. fat mans is the only kit i would ever install . after replacing 4 fatigued cross members i refuse to install a sheet metal cross member .

Well I talked to carquest this morning. the rack does have a lifetime warranty on it, but the problem is cardone does not have any to rebuild at this time. He's going to get me an AC Delco rack and apply the 95 bucks I paid for this one as a credit to that one. It will cost me about $120 to boot but hopefully it's a better rack.

Does anybody have any experience with a new rack from speedway.I can get my hands on one that has never been installed for $100 .

Originally Posted by DennyW

hahaha.... Carquest... hahaha

Ya, I know, that the only part store in town and they supply our shop. It's like playing the lottery getting things from there.

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

It's like playing the lottery getting things from there.

Several years ago the best independent parts house in town sold out to Carquest. Owner wanted to retire. He stayed on with them for a while.

I went in one day to get a GM alternator and to visit with him. He had just got in the Carquest alternator test machine and wanted to use my stuff as a test. I said sure. He checked the old alternator and sure enough, it was bad. He went in the back and got the rebuilt one off the shelf and ran it. It was bad out of the box! He got another and it was bad too! The third one had to be reclocked as it was for another application, but at least it did charge.

I had always depended on his parts being good and had never had any trouble, but after that, I started driving to the next town and visiting the best alternator rebuilder in this area!

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

Several years ago the best independent parts house in town sold out to Carquest. Owner wanted to retire. He stayed on with them for a while.

I went in one day to get a GM alternator and to visit with him. He had just got in the Carquest alternator test machine and wanted to use my stuff as a test. I said sure. He checked the old alternator and sure enough, it was bad. He went in the back and got the rebuilt one off the shelf and ran it. It was bad out of the box! He got another and it was bad too! The third one had to be reclocked as it was for another application, but at least it did charge.

I had always depended on his parts being good and had never had any trouble, but after that, I started driving to the next town and visiting the best alternator rebuilder in this area!

Sounds like some of the junk you can get from O'Reillys.

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

Several years ago the best independent parts house in town sold out to Carquest. Owner wanted to retire. He stayed on with them for a while.

I went in one day to get a GM alternator and to visit with him. He had just got in the Carquest alternator test machine and wanted to use my stuff as a test. I said sure. He checked the old alternator and sure enough, it was bad. He went in the back and got the rebuilt one off the shelf and ran it. It was bad out of the box! He got another and it was bad too! The third one had to be reclocked as it was for another application, but at least it did charge.

I had always depended on his parts being good and had never had any trouble, but after that, I started driving to the next town and visiting the best alternator rebuilder in this area!

That's one thing that we've learned rather quickly is to never buy anything electrical there. We've had a few that didn't make it off the lot, that was enough for us. He knows the stuff we won't buy, anything that says World American can literally go from the box to the garbage can. We don't deal much with auto stuff at our shop so it's mostly consumables and truck brakes and such. The truck brakes are not from the Carquest line. Come to think of it nearly all the stuff we get from there is from other manufactures that he keeps in the store. I guess that speaks volumes. The racks are re-manufactured by Cardone, and I'm a little worried that the Delco one could be too with another $100 tacked on it. My other concern is the Speedway one is made in Pakistan or somewhere like that. I miss the days when I was surprised when a replacement part failed. Arnold Motor and Sturdevants seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of the Wall Mart part stores.

AC Delco used to always be top quality stuff. I’ve been out of the car repair business for 17 years now, so I’m I bit out of the loop. I’m hoping that Delco hasn't gone down the tubes, I know a lot of stuff has.

I’m sorry to hear about your two racks in 6000 miles. That’s pretty painful.