Steering Rack Options

[Slykin]

Hey guys, I'm in need of some opinions. I'm trying to get rid of the steering slop on my 94 GT and I can't seem to decide which rack I should get. You can get real cheap ones(100$?) at O'Reilly's etc with a lifetime warranty.. but i'd rather have one that I don't need a warranty for because it's good quality. Summit has replacement racks for 250 from I think it's AGR, but i'm not sure if they're that much better than the cheapos. I also commonly hear about a lot of guys getting 03 Cobra racks, but i'm skeptical about the quality of used racks, and they're not much cheaper than the Summit ones. Do you guys have any opinions/experience with this? Thanks - Travis

 

[MustangChris]

i spent 100.00 on my 01 (or is it a 99) cobra rack. i suggest hunting down a 03/04 FoMoCo OEM (no reman.) rack.

if you cant find one, ive seen aftermarket ones with cobra gear ratios in them.

finally, a lifetime warranty means its a good product. A company isnt going to produce a product with parts, labor, research, design, and administration costs just to replace them over and over again for free........ why on God's green earth would you think a lifetime warranty would mean a crappy product? Id worry about the "good" companies that dont have the balls to stand behind their products with a waranty...


ANYWAYS.... if you want cheep, get a reman. one from autozone.
if you want good, get a cobra unit.

Cheep
Fast
Good
(pick two of the above when designing your car. if you want good and cheep, it wont be fast. if you want fast and cheep, it wont be good....)

 

[g36 monkey]

Fast
Good
(pick two of the above when designing your car. if you want good and cheep, it wont be fast. if you want fast and cheep, it wont be good....)

This is posted in my exhaust shop haha.

I don't have a problem with remanufactured parts though. Only thing I have seen fail is the auto zone brand starters.

 

[Slykin]

i spent 100.00 on my 01 (or is it a 99) cobra rack. i suggest hunting down a 03/04 FoMoCo OEM (no reman.) rack.

if you cant find one, ive seen aftermarket ones with cobra gear ratios in them.

finally, a lifetime warranty means its a good product. A company isnt going to produce a product with parts, labor, research, design, and administration costs just to replace them over and over again for free........ why on God's green earth would you think a lifetime warranty would mean a crappy product? Id worry about the "good" companies that dont have the balls to stand behind their products with a waranty...


ANYWAYS.... if you want cheep, get a reman. one from autozone.
if you want good, get a cobra unit.

Cheep
Fast
Good
(pick two of the above when designing your car. if you want good and cheep, it wont be fast. if you want fast and cheep, it wont be good....)

The problem I have with the OEM racks is that you can't get them new as far as I know. If I could i'd be all over that, even if it costs quite a bit more. I just don't want to get a used rack to replace my used rack.. seems like you're just asking for it to start leaking.

As far as the lifetime warranty products.. I should hope that they are good, but most i've heard quite a bit of people saying the racks die pretty fast. Most people wouldn't change em out again and again just because of the hassle i'm assuming. It's pretty common for lifetime warrantied alternators, PS pumps etc to go out too.

I agree on the Cheap/Fast/Good theory, but cheap isn't so much an issue for me if I KNOW that spending more money actually gets me a better/reliable product.

 

[Willis_98GT]

Why not just see if your rag joint it toast before replacing the rack?

as far as racks.. ive had to change 3, and their is no difference between them as far as i know

except the 03/04 cobra steering rack has a tighter ratio. i cant tell you what it is exactly, if you did that rack with 03/04 front control arms your steering wheel would probably pull almost a half a turn tighter then normal.

 

[Slykin]

Why not just see if your rag joint it toast before replacing the rack?

as far as racks.. ive had to change 3, and their is no difference between them as far as i know

except the 03/04 cobra steering rack has a tighter ratio. i cant tell you what it is exactly, if you did that rack with 03/04 front control arms your steering wheel would probably pull almost a half a turn tighter then normal.

It seems that it's where the steering shaft goes into the rack, but, I got a new car... So I won't worry about it for the time being though I'm sure i'll be attempting to take the slop out of the steering on this car too.

 

[ReplicaR]

03/04 Cobra rack does not have tighter ratio. It's the same ratio as every other power SN95 rack out there. The only thing that's different is the valving of the rack and pinion, which alters power assist, and offers a heavier "sporty" feel to the steering wheel, and supposedly uses a different pinion bushing, which should reduce the steering wheel play. I've ordered 2003 Cobra rack yesterday, should be here next week. When I'll get around to changing it, I'll post my impressions here.

 

[Slykin]

I've ordered 2003 Cobra rack yesterday, should be here next week. When I'll get around to changing it, I'll post my impressions here.

Did you get a used one, or a reman'd one? I'm interested in the Cobra rack, but I'm just wondering reliability.

 

[Willis_98GT]

03/04 Cobra rack does not have tighter ratio. It's the same ratio as every other power SN95 rack out there. The only thing that's different is the valving of the rack and pinion, which alters power assist, and offers a heavier "sporty" feel to the steering wheel, and supposedly uses a different pinion bushing, which should reduce the steering wheel play. I've ordered 2003 Cobra rack yesterday, should be here next week. When I'll get around to changing it, I'll post my impressions here.

Please do i anxious

 

[ReplicaR]

Did you get a used one, or a reman'd one? I'm interested in the Cobra rack, but I'm just wondering reliability.

It's a used piece. Mine has lasted me forever, so I don't see how this one will fail quickly. I'd rather have a used one anyway, just because it's all factory Ford parts in there. Cobra rack had different T-bar than regular rack, which changes the level of assist. There is a good chance that remanufactured one might not be assembled with the same hardware that factory rack had. I'd rather not take a chance, otherwise I could end up with same exact rack that I already have on there.

The key is to find the right rack though. They all have the same cast part number in the middle (RF-F6SC-3550-AA), but the different years got different models. They all have different levels of assist, and I'm not really sure about which one has more than other, but what I do know is that the best ever SN95 rack was installed on a 2000 Cobra R. Second best was on 03-04 Cobras. They all have same steering ratio, just the feel is different with R model having the least assist of any. The way you can identify the racks from each other is dot matrix code on the side of the rack opposite from where the steering shaft goes. Here are the codes for all the SN95 years

SPR-ZM 03-04 Cobra
SPR-ZK 02-04 GT&Mach
SPR-ZL 02-04 V6

SPR-VT 00 Cobra R
SPR-SJ 99-01 V8
SPR-SH 99-01 V6

SPR-RT 97-98 All
SPR-GY 94-96 All

Willis_98GT, I will most likely install the rack some time early next month. I have a lot of track prep to do by mid december, so the earlier I will take care of this, the less stuff will be on my table later. I'll post here once I do.

 

[Javi]

If you are going to an 03 rack might aswell match it with a steering shaft...

 

[ReplicaR]

I already have an 03 shaft sitting at home, as well as another stock shaft from a different rack. Honestly, I can not tell a difference between the two. I might order a solid shaft once I install the rack, but I want to see what the rack by itself will change.

 

[Bullitt5339]

If it's just the slop you're worried about, save your money and just get a new shaft. As mentioned before, the RAG joint is 99% of the cause of sloppy steering. There is also a gear mesh adjustment on the steering box itself, you can tighten up the gear mesh if they're just worn a bit and take any slop out of it. A friend showed me that trick a couple years ago and it made a difference, but the RAG joint was the main culprit.

 

[ReplicaR]

I've done all of that. The slop in my car is definitely from the steering box, and even when I tightened the adjuster on the bottom of the rack, it's still there.

 

[MadStang]

I've got worn out a-arm bushings that's my only issue, otherwise my car is tighter than a twelve year old. lol

 

[ReplicaR]

I've got worn out a-arm bushings that's my only issue, otherwise my car is tighter than a twelve year old. lol

 

[MadStang]

lol

 

[ReplicaR]

I've put up a 2003 Cobra rack review up in my build thread, if anyone is interested. Here is the link

http://sn95forums.com/showthread.ph...-Mustang-build&p=927536&viewfull=1#post927536

 

[5point0]

I just saw this and I was wondering about the fittment of the rack vs the stock GT rack. I have a 95 gt that I have installed a 03 cobra rack on and have MM solid shaft and it seems like everything is tight and no more space near the engine. I still have stock headers but I mocked up a set of shorty equals and the thing comes really close to the shaft.. is there something wrong or is this normal..

 

[ReplicaR]

That's really odd. Usually the solid shaft should not take up any more space. The rack externally is identical to all the other ones. Who made the shaft?