Following Fred Birkenbeck of Australia's lead of converting his Morgan's steering to an Alfa 33 rack...What readily available (in the USA), rack and pinion will fit to a '60's Morgan...Spitfire? Chevy Citation? Tony in NJ (W.A.S.T.E.) 21/09/99
Dear Tony in N.J.,
I used a Mini Cooper S steering rack on my Modsports 4/4
and liked it quite a bit. They are available from Seven Enterprize in Newport
News,Va. call for 800 number and talk to Mike Abrams. Get the close ratio
one if you want to go that route. I also use the factory Gemmer box on
Plus-4s/ Four/Fours and early Plus-8s. If you make that conversion you
will need the arm, connecting link (joint on both ends) and collapsible
link which is the steering wheel end. It makes a nice conversion and you
can not tell that unit from a rack because it is so good and smooth. It
also does better if you ever hit the front end of the Morgan as it is all
on one side and survives well. Remember I only give advice on things that
have worked for me on my Morgans.
Best to you, John H. Sheally II
23/09/99
I don't know of any that will work properly. If you use a normal rack with short tie rods coming out of each end of the rack, there will be very severe roll steer caused by the arc traversed by the tie rods as the suspension rises and falls. That is why the Morgan rack has its tie rods connected at the center of the rack. It is the only way to get tie rods long enough so that the arc that they traverse is large enough so as to not have an adverse effect on the roll and bump steer.
One way to avoid this complication might be to connect
the standard drag link to one end only of a rack, at the left end if it
were a left hand drive car.It would require the fabrication of a special
tie rod end connector to attach the drag link to the end of the steering
rack, but it might work.
Regards, Greg Solow
22/09/99