True74yamaha wrote:

That looks like a thang of beauty daze.

Thanks!! Coming from one DIYer to another that is always nice to hear

True74yamaha wrote:

If you choose to run stock inner tie rods you could easily cut of the mounts off the OEM steering link and then weld them to the new tie Rod spacing rack mount. That's what I ended up doing.

 

Thats actually one of three options I have been milling around and haven't fully decided on yet.  The first option is to simply run it the way I currently have it set up.  Second option is to use a 1.5" to 1' reamer to cut the holes in my bracket to except the OEM inner tie-rods.  third option is to do as you suggest and weld a section of an OEM drag link in place to do the job.  I have an extra drag link weighting in the wings and may go that way, and I have also priced out the reamer so we will see how the heims work running the system through full travel, lock to lock on the lift before I decide for sure.
 

As you know these things always take longer than you think they should   here are a few more pix but not much to report.

I made a few more tweaks to my center bracket, sand blasted it, and reworked the reinforcement bars.  I am hoping to weld it up tomorrow than add ribbing between the bars to compensate for the 3/16" plate I used and to make it bullet proof.  I also added a tie-bar between my heim joint bolt to significantly increase their load capacity.


I also fabricated my rag joint to DD adapter (DD shaft still needs to be cut off so that I have just enough to fit inside the DD u-joint)


The DD shaft is currently a press fit into the DD hole in the round plate and I will weld it up on the back side to make it nice and strong.  Even if the welds were to brake they should pull through so it would still "fail-safe"


I am using both the OEM rag joint mounting holes as well as the slots for the studs so that it will be nice and strong.

I looked into getting more travel out of the GM j-car rack by modifying it but came to the conclushion that there is not much to be gained.  Laook at again at this info I posted before.

Daze wrote:

Not much to report yet.  Mostly what I did was cleaned up in and around my lift so I could get the Mustang off the lift and put the Galaxie on the lift.  Once I had it up in the air I took a good look at what kind of issues I may or may not have as I put it all together.  I also modified my rac to maximize turning radios.  To do so I first removed the boot from the rack.  Once you do that there is a spacer that slides inside the rac window.  By trimming down the spacer I was able to get total travel to just shy of 6.5"  not quite the same amount as the OEM steering travel but close.  I think I am only short 1/4"  I drilled a hole part way into each of the steel spacers so that I could install a piece of key stock between them.  This should keep the spacers from rotating so that the flat part is always on the outside.  I also plan on gluing in the key stock as well as gluing the spacers to the plastic, just to help hold everything in place. As you can see from the pic of my modified spacer next to an unmodified spacer I was able to remove quite a bit of material.

Daze wrote:

update, not all racks are the same.  I have two, one newer one and one that is a junker.  The junker benefited from the smaller internal piece but the newer reman unit bottomed out internally at 6.1875" total travel, so to me it makes no sense to use the modified internal piece as I really don't think it is good for the rack to bottom out internally and totally not worth it for only 3/16" extra steering travel.

got a little more work done today.  I have the ribs welded in and the welds have been mostly dressed.  I have a little more cleanup to do an I think I will weld a plate cover across the triangle area to keep dirt and water out.  I will also drill two 1/2" holes in the bigger section so dirt and water can drain.

barnett468 wrote:

.
hey...what year is the galaxy?

its a 62


 

Made some good progress in the last week.  All I have left to do is cut the DD shaft to the correct length to go between the two u-joints and fab up the bracket for the heim joint that supports the shaft.  Then I can adjust the toe and it will be ready to test in non power steer format.  Assuming there are no further bugs to work out I will take it all apart, take the parts to the powder coater and then re install it all and plum the hydraulic lines.

Here is how the conversion bracket turned out.  I ended up welding a piece of 16 aug sheet steel over the triangle section to keep dirt and water out and I drilled a couple of drain hole in the other section.


The bracket seams to do the job quite well


The side brackets went together well and hold the rack firmly in place


Driver's side bracket


I cut where the red line is and removed about 2" of extra material.  I had left the bracket larger because I was hoping to tie the two brackets together for stability but more on that in a few pix.

Passenger's side bracket


The only thing I added to the bracket after this pic was a gusset to eliminate any flex in the bracket and add support.

As I mentioned above.  My original intent was to tie the two brackets together to eliminate flex but getting around the exhaust the bellhousing, the rack and the oil pan proved more trouble then its worth.  

The red lines showed what I had in mind but as I said there was a lot to get around.  After mounting up the rack I realized there wasn't any flex especially with the k-member tying the frame together right in front of where the brackets mount up.

So here it is, most of what you need to install a GM j-car rack in a 62 Galaxie


​I slid some 1" box tubing over the tie-rod tubes and welded it in place so that I have a place to use a 1" wrench when adjusting the toe.


here is a better look at the brackets with the gusset added and the driver's side bracket trimmed.




 

rpm wrote:

Nice work Daze. Simple fix to get flat areas for a wrench on the round tube that I wouldn't have thought to do.

Funny thing is it took me a while to come up with that.  I thought about cutting notches but the tube is not thick enough.  Thought about welding some angle iron to it but didn't like it, then I happened to be looking at a thin piece of 1" square tubing that I had used as a spacer when mocking up the brackets and thought, "that might fit".  It was really tight, I had to file down the seam from inside the square tuning  and remove all the paint from the sleeves to get it to fit.  Still had to tap them on with a hammer.

Those are some really nice brackets you have built Daze. You also solved the single largest complaint about using the J car rack, the instability of mounting it with just the two bolts there in the middle. I still remember Tubo putting Miss May on Buzek's lift in Tomball and wiggling the rack ends back and forth 3 or 4 inches. That won't be happening with your Galaxie.

I think it all looks good! 

Hakan wrote:

Hornman wrote:

Those are some really nice brackets you have built Daze. You also solved the single largest complaint about using the J car rack, the instability of mounting it with just the two bolts there in the middle. I still remember Tubo putting Miss May on Buzek's lift in Tomball and wiggling the rack ends back and forth 3 or 4 inches. That won't be happening with your Galaxie.

The problem with Tubo's r&p was that the r&p itself wasn't adjusted properly and that actually had nothing to do with the  Mustang adaptation design as such of it. But I have to admit I was a bit nervous that the adjustments I did to it played a role in the famous mail box incident just afterwards.

 

 
I was refering to Ultrastang wiggling the entire rack around because the mounting bolts were loose. That plus Mustang Steve's frequent condemnation of the poor structural integrity provided by having the two mounting bolts so close to the center. But hey, I only know what I have been told and I don't remember most of that.

Greg B wrote:

I think it all looks good! 

so when are you going to make one for your Galaxie?

True74yamaha wrote:

For your heim joints what did you go with? I know speedway sales the stock ford thread heims. Is that what you went with or did you go smaller for the inners and then use stock outers?

I used the OEM Galaxie tie-rods on the outside and then 11/16" heims from Speedway for the inners.  They had a 5/8" hole so I presed in some bushings to size them down to 1/2".
 

Got all my parts back form the powder coater.  I am very pleased with the way they turned out.


I also decided to weigh all the parts from the OEM steering to compare it to all the parts from the R&P and the weights are almost the same.  My R&P setup weighs 48# and the OEM steering parts weigh 45#  I was surprised that the R&P parts weighed 3# more than the OEM set up.  I could have made my brackets thinner lighter if I I had used thinner angle iron on my side brackets but I was more interested in overbuilding it than saving weight