Colin's E-34 Rack & Pinion Installation Pics....

[George M]

http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/RP1Resize.jpg

http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/RP2Resize.jpg

img]http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/RP3Resize.jpg[/img]

http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/RP4Resize.jpg

[George M]

http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/RP3Resize.jpg

[George M]

one more time for the gipper...
http://members.roadfly.com/georgemann/RP3RResize.jpg

[Bruno]

Impressive... still a lot of money for the upgrade...

[George M]

believe a package could be developed for about 1/3 of that. Believe at even close to $1000 or so, demand would be quite limited. And not to monday morning quarterback...but what the hell. Colin, am curious how much involved you were with the development? Looking at the pics...in an ideal world one probably wouldn't chose that particular rack design for a retrofit. I am sure the car is quite satisfying to drive however. You alluded to the the need for constant velocity joints due to the extreme pinion housing exit angle relative to the intermediate shaft tie in. Much of this angle could have been abated if the rack where moved more forward in car, closer to the engine X-mbr versus hamstrung with the cantilever mounting design specific to this particular rack which spaces the rack farther rearward creating the high pinion angle. One could even cut the crowfoot off the pinion housing with a sawzal and mount the rack almost directly to the engine X-mbr via common U-brackets thereby cutting down considerably on the angle from the pinion housing to the intermediate shaft making the installation closer to production designs out there. The benefit would be to eliminate the high pinion angle and need for expensive CV joints and the elaborate center bearing tie in to the upper control arm X-mbr...could live with single cardin joints common on most R&P gears. Again pure speculation and easy for me to arm chair critique one hell of an effort from a first time installation which you have to give the tuner a large measure of credit for.
George

[Cacatfish]

I was involved as muc as I could be considerin my very limited expertise. I did a lot of researc on it, but dont ave any experience in fabrication and one-off type projects. Even after doin some researc, te ardest part was findin someone willin to ive it a sot. Few people are willin to do one-offs like tis as tey are rarely money makers. I founs myself in te mode of back seat tec as times, but I believe te reality of fabbin it up was arder tan I was ivin credit for.
Te first idea was an e30 M3 rack as tat is wat e swaps into 2002s, but it was found to be wron dimensions. I cant say muc as far as alternative locations for te rack, etc as I dont ave tat kind of expertise. I fiured tere must be some way around te severe anle, but I pretty muc just left te details up to my tec. I knew I would be payin for custom fab and lots of labor for trial and error factor (for a 2002, relatively standard for im it comes in at $1200) but, well I was obsessed, wat can I say? At times, durin, te project I was wonderin if I ad lost a screw, but wen I took my first drive in it, tat all disappeared. It makes it feel like a different car now and I find myself wantin to climb in it more tan I ever did before.
ps: excuse patetic spellin, my keyboard is on its way out :)




believe a package could be developed for about 1/3 of that. Believe at even close to $1000 or so, demand would be quite limited. And not to monday morning quarterback...but what the hell. Colin, am curious how much involved you were with the development? Looking at the pics...in an ideal world one probably wouldn't chose that particular rack design for a retrofit. I am sure the car is quite satisfying to drive however. You alluded to the the need for constant velocity joints due to the extreme pinion housing exit angle relative to the intermediate shaft tie in. Much of this angle could have been abated if the rack where moved more forward in car, closer to the engine X-mbr versus hamstrung with the cantilever mounting design specific to this particular rack which spaces the rack farther rearward creating the high pinion angle. One could even cut the crowfoot off the pinion housing with a sawzal and mount the rack almost directly to the engine X-mbr via common U-brackets thereby cutting down considerably on the angle from the pinion housing to the intermediate shaft making the installation closer to production designs out there. The benefit would be to eliminate the high pinion angle and need for expensive CV joints and the elaborate center bearing tie in to the upper control arm X-mbr...could live with single cardin joints common on most R&P gears. Again pure speculation and easy for me to arm chair critique one hell of an effort from a first time installation which you have to give the tuner a large measure of credit for.
George

[George M]

well said Colin. I applaud your adventuresome spirit for taking it on. At the end of the day, you have the best steering E-34 on the board and thanks for sharing your installation with us.
Best Regards,
George

[Cacatfish]

Thanks!:)


well said Colin. I applaud your adventuresome spirit for taking it on. At the end of the day, you have the best steering E-34 on the board and thanks for sharing your installation with us.
Best Regards,
George

[Jeff N.]

Purdy cool. I'd love to see a better pic on how the steering linkage connects to the Rack. Looks like some pretty fancy fabrication in there.

Jeff

[beetos]

George,
I was wondering if you still had the originals of these pics. If so, is there any chance you could repost or email them?

Many thanks

[txp135]

What??????????

I didn't know someone can actually do this not to mention did this?

Please update, is it reliable? How does it change the feel of the car?

When my steering go bad, this would be an awesome upgrade.

[ttsalo]

My E34 came from the factory with rack and pinion steering.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=HJ71&mospid=47394&btnr=32_0637&hg=32&fg=10

[Robin-535im]

My E34 came from the factory with rack and pinion steering.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=HJ71&mospid=47394&btnr=32_0637&hg=32&fg=10
Now THAT would be an awesome stock BMW part to swap! That and the fridge for the rear seat...