1980 manual rack with sn95 brakes

[dean85gt]

Hey I was just wondering if anyone knew of any issues that I will be encountering with my manual steering swap. The car is an 85 and the k member is out of a 91 and I am using the 91 front lower control arms as well. I have 94-95 front spindles and cobra brakes out front.

The manual rack is coming out of an 80 and I am getting most of the steering shaft as well so I will not need one of those 75 dollar adapters. My main concerns are that the manual rack's tie rods will not reach out far enough to the spindles. I am also wondering if I will be able to run a MM bumpster kit for a 94-95 to solve this problem. Also will the rack bushings be the same as well?

[gdniel]

The bushings are different if I remember correctly early cars had the sleeve in the bushing not on the rack, but otherwise you should be able to run the bump steer kit. I have a competition engineering bump steer kit and it seems to be longer than other kits I have used.

[dean85gt]

Do you know where and if I could find aluminum or poly bushings for that rack.

[gdniel]

Once the bushing come out you should be able to install the newer bushings for the rack you have. Steeda, and maximum motorsports both have/had aluminum rack bushings, and I had aluminum ones on my 88 and had to cut the sleeves off the k-member to install them. Poly is offered by quite a few vendors.

[Jax Rhapsody]

How good is that for everyday driving? Mine already has manual windows, and a manual tranny and steering would be a good match.

[Dean_T]

My '78 Futura has a Flaming River manual rack, '96 spindles, MM aluminum rack bushings, and MM bump steer kit. It all went together without a fuss. I used the later skinny Mustang bolt also since the Futura also has the MM tubular K-member. I didn't expect the rack to work out but it did - it's temporary anyway since I want the Futura to be power steering.

Dean T