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  1. #1

    Default 85 v8 swap power steering questions

    Hey first I’d like to say this is the best forum around and I’ve been into square nose mustangs since my father bought his black 1986 gt back in 86. Since that day it’s basically been non stop mustangs. I’m converting my 85 notch with 37k miles to a v8 347 t-5 trans and I’ve never seen anything around about what gets done with the power steering. I just put an 86 gt pump in it with issues at all. Are there differences with the racks ? The lines seem the same.

  2. #2

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    Welcome to the forum. Converted from what?...
    I don't believe there are rack differences affected by differing pumps...
    Mike
    1986 Mustang convertible ---> BUILD THREAD
    Past Fox-chassis "four eyes":
    1983 Mercury Cougar LS
    1986 Ford Thunderbird ELAN
    1980 Capri RS Turbo

    Work in progress website ---> http://carb-rebuilds-plus.boards.net/

  3. #3

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    I have an 85 4 cylinder. I also have 2 86gt part cars that I’m using as donor cars.

  4. #4

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    The V8 had higher ratio steering, 15 to 1. You probably can find the right one off of one of the donor cars, and the pump with it. I think the V6 and 4 cylinder had a 20 to 1 ratio.

  5. #5
    FEP Super Member erratic50's Avatar
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    ^this^

    Sorry to hear any four eyed cars are being consumed as parts. There are a LOT of other well suited parts cars out there so be sure the 86's are truly dead before gutting them for their running gear!

    Early four eyed foxes were very different in the rack department. The connections from column to rack were a point of major revision. Everything had to be used together -- rack, column, rag-joint, etc..... True across the life of the foxes really.

    Once you get past those subtle differences there were a few variations that were V-8 like found on certain rare models like 4 cyl turbo SVO, etc.

    General rule of thumb is
    Most non-turbo 4 banger and V6 cars had the 3.0 turn rack setup.
    2.5 turn was normal for V8. May have started in 85-86 GT, not sure. There was a revision in rack mouting from large bolts to smaller ones with bushings in there.

    Once you get past the four eyed cars and into the parts donors we all know and love to kill ....... 87+ GT's had the same rack but were limited to 2.25 turn as a standard in 91+ once the larger 16" pony wheels were the norm on GT and optional on LX-V8 cars.

    Be sure to get a decent power steering cooler. The Transmission cooler in a manual transmission car or an external transcooler will work vastly better than a "cooling loop" ever would think to. Add an inline filter that you remember to change every 15K miles. Use synthetic PS fluid. Consider an underdrive crank pulley and an overdrive (93 cobra style) water pump pulley to get your pump speeds down where they really should be.

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