My wife made me ask this

[Jim Dandy]

Does anyone know how hard it is to convert a Mustang II rack and pinion to power steering? The concessions one has to make to keep the peace and get new parts are sometimes great!!

[Venom S]

Hi Jim

Have you thought about switching to a Flaming River unit?

The manual R&P can not be converted to power. You can convert a power unit to manual by removing the hoses.

Also, Fat Man Fabricators might also have something you could use.

Venom_S

[CobraEd]

The solution is really quite simple. Just tell her we all said it can't be done.


Ed

[Venom S]

I like Ed's answer better.

Venom_S

[Roscoe]

Buy her a couple of two pound dumbells and tell her to work out.
(Make sure you're wearing your helmet!)

Roscoe

[Dan Heck]

Just slap on a power M-II rack and a power steering pump and you're done.

Dan

Oh, yeah- and some hoses in between.

[Jim Dandy]

Lets see if I got this straight. 3 guys tell me it can't be done and one says it can. I guess I'll have to tell her " IT CAN'T BE DONE"!!
Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Double Venom]

Jim,
First off, what type of rack do you have now?

Second it can be done. "MARCH" pulleys has finally made a set of pulleys for either a left or right hand turn water pump. Simply buy a set of pulleys and brackets from MARCH. Then find a new or used pump, two power steering hoses, and a rebuilt power steering rack. NAPA has them at a fairly decent price.

Then after a few hours of labor installing all the parts it will simply need to be re-aligned.

Cost: Conserveatively $850.00

However if you are using a power rack that has been "blocked off" then may I suggest a Flaming River rack. Around $200.00 and you will think you have power steering. If you have a FR rack then see above!

DV

[Dominik]

Jim,
I assume your lady will drive the car and turning force at the steering wheel is quite high.

How about a 16" steeering wheel?
That reduces the needed power to turn the wheel dramatically depending on the current diameter.
Also you MAY reduce caster to let the wheels turn more easily.

Also make sure you are currently not using a power steering unit w/o power assistance. Those usually feature a different ratio than the manual units giving higher turning forces.

Dominik

[CobraEd]

All right, . . .here is the real answer. Just inflate the front tires to 45psi so that they only run on the center rib for way easy steering, and then tell her you put the power steering in while she was at the stores.

Ed

[Dominik]

Ed,

I assume you didn't like my caster idea, did you?

Dominik

[CobraEd]

Actually, your caster idea was excellent (Jim, you should consider doing this). The problem was that is was a serious answer. I was striving for a goofy answer

Ed

[Dominik]

Thanks Ed,
It seems that I missed a private joke
Next time I will join the party earlier ...

Jim,
reducing caster reduces your straight line directional stability.
To compare: look at a mountain bíke fork and compare it to a street race bicycle.

(Or a 6" stretch Harley vs. Moto Cross...)

This is from "the book". You are probably not going that route anyway.

Dom

16" steering wheel from Cobra Restorers USD 395.00 ...

[Jim Dandy]

Tanks for all the info guys. I like the Flaming River thought. I have a standard M-II rack on the car now. I might be able to get away with the caster option , but my wife ( thanks to me, DUH) knows too much about mechanics to fool her. I did'nt think she had been listening for the past 25 years. Anyway thanks again and I'll post when I resolve the issue.. Jim

[Jack21]

Jim,

Two things one cannot put in a Cobra, and two things one should not I was emphatinally told way back when.

Will never work: Power steering & air conditioning.

Will work, but will get you laughed at by your peers: Automatic transmission & 17" wheels.

Air conditioning, researching it. Florida & Texas guys swear by it.

Automatic: That was quite a coin toss, but went with a T-5.

17" wheels. Oh, yes! Boy do these things handle.

Power steering. Works great, we love it.

I used a slightly different approach than DV, but not by much.

For the rack I used a late Mustang, not an MII rebuilt by AGR with high effort valving, (~$240, Summit). For a pump, I used an AGR rebuilt non-metric Saginaw (GM style), (~$140, Summit). A Ford pump will work equally well. I had brackets already for the GM. Also used a street rod valve in the pump that drops the operating pressure to be more consistent with lightweight cars, (~$40, RB's Antique Automotive). This (high effort rack valving & lower line pressure) restores the apparent lack of road feel from the power assist.

Also used March pulleys more for hassle free, bolt 'em in, and they work installation which also included a PS pump pulley. Got what March calls Street Rod ratio. More water pump RPM at low engine speed for better cooling.

Needed a return line fitting from Ford, a high side Ford & GM hose that I had a hydraulics shop mate together.

Used a 14" Lecarra steering wheel.

Have some digital shots if interested.

[Dave Samson]

Ok Jack, then what is your opinion of ABS in a Cobra ?

[Jack21]

My opinon, eh? That's dangerous.

First off, I'm not a big fan of ABS so I might be the wrong person to ask. I've done fine for years without it on any car, and the brakes and tires on the Cobra work great. Car also has adjustable proportioning valve for dialing in front/rear disks.

ABS on a Cobra? Depends again on how you intend to drive the car, and your honest assesment of your own driving skills and needs. Would ABS provide a specific benefit under a driving condition you enounter? My thoughts are, you probably don't need it, and it wouldn't be worth the effort and expense.

ABS tends to be most helpful on wet, icy, or snowy road conditions. Wifes car (Buick) has ABS. Tested it once to check operation after installing new brakes. Had to find an otherwise unoccupied stretch of wet road to do hard braking on. They work. Under the hardest dry road braking I've tried, the ABS doesn't kick in. Towing a trailer, it might.

ABS is a pretty sophisticated system, and before attempting an install, I'd want to be intimately familiar with how it works, and diagnostic procedures. Absolutely no short cuts trying to port this over from a late model Lincoln. This would limit you to cars that use late model suspensions that late model Lincoln parts would bolt onto.

My opinion. Now where's my 35 cents & coffee.

[Dave Samson]

Jack,
Thanks for your 0.35 worth.
Perhaps my reaction time is slow on the road but I have felt the ABS kick in numerous times on my 4WD and BMW under normal driving conditions under hard braking. This is a particular problem in the Cobra on a wet road where the brakes tend to lock very easily resulting in aquaplaning.

The benefits I expect will be later braking on the track without locking the brakes and less chance of an accident on a wet road.

I've almost completed the difficult job of integrating a Bosch ABS system, stripped out of Holden Commodere (somewhat equivalent to your Buick). I have got to know this ABS system quite well from the mechanics manual that dropped into my lap by chance.

Most vehicles built in the past 10 years have had the ABS ring gears installed into the front wheel hubs and either side of the LSD at the rear end. Some systems have one unit for the hydraulic actuator and another for the ECU. Others use a simpler one unit system , eg., Ford. www.corral.net/tech/handling/abs.html

It's been one helluva challenge and I'm almost there, I've taken it slowly and I think I have covered all bases on this one.

I hope in the end it's a case of "how could I have lived without it all these years ?"

[Jack21]

Dave,

You are to be commended on putting ABS on a Cobra. This is no easy undertaking to properly select, install, and tune these systems. When finished, you might like to share it with us. I would never have looked into Bosch for an ABS on a Cobra. Are you by chance an engineer?

Some additional food for thought. Tires. One of my initial fears in putting wide radials on a light car was turning the car into a hocky puck on the first wet road I hit because of hydroplaning (tire rides on top of water while turning, loosing contact with road surface) or skidding (tire looses traction with road surface due to braking and stops turning).

I agonized over this going over the pros & cons of 15" vs 17" tires. Went with the 17's. You wouldn't believe the difference. Screw originality when it comes to sliding into a ditch or driving home. I used Falken FK451's; 235/45ZR17 front, and 275/40ZR17 rear. Cost was only slightly more than typical 15's, but wet & dry road traction is rated AA. They're made in Japan so their availability in Australia should be good.

PS: I did an R&R in Australia from Viet Nam in '71 and fell in love with the place. So different than US. e-mail if you want to chat about it.

[Dave Samson]

Hi Jack,
Good to make contact with a guy like you.
Yes I was an mech. engineer once upon a time but spent my working life (30 years of it) in the computer industry, mostly in the mainframe software business. I retired 5 years ago and moved to this part of the country with my family.
www.reflections.com.au/GoldCoast/index.html

Bosch make most of the ABS systems used in Australia and certainly all the European cars. Hydroplpaning or aquaplaning as we say down here, is what I fear the most and occurs so easily. It was the cause of a front end smack 2 years ago that cost me 2 weeks under the car replacing the front suspension and steering rack. I run 235 x 15" front and 305 x 15 on back. Falkens are widely sold here, I'll take a look next time new tires are due.

I'll have to document this ABS saga some time, which reminds that i had better get back to the garage and get on with it, that is after I fix the 2 computers that my kids are bellyaching about.

At the time you were on R&R in Sydney, probably behaving badly at Kings Cross at the Texas Tavern near the fountain (bring back memories?) , I was glad as hell that I was able to roam around those streets with my mates, lucky enough not to have been conscripted into the army. If your heart still warms to the land of Oz, why not visit some time, we Cobra nuts are a friendly bunch.

Dave