[DeTomaso] Ferrari Steering Rack Comparison

[Asa Jay Laughton]

My apologies, some of you will get this twice (once as POCA and once as TPR)

Hi all,
Since I've not seen another real comparison yet, I figured I'd pop in 
here.  Attached are all the photos that accompany this comparison.

I recently needed a steering rack to do a comparison with the one 
installed in my Pantera.  This was because a friend drove the car and 
said he felt the rack was dangerous and should be fixed or replaced.  
The easiest thing to do was to make a comparison.

Peter (The German) Menyhart of The Whitehorse Ranch, fellow Pantera 
owner and racer, just happened to have one of the ebay Ferrari steering 
racks everyone has been talking about.  He graciously shipped it to me 
so I could do my comparison.  Peter is in the midst of a restoration 
project and is able to part with it for a while.

The rack is very well packaged in an oversize box.  It does not come 
with tie-rod ends installed.  The boots are a big larger than stock 
DeTomaso, and they are clamped on with those funny one-time use on the 
large end and a friction/spring on the small end.

The movement of the rack feels rather stiff, not as hard as the one out 
of my car but still not quite "like butter."  However, you'll note from 
the photos the tension can be adjusted without the use of shims.  I will 
work with that later.  So far, one plus for this rack.

I took measurements of the tube diameter in the mounting bracket areas.  
The two tubes are within .005" at each location.  The overall length is 
the same as my Pantera rack.  The big difference, as has been mentioned, 
is in the drivers side bracket area which contains raised ribs for 
either side of the bracket.

Now, here is where I discovered something interesting.  I was having a 
very difficult time getting a good reading with my inside calipers of 
that area.  The bracket was easy to measure at 0.624" outside dimension 
but the space on both racks measured at about .555" in width and that 
didn't make sense.

Well, I had to put my grandpa glassed on, but found the reason.  Nearly 
the entire ridge on the Pantera rack has a shoulder on it, that goes 
from about .055" at the bottom against the tube, to just under 0.624" at 
the outermost edge.  Looking at the photos of the bracket you'll note it 
too has a bevel cut into the semi-circle.  In my case the brackets still 
don't fit quite flush to the Pantera rack.

The brackets -don't- fit the Ferrari rack at all.  You'll note from the 
close-up of that rack, there really isn't any bevel to it at all; it's 
nearly 0.555" from tube to outer edge.  In order to get this to the 
0.624" it needs to be to accept the brackets, I'll need to machine about 
.070" split more or less equally on both sides of the channel.

The last thing to note is that the tie-rods are a bit beefier.  However, 
they -are- cut with the same diameter and thread as the Pantera rack.  
In the photo of the tie-rod ends, you see the Pantera rack with the lock 
nut on the tie-rod end, and a used/spare/old Pantera tie rod threaded 
onto the Ferrari rack.

So there you have it.  The rack is nearly identical with the exception 
of beefier tie-rods (good thing), adjustable tension adjust (good 
thing), and narrow mounting bracket channel (bad thing but workable).

Mark Skwarek recently did one of these for his Pantera as well and used 
an end mill with the rack mounted in a vise, cutting a path, turning the 
rack and cutting again until he got all the way around.  That's probably 
what I'll do as well.

The best thing would be to completely disassemble the rack and chuck it 
up on a lathe, but I really don't want to take it apart; after all, it's 
not really my rack.  :)

There, any questions?
Asa  Jay

-- 
Asa Jay Laughton - W7TSC, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
&  Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA
******************************
http://www.racingagainstautism.com
http://www.teampanteraracing.com
http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism


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