Rack & Pinion into a XF?

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Just wondering if I could fit the XH ute r&p into my XF ute? Anyone heard of doing this?

I know of a a/market R&P set avail, but should be able to pick the pieces s/h out of a wrecked ute!
 
Any thing is possible if you have enough time and money. But considering you would have to basically cut and shut from the A pillar forward, I don't think it feasible.
Stick with the aftermarket idea. From all reports they are an excellent conversion. One manafacturer even offers a complete strut front setup.
 
Get some expert advice, mate, and take it from there. A home made steering swap is possible, but you've got lots to learn and will need some professional advice from an engineer. People who don't want to learn the good oil on how to make the original bits on Fords work well should go buy a Honda.

I've studied this one.

What I did:-

I did everything to sort out my old XE, and it steered beautifully when I added


1) the ealier power steering pump, (The XF to XG item was a designed to have a huge sneeze factor at straight ahead because the stock Bishops~Kirby power steering has only 2.6 turns lock to lock, and lots of Commodore drivers found them too waffly).

2) nolathane idler arm,
3) roller top conversion to the power steering box,
4) 4 degrees of castor, new shockies,
5) TRW fully encapsulated top ball joints
and MOST IMPORTANTLY,

6) NO REPCO Pitman arm. The pit man arm must be a perfect Ford spec item. How Repco ever sold such awfull Tiwanese crud as I had on my Falcon, I'll never know. The Vehicle Testing Station rejected a brand new Repco pitman arm, I went to Repco, got 67 bucks back, and then got a new item from Transport Wholesale for 53 bucks, and it was heaps and heaps better!


A run down on what you are doing:-

The problem with Falcon steering isn't that its recirculating ball when its should be more modern rack and pinion. HZ and WB Holdens had the same Bishops~Kirby power and non power steering box, yet pointed beautifully.


The poor old Falcon steering is caused by the castor bars on all XK to XG's, which undergo movement under braking turning, and acceleration. Even the RRS steering doesn't fix everything, but its a quantum leap from the stock set-up.

The later Ford Tristar/TRW power steering rack is a good one, but it is designed to go with the full XH independent fron suspension.

RRS have done all the bumpsteer calculatuons, yet still use stock steering arms and most pickup points.


After helping a mate spend 8 weeks of work on correcting bump steer on his door slammer, I'd say save up for the RRS kit, or get an XH rack, get the Dirt Track Technology book, and start with the stock steering arms, and then shortern the rack. Best rack to use my not be the Ford one. I'd use the Camira or Vectra power steering unit, and make up new mountings and intermediate arms from steel. The RRS set-up is perfect. If your prepared to do your homework, and work with a certificating engineer, then you'll end up doing what RRS did.


I would rather do what Herrod Automotive did to there first XG XR8 conversion in 1994. They just added nolathane idler arms and castor rods. The castor rods won't shear with nolathane, but the top shockie mounts will brake the top mount with the hard plastic, so don't ever use nolathane on shockie tops.

Then, Herrods added the better power steering pump.

The power steering box can be fitted out with a 65 dollar aftermarket roller top ball race conversion. The stock Falcon one is just a plate which soon chops out, and the whole sector can shift, leak, and then some wombat goes and turns the adjusment screw up to fix the steering float, and then the steering box is trashed.
 
xecute®™© he he":1hcv4jow said:
The power steering box can be fitted out with a 65 dollar aftermarket roller top ball race conversion.

Can anyone give me an idea of where to start looking for this conversion?I rang some places here in Brisbane today - no joy so far.

I have an XF manual wagon with power steering and plenty of play in the steering wheel. I have already replaced the radius rod bushes with urethane and the idler arm with a rubber bush at one end and urethane at the other. I will be working my way through Xecute's list until it comes good.

I asked an auto wrecker about a replacement powersteering pump and they had a Saginaw from an XD. Is this early enough for a more positive feel, and are the earlier pumps a straight swap in?

I hope this thread is still current, thanks for reading it.
 
The plastic XE, early XE and all steel XD/XC pumps were very sensitive ones. Ford got complaints about the steering, and caved into the conservative old farts.

Any XF steering has the lost motion pump, which only came in with the XF. I'm not sure how the valving differed. Earlier than that, no problem. Every major model update, Ford claimed they revalved the power steering, but it was only the XF which felt really different.

Bryan Rustbatch in Dunedin did my power steering in my XE in 1999. It got a roller top conversion, and he said that it is available for Fords and Hodens because they both used a similar Bishops Kirby power steering box. He was really impressed with how heavy the steering felt, as every six cylinder Falcon has steering which is too light. It's been claimed that the XE ESP with a 5.8 was the only Falcon with good power steering, everything else was light and waffly. (Hmmm, reminds me of myself...)

It may be listed as a Rare Spares part for Holdens, I have no idea.

I'd check with alloydave. It may be a Transport Wholesale/Appco part, and it is most certainly not found at Ford dealers, as they used to sell only standard plain top plates. There is a seaco or timkin bearing in the top, and it lasts for years without chopping out like the stock one does. Once the sector developes run out, it soon leaks, and ruins a good power sterring box, so do keep looking.

Deano
 
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