Rack & Pinion Steering

I have looked at a complete conversion kit that is sold by a company in Germany I think. It appeared to be a bolt in set up. It wasn't cheap but what is? It uses only one side of a rack to move the existing tie rods so it is actually a semi rack and pinion of sorts. At least it gets rid of the old steering box.Has anyone used this ? If so how was it?

Lots of conversation about this about 18 months ago. Check the archives. No one has actually posted anything about doing this, yet. Seems like someone bought the parts.

@Michael McKelvey is doing it.

I wonder if they'd give us a break if we buy 10 or more????

@Jimmy V. posted:

I have looked at a complete conversion kit that is sold by a company in Germany I think. It appeared to be a bolt in set up. It wasn't cheap but what is? It uses only one side of a rack to move the existing tie rods so it is actually a semi rack and pinion of sorts. At least it gets rid of the old steering box.Has anyone used this ? If so how was it?

I disagree. It is a rack and pinion, the tie rods just pick up off nearly the same point to ensure the least amount of bump-steer, keeping as close to the original VW arrangement as possible. If installed correctly, it will provide excellent function with zero play and totally equal bump-steer left or right.

I drove an IM with the Rabbit/Golf rack and liked it(and yes, Henry used an offset two U-joint steering shaft). The rack makes the VW beam as good as it can possibly be IMHO. It's on my list of future mods.

This picture is of a Polo rack from Europe, modified to fit a beam. The Polo rack does in fact use the same equal-length tie-rods and pickup point, rack being offset to the driver's side.

And before somebody starts talking about using a Super Beetle steering rack, you can't. The Super Beetle rack is in front and steers via leading arms, the regular Beetle beam requires a trailing spindle/arm arrangement.

Michael got parts from some dude in Europe on the Samba, and is somewhere between $600 to $1000 complete. I look forward to seeing it complete.

I did this conversion about two years ago.  It is fantastic and I highly recommend it.

There was a long post about this 18 months ago. I believe all of the info on buying the kit is in there.

I ordered from this guy in Finland.  His kit is similar to the one above but less expensive.  I still have about $800 into the project.

alex.storskrubb@gmail.com

I happen to have a 911 column, U-joints, and rack complete to the tie-rod ends. It may find it's way into my car someday, but I've got to figure out location(hint, hint @Stan Galat) and bracketry so as to minimize bump-steer.

@DannyP posted:

I happen to have a 911 column, U-joints, and rack complete to the tie-rod ends. It may find it's way into my car someday, but I've got to figure out location(hint, hint @Stan Galat) and bracketry so as to minimize bump-steer.

I'll get the car on the lift and get  you what you need, @DannyP.

The beam with a real rack is not an A-arm suspension, but it's as good as beam steering can possibly be (which is pretty darned good).

Thank you Stan.....

I remember my first speedster had VW worm gear steering.  I didn't know what I was missing until I got a chance to drive George Brown's silver IM. 

What a difference r&p steering makes.