[alfa] Re: Non Power Milano Steering

[ALLSTEELDA@xxxxxxx]

Hello All:

I guess I will weigh in on this one.

On my 3.0 Alfetta GT, I am working on a similar issue.  The manual steering 
on this early Alfetta is 4.0 turns lock to lock.  GTV-6's have about 3.5 turns 
lock to lock so this is not much of an improvement.  Frankly, this is pretty 
slow for a track car.  My experience with other track cars and various BMW M3s, 
New Maserati's and Ferrari's is that 2.5 turns lock to lock feels pretty 
natural both on the street and on the track.  Soooo that is my goal. I do want to 
stay with manual steering (it just seems proper on minimalist 2100 lb Alfa).  
However, I would like the steering to be as light as possible.  At first, I 
thought about using a Milano rack with-out the power as the ratio is about 
right.  Many said this would be way too heavy.  Then I looked into aftermarket 
racks.  Tar ox makes (made?) a quick steering rack and pinion to fit a GTV-6 
housing...this might be a great way to go however, it appears tobe difficult to 
obtain.  So, I have come back to my first thought and I now have played around 
with one a bit and have another comming to me from Andy Kress at Perfomatek. If 
you remove all the hydro fitings the rack becomes "unpowered"  However, the 
rack remains quite sticky.  It appears that the seals at the rack ends are 
causing this as they need to contain the high pressure fluid.  Why not simply 
remove these and fill the rack with some quality grease?  A nice smooth manual rack 
with about 2.7 turns lock to lock.  Yes, it will be a bit heavy, but plenty 
quick.  At least you won't have to turn it as much.  Of course, my car weighs 
about 800 lbs less than a Milano.

Stay tuned, I will have my rack in a few days and pull it apart to see what I 
have.

David Alexander
Riverside, IL
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided