Remember that the Mustang II rack is for a front steer car (steering arms pointing forward) and our Mavericks are rear steer cars. You can't just replace all of you existing tie rods and center link with a MII rack. If you did, you would steer your car left and the rack would steer the car right. You must completely convert to a true Mustang II front steer system like R&C or many others sell.
the thing that you would have to accomplish to put a rack and pinion in to a maverick is to find a rack and pinion thats inner sockets have the same width to them as the mavericks inner tie rods have between them. then the rack will need to be mounted in the same location as the center link was. it also has to be a rear mounted rack and pinon so it will stear the right way. if you can find a rack that meets all these requirements then you will be able to adapt that to work with maverick suspension. also when you find it make sure to tell the rest of us.
Before I decided to go the full Mustang II route, I went to the junk yard and looked around for some sort of rear steer rack. I found a manual rack from an Escort that originally mounts on it's firewall. I placed it into the area that my tie rods and center link were and it seemed to fit fairly well. I knew I would have to make up some kind of rail to rail tubing and fabricate mounts. I didn't go any further so I don't know if it ever would have worked because, at that time, I had those crazy Tubular Automotive swap headers on my Cleveland and the tubes were laying all over the rubber rack boots and they certainly would have melted. Now maybe a 302 would handle that rack completely different.
i believe some of the aftermarket kits are based on the escort rack.i know one guy that used a sunfire rack,very simular.just make brackets that bolt to the box and idler locations.
Rod & Custom kit is definitely the way to go! 3 day install...just take the parts out of the boxes... didn't have to "make" anything...
A few guys over on the Falcon forum tried a lot of different rack & pinion setups from the junkyards. They all fell to have enough travel in the rack to pull into a parking space at the grocery store without backing up and forward to get in the space.
Then again, you could try the Borgenson integral power steering box for a 70 Mustang. Rumor has it that the box is a direct bolt in for our boxes. I have not been able to confirm this yet. (Anyone have a 69 or 70 Mustang that you could compare the steering boxes?) Price is about $500 give or take. Not t-o-o much more than a rebuilt stock unit.
There is no rack from any car that will work and keep correct geometry. I know I tried about 20 plus racks. Sure you can get them in the car and fab them to physically fit.......you would still have what would amount to a worse setup than the original...... Besides a rack and pinion is no way superior it is typically lighter but all in they are equal given everything else is considered in the original design. I spent many hours researching this topic......I was obsessed!!!!!!!!!!
