R1600Turbo's Civic hatch - steering rack project FINISHED!

  • Thread starter Thread starter CodeRedR51
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Bump.

Turbo stuff on hold right now while I sort out some handling stuff. My ASR rear subframe brace should be here soon. Just picked up an Si rear sway bar to go with it. Stopped by the junk yard today and picked up a 2000 Civic power steering rack for $50 so I can get started on my plan to bring my four turns lock-to-lock down into the 3.3 range.

Once I get the rack in and can finally get the car aligned to save my tires. Once that's done, we'll focus on the turbo then get started on ditching my current coilover setup.

I'll have pics up of the rear brace install later this week.
 
What are your plans for your coilovers? What do you have now and what will you be getting?
 
Keef
What are your plans for your coilovers? What do you have now and what will you be getting?
Click to expand...

I currently have drop zone complete coilovers with 450lb springs in front, 350lb in the rear. Plan is to swap those for Koni's and Ground Controls. Not sure what rates yet.
 
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Stock Si sway bar only fits with larger brackets. (in my case I had Miata brackets available and used them)
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Looks good man. 👍 Do you think you could get some video of the next time you go to a track day?
 
Might be kinda hard, I don't have a video camera any more. If I can find a way to mount my Droid Eris to something, I can get some from that.
 
Won't be any video. Although the track day did still happen, it's been raining all day and trying to beat my own personal lap record is not going to happen when it's wet. I decided to stay home today and watch the 24 hours of Le Mans.
 
Couple weeks ago purchased a power steering rack from a 2000 Civic. Just sent off payment for an Integra power steering rack pinion gear and a set of energy suspension steering rack bushings. Everything should be here next week and I can finally have better steering in my car. So excited!

I'm going to re-use the tie rods and tie rod ends I have since they are still in good shape. This will be the last modification to the car before my move in August.

Edit: And I have decided not to turbo the car. Currently on the hunt for a Jackson supercharger system, or may end up doing a head swap and staying N/A while I'm in school.
 
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Below is what I have done so far on my steering rack de-power and swap. I will post an update on Tuesday, as well as Wednesday when my Integra Pinion gear and ES Rack bushings show up. The rack is from a 2000 Civic.

First things first, I didn't want to just loop the lines to de-power the rack. I learned how to completely de-power a rack by being in the Miata world. We do it this way all the time.

Here's the rack after a good cleaning. It was covered in a nice layer of caked on grease/oil.
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This is where I ran into my first problem. The nut/bolt thing on the end that you have to take out to release the rack stripped when I tried to take it out. For a minute I thought I had ruined the rack, but fear not! After I shot this photo I ground the bad threads down. The plan is to tap it back into the rack housing with a hammer and weld it shut. I shouldn't have to go back in there for anything, but if I do then I guess I'll have to buy another rack.
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Now this is how you actually de-power a power rack. You have to cut the piston off of the rack. This will allow you to weld up the fittings for the lines and seal the rack housing completely. No lines looped, no extra clutter.
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That's where we stop today. I'll update this thread again on Tuesday with reassembly pictures. 👍
 
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Real interested in doing this. What do you do about lube? Pack it with grease and seal it up?
 
The only thing that needs to be greased up is the teeth on the rack. I'll grease up the teeth on the pinion gear when I put it in, then the fittings for the lines will be welded shut and re inserted. Then it should be good to go.
 
Rack is in! More pics and driving impressions within the next couple hours.

Edit: Ok, first impressions:

- Turning out of the parking lot = definitely a bit harder than before.
- Driving down the road = definitely feels more connected to the road
- First 90* turn = WOW.

Seriously, this thing is (almost) on rails now. I can't believe how much of a difference this made. Not only the steering ratio, but certainly feels more solid now. The manual rack in comparison felt "numb". Bottom line, if you have one of these cars with a manual steering rack, do yourself a favor and do this mod. Doesn't cost hardly anything, (mine totaled $110 tops for all parts) and it makes a WORLD of difference.
 
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Here's the rest of the pics.

The welds to fix the stripped threads on the end:
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Couple comparison pictures of the two pinion gears. Civic left, Integra right.
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I cut all the piping off the fittings and had them welded shut:
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And top it off with Energy Suspension bushings:
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Just a heads up I may not be making any updates to this thread anymore. Not sure if it's worth the effort.
 
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Y'know...you are, at least, quite the mechanically talented person. takes some guts to tear into something like that.

I should add that you shouldn't be bugged by lack of activity...just because we don't post doesn't mean we don't see and appreciate it.
 
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