After shortening the front cradle for our 2018 Mid Engine Corvair build, a power rack and pinion unit needed to be installed. Since the lower cradle was shortened by 7.0 inches, the original Corvette C5 rack and pinion unit was now too wide. A new rack and pinion unit needed to be selected that would be suitable for the narrowed application. Once chosen, the rack and pinion unit was placed upon the cradle and a viable method of attaching the unit to the narrowed C5 cradle needed to be designed and fabricated. Below you will find the photos of how this rack and pinion was integrated into the narrowed C5 cradle.
The new rack and pinion unit was set on the cradle for proper registration
Bracketing was fabricated to hold the rack and pinion unit
The Passenger side bracket was modified to fit correctly
The drivers side original mount needed to be deleted and a new bracket designed
The new bracket was designed and fabricated
Drivers side bracket was added in place
Rear passenger side bracket keeps the rack from lifting
Tie rod end adapters needed to be fabricated, the C5 uses metric ends and the rack uses American threads
The adapters were fitted with metric ends to fit to the C5 tie rod ends
Adapters were fitted to the C5 tie rods
The new adapters were integrated into the rack assembly
This view shows the complete fitted assembly in place