Has Anyone Fitted One Of Quaife's Quick Rack Kits?

[399Road]

I've bought one of Quaife's quick rack kits and it looks like it hasn't been made properly. There's a notch in the pinion where your lower universal joint's pinch bolt locates and it looks like this notch is too far down the pinion's shaft. It looks like I might need a longer universal joint to sort it and I wondered what other people had fitted.

I contacted Quaife today, who were absolutely useless and suggested that either Courtenay Sport of LMF could supply the correct longer U.J that I said I needed. I rang both companies, Knowing that they wouldn't sell these, before ringing Quaife back again. The bloke at Quaife then told me that their Quick rack kit was a direct swap and didn't need any additional parts to fit. He then told me that they had sold over 100 Manta/Ascona Quick rack kits this year alone, and nobody had reported any problems! 100 kits this year? How many Mantas are left and how many of these have had Quaife's Quick racks fitted?

I'm now thinking that these kits don't fit without considerable messing about. I've already had to try and hunt down another steering rack casing as there are two different sized steering racks, 22 and 24mm.

Does anyone know of a steering column U.J which looks like a Manta one, but with a longer sleeve for where it slides over the pinion gear? If not, it looks like a day in the scrapyard looking under every car until I find something suitable.

So after all this I'd say, Don't buy a Quaife quick rack kit...They don't fit and Quaife don't seem bothered about sorting it out.

Luke.

[garymanc]

am sure i read david... mantasrme has posted the solution

[dog321fish]

http://forums.mantaclub.org/topic/26960-quaife-quck-rack-problems-help/page__hl__%2Bquick+%2Brack

[mantasrme]

Yeah i built a quaife kit into mine several years back now, don't remember having any issues with the build (but it was a long time ago now)

You just need another upper manta U/J for the bottom joint rather than the rubber bushed standard one.

I have seen some other quickrack kits where the lower bolt groove was around a half an inch long to give some adjustment

Oh and quaife are never useful unless you're spending multiple thousands with them

[opelman]

Hi Luke,

I have a fitted one of these racks and cooncur with your thoughts that its not quite as straight forward as you'd expect. The rack itself was extremely tight in the casing and took a lot of manipulation to get it to fit, I did find however that once on the car it behaved a lot better than when on the bench. The UJ is available from Retopower. Overall I found the whole job quite a work up with lots of research time required but got there in the end. I use the car on the track and the new rack did have the desired effect but you'll need bionic arms to park it !

[mantasrme]

When I first tried to assemble mine I found the rack tight going through the end bush in the case. So I pulled it apart and removed the grease I'd lathered it in and it slid through much better. Its a nylon bush in the far end so only wants a light coating of slippy stuff or it binds up as its a tight tolerance.

If its too heavy once you've go the quickrack fitted you just need to add corsa power steering. It's amazing to drive then :-)

Oh and while quaife list it as a 2.5 turns rack some are 2.25 when fitted (dependant on which hub uprights you've got, as the rod end hole is in different places on different uprights)

Mine was worse (or better depending on how you look at it) and is around 1.75 turns which makes it really responsive.

[399Road]

Thanks for your replies,

If I try and fit a standard manta's U.J, then the pinion's shaft bottoms out against the centre of the U.J well before the the pinch bolt's slot in the pinion's shaft is anywhere near the hole in the U.J. That's why I still think I need a longer U.J that will reach over the long pinion shaft and bolt up properly. If I just chop down the pinion, there will be a gap between the standard U.J and the pinion. .luke.

[mantasrme]

I'll have a look as i have a selection of U/J's and think some might be longer than standard.

If the groove was higher up the pinion would everything line up?

Because while its not an ideal solution you could just extend the groove the bolt goes through.

[399Road]

Thanks Mantasrme, I was also thinking about extending that groove so another standard U.J would fit. I didn't really want to cut another slot in the pinion as I thought this would look wrong/weak. Extending the slot seems like a better idea, but done properly. I still don't think I should have to do this as it's supposed to be a direct swap. I'm not buying anything from Quaife again. Luke.