The 'SAAB Steering Rack Brace'?

[Brett]

Anyone heard of it before? Something I have discovered this afternoon and Im sat here wondering if its a gimmick, or if it could be applied to older Vauxhalls. Those of us who wont get with the times and are still messing about with Vauxhalls from the 80's have a serious problem with steering racks wanting to pull themselves off the bulkhead - its best known on the GTE 16v for obvious reasons but both the Mk1 Astra and Mk2 Cav do it too.

Few links on what I have found on my travels;

Pics of what it is; (Mk3 Astra engine bay)



And some of the 'theory' behind it being pedalled by SAAB froumers and the manufacturers of the kits.

SAAB forumer claims;
'Ahh we need a trip back in GM history, the J type or J body, one of the common denominators in these is a steering rack lashed to the bulkhead [firewall] by U clamps and in reality independant of the front chassis/subframe/suspension members. GM J type incorporates Vauxhall Cavalier, Isuzu Florian [85 - 88], Holden Cavalier, Chevrolet Cavalier, Vauxhall Astra, Deawoo Nexia & Espiro, Opel Ascona and some Kaddetts and of course culminated in the 900/9-3. So the powertrain dumps its load through the drive shafts to the hubs and ultimalty the wheels, load from traction causes twisting with the front subframe, the body and therefore steering rack is independant of the subframe so any torque load will manifest as a steering load which requires manual input to compensate for. Bracing the subframe [reducing any twists] and bracing the steering rack to a more substanscial part of the monocoque reduces the tendency to torque steer'

GenuineSaab.com

Thoughts anyone? I know bugger all about chassis/body strengthening and running a 250BHP + Mk2 Cav its an idea I learn!!

[WheelyBigCheese]

The rack brace reduced torque steering a great deal. Mine was £100 from partsforsaabs.com
Instead of pulling everywhere it just lit up the front wheels so appeared to work. It was a really really snug fit too. Mounts to the bodywork through the abs unit if I remember?

[Benn]

Dan fitted one iirc.

[Nemesis]

*subscribed*

[Kev_G]

*subscribed*

+1

have seen and heard of them but thats it

[stt]

the corsa has a different bracket to mount it to the bulkhead so that all 4 bolts see the same force rather than just a pair,

i'll get a pic tomorrow for you,

i realise it wont fit a cav, but it would be easy to make somehting similar for a cav, plus it could be concealed to look more factory

[stt]

you can just about make out the bracket in that pic

[chip]

Anything you can do to get more stength in that area is worthwhile IMHO and as STT mentions, GM obviously agreed to change the corsa mounts like that.

[jonlem]

I have a spare bracket like the one above if anyone is after one.

As for the Saab bracket I remember seeing one on a customers car that I did a service on years ago, I did post up about it back then iirc

[Brett]

I'm going to make my own in that case, doubt using a SAAB one will fit the MK2 Cav.

Will get one knocked up and put it on the auto when it goes 2.0i later this month, that way I can evaluate properly!

[chip]

TBH I doubt you'll actually notice any difference for that application so I suspect you'll struggle to make any useful conclusions.

[Brett]

I bet I can

its a 20GET thats going in.

[chip]

unless you do a season of trackdays, i doubt you'd make it flex anyway, other than over a very long period of time

[stt]

there are no real defecits to fitting one tho so might as well do it!

[dewismotorsport]

I fitted one of these to a friends car at work it was on a 93 and I was led to believe it was to stop the rack moving inside of the rubber mounts, which in turn had split the bulkhead metal on the drivers side due to the extra flex
Never heard about the torque steer story though

[nige-p]

the reason these were developed for the saabs was the gm 900's really suffers with a split bulkhead due to the steering rack being mounted there, the same as a cavalier or astra and due to them coming standard with a nice big heavy saab 2 litre turbo lump saab recalled some early cars for the splits in the bulkhead this was developed to help strengthen the mounts and to transfer some of the load to another point, so reducing the load

info on the recall
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=70836

i was looking at making my own version at some point

how to for the saab here
01.04.2005: Saab NG900 Steering Rack Clamp and Brace - photo.platonoff.com