This is the final result.

Now the Firebird rack was way to long, so trying to keep my costs down, I figured, too long, I can make it shorter.

First thing to do was to take it apart to see what I had to work with. Found links on the internet that helped me disassemble.  When you have to take the inner tie rods off the rack, a pipe wrench is your friend.

Because this was a power steering rack, there was a seal inside that was used by the power steering fluid to move the rack. Because I was eliminating the power steering, the seal had to go.

I wanted to get an approximate dimension so I positioned the tie rods in an approximate location and took a measurement.  It appeared I could come close to that measurement.

Next I needed to remove the existing mounting bracket.

At first I was just going to whack it in two but after looking down the inside, I determined there was a bushing that needed to stay in place. I measured to that location and them cut the outer casing. Next on the other end, there was a flange that the outer seal had to be seated against so I had to leave that in place also.

After all the cutting, this is what the outer casing looked like.

NOTE: Others have mentioned it it is not a good idea to section the shaft but take some off the ends and drill and retap. This is what I did but everyone needs to make their own decision.

Now it was time to move on to the shaft.  You need to remove the same length from the shaft that you cut from the casing. I measured from the location where the seal was.

Because the integrity of the shaft is critical (matter of life and death), you want to make sure the weld is strong.

Start by beveling the ends to allow good weld penetration.

Now to ensure that everything was reassembled straight, I clamped the pieces to a piece of angle iron to hold the pieces straight.  For the shaft itself, I just spot welded in the groove to hold it in place before adding the final weld.

Now that the welding was done, the welds had to be ground down to make the casing and the shaft smooth.

Now it was time to put the mounting bracket back in place. I positioned it over the seam on the outer casing. By clamping both the existing and the separate piece to the welding table, I could be sure they were in alignment for when the mounting of the steering rack bracket was finalized.

Now I positioned the rack along a taped line that had been used to position the rack to minimize bump steer. I fabricated a mounting bracket out of 1 1/2″ square tube with tabs.

Finally the rack was mounted to angle iron that would then be welded to the frame.

And that’s all their is to it.  Simple.

This is what the finished product looks like.

Now to get there, I ordered some parts from various suppliers as well as fabricated some of my own.

I started by fabricating the lower A-Arms based on dimensions in the book.

Of course I needed to make two.

Ran into a small problem when working on the top A-Arms as they ball joints did not want to clear the inside of the tire. I was able to ream out the spindle to allow the ball joint to be seated lower and that fixed the problem.

Once that was set, I set the angle of the rotors and them fabricated the top arms to fit.

And now the front stands on tires.

I’ve done some of the wiring on this kit and it is a great value.  If you want to see more info, click here

More details and pictures can be found here.

Photos are with permission from Flavio.