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Nissan South Africa sells brand-new steering gearbox units.
Datsun B310 uses a seperate column and gearbox with a flexible coupling. So it is not a direct replacement for vintage B110s.
Rack And Pinion Steering
Consensus:
- NOT recommended for circuit or road racing
- Recommended for Drag Racing
- Jury's out on how well it works for a street car. Those who have done it report good success, those who haven't say the engineering does not add up.
Discussion: 1200 steering box rebuild/replace - what options?
Has anyone ever done it? Yes...
- Race cars with front tube frame (custom suspension and steering geometry)
- dat383 has fitted rack and pinion steering to a 1200 drag racer
- 1200 with full Escort front suspension (rack + struts + steering arms matched)
- wards fitted a Nissan Micra box to his ute
- maddatto is experimentng on a KB Laser fitment
There are several Datsun 510s with rack and pinion steering swaps. One uses a rack from a Datsun 200SX. Here's what he did:
- Move the engine crossmember back a couple inches (which necessitates changes to the engine mounts)
- Weld simple flat brackets to the x-member so the rack can be bolted on
- Cut the tie-rod ends and weld them back shorter (make sure you have an expert welder do that)
- Use a newer steering column that has a flex-joint on the end. He used a 200SX column.
The swap had three u-joints and a fairly big angle from the end of the column to the rack, but he said it works great, much better than the stock 510 steering box. No slop!
Would it be better to cut the steering arms shorter and rethread them for the tie-rod ends?
Swap Information
Dat383 used a Holden Gemini (Isuzu) steering rack in front of the crossmember.
- Brackets are fabricated and welded to the crossmember. Because this fits to the front of the crossmember, while the Datsun steering was behing the xmember, swap the complete strut/brake/LCA assemblies from left to right.
- Shortened the Gemini rack ends and then re-thread them to suit.
- The front radius arms needed to have a bend pressed into them to clear the tie rod ends when the suspension is on the bump stops.
- Modify the standard 1200 steering colum to suit:
- Cut the outside of the column at the steering box and fabricate a plate out of steel, using the original rubber locator as a guide.
- Drill a hole in the plate the same size as the outer diameter of the column
- Weld the plate to the column.
- With the modified column fitted to the car and the inner steering shaft coming out, make a short steering shaft with two small uni-joints to join the colum and rack together.