# Rack & pinion



## AlphaSpeed (Jun 23, 2002)

Does anyone know where I can find a rack & pinion set from a B-14 Sunny?


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## dry (Oct 21, 2002)

Japan maybe.


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## AlphaSpeed (Jun 23, 2002)

well no shit...i meant were can i find one over here or get one imported to over here. but thanx for the advice.


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## Psch91 (May 18, 2002)

Whats a rack & pinion?


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## 97PocketRocket (Jul 31, 2002)

Psch91 said:


> *Whats a rack & pinion? *


Rack and pinion is a fully mechanical method of steering. As it stands our cars are 'power assisted' which is basically rack and pinion with a hydrolic assembly that helps turn the wheels or something along those lines.

As for getting one here...I think DryBoy is right, doubt you'll find that assembly in the US without shipping a used Sunny over here or possibly ordering directly from Nissan of Japan the parts...both of which will probably be insanely expensive.


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## HCS200sx97 (Jul 8, 2002)

Whats wrong with the Sentra rack&pinion?


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## 97PocketRocket (Jul 31, 2002)

HCSsentra96 said:


> *Whats wrong with the Sentra rack&pinion? *


This might be a wrong explanation to the question but it still is a part of the answer at least and hopefully let's you draw your own conclusions. To explain it I'll break three different common steering methods down with the good and bad of each in a sports car situation.

Full power steering, where you turn the wheel and the system says 'wheel turned 3 degrees, adjusting wheel angles to match' (cheesy, I know, but you get the idea), which is very common on high end luxury cars has next to zero road feel. You can't feel the wheels slip, you don't feel the front wheels hitting bumps (that sounds like a good thing but if you're driving in a road race you'd miss it more than you'd think), etc. Plus it draws very heavily all the time on the engine as it's attatched through the pully system much like your generator, alternator, a/c and so on and remains on as long as the motor is running. So as far as driving on the edge with this steering, it leaves a lot to be desired and weakens your cars acceleration overall. It's used in VERY heavy vehicles, 2 ton and up typically, because of necessity as opposed to desire.

Power assisted, which is extremely common in midline and lower (and many upper level japanese luxury cars in the US) is a rack and pinion style steering with a pump that helps you turn the wheels, particularly at lower speeds where it's harder to turn. It also draws on the engine but not full time because it only activates when the wheel is moved and it gives you about as much road feel as you can get out of a power steering system. This is tolerable in sports cars because it gives you the benifits of both power steering and rack and pinion steering with minimal draw on the engine (which means more power, more gas mileage).

Rack and pinion steering....someone please correct me if I'm wrong. This is basically a gear (pinion) that's at the end of the steering column which is laying on a toothed bed (rack) that is connected to a joint on the inside of each wheel and has no electrical, hydraulic or other assisting methods to move. It's 100% done by the driver which means 100% road feel, no draw on the engine at all and at lower speeds it's also harder to steer (hope you work out, hehe). This is very uncommon today because most cars are too heavy to steer with this method, especially at lower speeds. If you want to know how this feels, pull the powersteering fuse out of the fuse box (I think there's one for it specifically) and take a slow drive around an empty parking lot...be ready to brake though. You'll find this type of steering system in very small, under 1 ton, European roadsters like the MGB's, Fiat's and things like that and is the preferred method of steering for serious racing because when you turn the wheel, there is zero hesitation and vagueness and requires no power from the motor in any form unlike the other two common systems.

I hope that helps make some sense out of why he might find rack and pinion steering more desirable although I'm curious as to why someone would want to swap it out mainly because of the trouble to do so. My guess would be he might be building it for a pro or semi-pro racing. Looking at my engine and the placement of the powersteering assembly it appears you'd have to pull the engine out of the bay as well as disassemble a good portion of the front suspension to do it and the difference between rack and pinion and power assisted doesn't seem to me to be big enough of an issue to go through all that trouble, heh. Oddly enough I got most of this info off of a History Channel special on the history of automobiles...and I thought that info would never come in handy.


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

after reading that, I have a question. You mentioned that you can remove the power steering fuse and drive it like a rack and pinion system. Now, I've heard of people removing their power steering, mostly to minimise weight, but to also make the car feel more like a sports/racing car with no draw on the engine's power. Would it be possible to remove that fuse durring a racing situation? Does anyone here think there would be any kind of advantage here such as less engine power draw? I'm most likely not going to try it, but just to amuse my late-night pondering......

I think I broke one of the boards deadly sins of going off topic (jjjust a bit), but oh well......


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## AlphaSpeed (Jun 23, 2002)

All I want a rack and pinion set for is so that i can convert my car from left side drive to a right side drive.


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## 97PocketRocket (Jul 31, 2002)

> Would it be possible to remove that fuse durring a racing situation?


No...well, yes...sort of. You'd be fighting the pump that is the power steering since it's still attatched to the system. What I wrote is really a bad example because of that but it still gives you the idea of what it feels like.


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

97PocketRocket said:


> *No...well, yes...sort of. You'd be fighting the pump that is the power steering since it's still attatched to the system. What I wrote is really a bad example because of that but it still gives you the idea of what it feels like. *


ic


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## verno-dub (Sep 13, 2002)

97PocketRocket said:


> *No...well, yes...sort of. You'd be fighting the pump that is the power steering since it's still attatched to the system. What I wrote is really a bad example because of that but it still gives you the idea of what it feels like. *


You wont be fighting the pump, you will be fighting the power steering fluid you left in the lines and in the pump.

-verno


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## verno-dub (Sep 13, 2002)

AlphaSpeed said:


> *All I want a rack and pinion set for is so that i can convert my car from left side drive to a right side drive. *


Bro, maybe you should post a WTB thread in one of the for sale sections. Maybe some still has the rack and pinion that came with the front sr20det GTi-R clip they bought to convert their b14? 

Just a thought?

-verno


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