In a message dated 02/14/2001 3:40:02 PM Pacific Standard Time,
stickerman@home.com writes:
> >. Have you
> > >heard of anyone or do you know of a way to convert a Datsun Roadster to
> >have
> > >independent rear suspension and rack and pinion steering? Any advice you
> > >
The roadster is not like a lot of other full frame cars, where you have a lot
of room to just cut stuff out and add new stuff in. The frame on our cars is
quite small, and it follows the body shell rather closely, so there's not
much clearance to go wild with custom susp and steering components. The only
way to add an IRS without chopping up the frame rails aft of the axle
centerline is to either run a semi-trailing arm setup (like that used on the
510), or an IRS where the axle acts as the upper control arm (a la jaguar and
vette IRS). If you're willing to chop chop though, then the sky's pretty much
the limit back there...
As for the steering rack... this is another PITA of a swap because of the
packaging in the front of the frame. The existing xmember (and front axle
centerline) is just too close to the motor's oil pan to allow room for
mounting a rack. I suppose you could get a motor with a rear sump oil pan
that sits waaaay back, and then maybe swap the front spindles from left to
right side to get the steering arms to face backwards... and then you might
be able to get a steering rack bolted to the back of the xmember... but this
would all require some experimentation a lot of trial-and-error.
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