[Fot] Re TR4-6 steering arm differences

[Bill Babcock]

Nice article, very useful.

On a TR3 the width of the upper pivots is about 432mm and the lower pivot is
585mm, so you can see the challenge of fitting a Triumph rack when the
narrowest is 650mm. For the street car I'm building I did indeed use a TR4
rack--at least I assume it is, I bought the kit from Moss. I roughly measured
it, it looks to be 650 mm wide and is 2.5 turns lock to lock. I anticipate
doing a bunch of fiddling to minimize bump steer. I considered shortening the
rack, but I figured I'd play with it a while before I take that step.

I don't recall the width of Peyote's rack, but it's quite a bit narrower than
the TR4. At the height I have it installed in Peyote (roughly midpoint between
the upper and lower arms) it's pretty close to being in line with a line drawn
through the upper and lower inner pivots. Pat Starr installed it initially,
but I changed the mounting height and had it narrowed a little further in my
efforts to eliminate bump steer. As I recall I had an inch taken off both
ends. I didn't dare go much further. I also had flat steering arms made. As it
turns out it has some positive ackerman though I wasn't paying much attention
to that when I was fiddling.

On Oct 25, 2010, at 3:24 PM, Enquiries Road & Track wrote:

> Steering rack length......
> thanks again to the various people who have help with info re TR front
> suspension component differences
> there are numerous rack & rack end lengths in the TR/Spitfire/GT6
> family. also, it is quite easy to make small changes to the rack by
> machining.At my work, we routinely cut down triumph racks to use in
> various kit cars.
> I wrote an article on triumph racks years ago and it is still posted
> on my local TSOA. This might be worth reading for those interested in
> changing bump steer in any triumph
> http://www.tsoaq.org.au/technical-information/22.html
>
> Terry O'Beirne
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