Ra40 celica rack and pinion conversion setup

[blanky]

G-DAY,

I have seen buckets of info regarding converting the ra23/8 to R&P but not much on the RA40,

i have scored myself a ke70 steering rack. what other components do i need to complete this mod?.

and what fabrication is required?

cheers.

[ando9111]

i have done pretty much what your wanting in my ra40, Im still sorting out all the little things at the moment. but all the info on the ra23/8 to R&P is relevant to ra40. have a good read of the ''RA23/28 with KE70 steering column and rack and pinion'' thread before you do anything. also if you are wanting to keep your 18r you will have to sort out a front sump setup.

[blanky]

on the left is a silver original end bit that was on the bottom i measured the length on the KE70 bottom bearing housing and cut the same amount off the RA40 lower housing, thats the lower KE70 shaft in the middle


the mounts are different to the fire wall there are many ways to do this but i cut the mount off both the KE70 and the RA40 and swapped them over and carefully stitched MIGed them back together (i should have taken more time on this to make it look better) the end product for the firewall mount be sure to take care you don't weld upside down using the tabs and hump for reference
before weld , i chose the section at the top of the bearing case to weld because i could apply more weld and make it look stock

[blanky]

so i weld it all up and replaced the upper bearing where the ignition barrel goes cos i had to smash it off, i will have to sit like this until i swap out the one from the road car

[blanky]

i tacked a 20mm spacer on to the original RA40 crossmember and drilled holes through this way my holes where exactly where they should be the spacer should sit flush with the outer edge of the crossmember so i doesn't fowl on the chassis later

i then inverted the crossmember onto the KE70 crossmember and carefully measured it so it was square

make sure that when you invert it that the lower control arm mounts are inline

you will have to cut away a little metal so that the bolts don't fowl when installing the crossmember
you can see I've only welded the bottom 10mm spacer onto the crossmember and the second I've basally tacked on just as a spacer ( easy to remove if i want to go super low.
you can see the difference here in hole positions

KE70 crossmember to suit RA40 .

i left the lower control arm bolt hole in the original position i will decide later what ill do if my track is too wide, maybe re-drill the holes in closer to the centre or get Toy tech tuning custom lower control arms ..... undecided

- - - Updated - - -

still have to put anything in the car yet so untested

[blanky]

this is it all bolted into my Doner car for the time being to measure up and eventually drop a V8 on it.
i Highly recommend the building up of the mount underneath the pinion with metal epoxy putty as to allow better angle for the steering column
From the left side you can see the the rack is in a good spot maybe shorter Steering Knuckles in the future . still using the RA40 LCA but have got KE70 ones too.

right side