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Manual Rack Group Buy.

6K views 65 replies 12 participants last post by  lethal_vr4 
#1 · (Edited)
I'm getting ready to do a batch of manual racks


Price is $400.00 Shipped plus your core. There is no minium or maxium number of people needed.

I need your rack in my hands by 3/1 to begin the conversion. If everyone makes this deadline, racks will be returned shipped by 3/15 (two weeks to complete the conversion on all racks).

Payment is due on 3/1 however I can have some flexiblity. With no exceptions full payment is due by 3/15, when the racks ship out to you the customer.

This is a true manual rack conversion. The rack is disassembled, cleaned, converted to a manual rack painted. New tie-rod ends are installed and included in the price.

This mod is for anyone who wants the improved steering feel of a manual rack without the slowness of the factory manual rack. It also gives you the benefit of never getting ahead of the power steering during hard driving. As an additional benefit, this will get rid of a fair bit of weight off the front of the car and free up a lot of space in the engine compartment. Finally, in my view, the absolute best part of this is that it’ll help you improve on the weakest part of your car’s performance, the driver.

Of course all these things take secondary consideration when installing a manual rack on a street car. Very low speed turning (as in a parking lots) will be compromised the most. My personal opinion daily driving will have slightly more effort but still manageable for daily use. Around 20 to 30 MPH and up the steering effort is close to an assisted rack, however feedback through the steering wheel is very much improved.

Experiments were done with a disconnecting power steering pulley, then looped lines. The real manual conversion far and away had better feel and less force required. What I mean by real is that this is a full conversion to a manual steering system, not just a power steering pump by-pass. AND MAKE NO MISTAKE, they are totally different in feel and mechanics. Don't think by bypassing your pump or removing the ps belt that you can try the FEEL of no ps and see if you like it, ITS NOT THE SAME FEEL as having a manual rack. Do some searches on other platforms, I am not saying anything new here, just reiterating it so that you understand that what I did was the full manual conversion...not the pump bypass mod.


Certainly, converting to a full manual rack is not for everyone. But for those who wish to convert I personally believe this is the best option. From 0-5 mph it really sucks to try to turn, especially with massive 10 inch wide sticky R componund track slicks on :) but from 20mph to 160 mph, it is just awesome.

Clint F (Struggy) was my un-biased test bed (You guys know I love my rack). Here is what he had to say after his first road race with the manual rack conversion:
As for the car, it did pretty well I thought. All concerns I had about the manual rack and 275s are gone. The thing is wonderful on track, in my opinion. My arms are a touch sore, but at no point did I struggle, find it vague, or wish for power steering.
http://www.3si.org/forum/showthread.php?t=373647


Full Review:
http://www.3si.org/forum/showthread.php?t=370865


paypal: blackflag@blackflagracing.com

Ship core to:
Black Flag Racing
3080 Brittany Circle
Cedar Rapids, IA 52411
Thanks for looking,

Jon
 
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#28 ·
All that info is in the first post.
 
#29 ·
do you mind if the rack and payment are sent earlier or do u want it on the specified dates?
 
#30 ·
Earlier is *always* better!
 
#31 ·
Alright I will try to get my rack pulled and shipped this weekend and the money sent also.
 
#33 ·
BTW for those of you sourcing used racks for the conversion:

All N/A racks are the same.
All first gen TT racks are the same
All second gen TT racks are the same

I am not sure on the interchangeability.
 
#35 ·
I'll see if I can pull that info from CAPS when I get home.
 
#38 ·
I completely forgot about this :eek: Sorry, lease on the apt. ran out and had to get that + moving taken care of. But in a few weeks I'll get back in touch with you when things have settled down a bit for me. But I don't think I'm going to make this group buy. :(
 
#39 ·
That's fine... just let me know when you need one.
 
#42 ·
You want an update...

Worked my ass off all week to get a co-workers transmission replaced for free in his Celica before I went to St. Louis this weekend to pick up my track car. Averaged about 4 hours of sleep every night this week since you sent the message on Wednesday. Was gone all weekend. Go to my day job for 10 hours a day, work on Kevin's car until 2 am per night, sleep: repeat. None of that is your problem, but that's all the update I have.

Perhaps if you did not send me the most rusted POS rack I've ever seen I'd be further along. What'd you do store your rack at the bottom of the Dead Sea.....

Have patience they will be done soon.
 
#46 · (Edited)
Join the club... getting these racks finished IS a priority for me.

I apologize for the wait and the inconvenience it has caused you. They will be completed as soon as humanly possible.

This is a pretty involved conversion and takes time. When you get your rack back it will look better then a new OEM rack.

I appreciate your continued patience.
 
#47 ·
Hey John

I didnt even know that this thread existed.

I sent you my rack in January, and haven't heard from you.... I didnt even know where to send the money because we were dealing through PMs instead of this thread.

Can you confirm that you have my rack? If you have it, I will Paypal you tonight now that i know where to send money. I would have sent it the day after I sent out the rack, but didnt have your paypal addy

I also have a new address so I will give you that info as well.

No Rush on the rack, as I know these things can get hectic, I just want to make sure I will have a steering rack someday.

Thanks

-Eric
 
#48 ·
paypal blackflag@blackflagracing.com

You can either IM me or email me at the address above your new return shipping address.

Racks are *almost* there.
 
#51 ·
I need your rack in my hands by 3/1 to begin the conversion. If everyone makes this deadline, racks will be returned shipped by 3/15 (two weeks to complete the conversion on all racks).

Payment is due on 3/1 however I can have some flexiblity. With no exceptions full payment is due by 3/15, when the racks ship out to you the customer.


come on jon this is taking to long. Whats the REAL hold up here??
 
#52 ·
Jimmy, I'm not sure what you are talking about. I don't believe you ordered a steering rack from me.

The real hold up was due to the increased price of gas, I unable to afford as much pixie dust that I needed to complete the rack conversion. Luckily for me I found some used for a great price on Ebay.

All jokes aside, it did take me quite a bit longer then expected to get the racks from everyone, get everyone paid up, and to do the actual conversion. In the future, I will have the steering racks modified in advance from on hand cores, not customer cores to avoid long delays. The customer's a core would then be used as my next rack to convert.


Racks where finished this last weekend and will be shipping out soon.

Thank you everyone for your patience.

Jon
 
#54 ·
Can you PM me your new address please? I did get your paypal.

Edit: Packages will ship out on Tuesday. I will provide tracking numbers at that time.
 
#56 ·
Four that I have done, including the racks that will go out on Tuesday.

There has been some work by other members to do a similar modification on their own, but without all the extra refurbishing that I do. I believe there are two of these racks in the works. I have not really followed along to much with their progress.

Nelson has a custom non-power rack on his white "street" car. Not sure where he got it.

I also saw that 3SX is not running a power steering pump on their T4 drag car. Not sure if they looped the lines or not.
 
#57 ·
Lethal_vr4 says:

"The lethal_vr4 manual gang bangin' rizzays are done! I'll be shipping them out tomorrow morning."



If you want to see a preview of the finished products before they were snuggled into their boxes....



 
#58 ·
Racks went out yesterday and everyone should have a tracking number.
 
#60 ·
OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!!!!!!

I received my rack today!

LOOKS AWESOME!

Its obvious that there was alot off attention paid to the details, and that is important. Ill take some pics and try to post them up tonight.

Thanks Jon... I cant wait to get it in the car! i do have "a little more work" to do on the car before i can drive it though.
 
#62 ·
Now that was the reaction I was hoping for. If you don't mind me asking how as the packing/box? First time I used the air-bubble method, and I hope it was more the adequate.

Also not to make sure to get an alignment after replacing the rack. If the rack is not dead center when you install it, your toe setting can be off.
 
#61 ·
Is there going to be another group buy? Or will you be doing them individually also? I'm interested. Thanks, Brandon
 
#63 ·
Is there going to be another group buy? Or will you be doing them individually also?
Brandon,

I learned the hard way that group buys and be more work then a full time job. I will not be doing another group buy, but will be doing them indivdually to minimize customer down time. I just don't have the free time to do another GB. Send me a PM if you are ready.


Jon
+++++++++++
 
#65 ·
Glad you got it ok.

Looks like I need to up the packing material and use three boxes instead of just two.
 
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