Mustang II rack & pinion POS

I'm sick of this mustang 2 suspension crap.Seems like I work on that more than anything else between squeaky bushings leaky racks, noisy coil springs and twitchy steering.I now have six thousand miles on this thing, and my second rack is leaking all over the place out of the steering shaft which I believe same as the last one. I blamed the last one for sitting around too long before I got to it, but now here we go again. I've got the relief pressure dropped down well below what it needs to be for a mustang 2, although I don't remember for sure what that was. I think it's 700 lb? I'm so sick of this front end, I'm ready to clip an S10 or Dakota on it and be done. Before I do that, is there anybody who makes a rack and pinion for the GM Saginaw pump that's not a POS. The last one was from carquest. My advice to anyone who is just starting to do a build, do a complete frame swap !. Venting over !

Heidts was once a good system. I have been out of interest since the 90s. They may still be The Stuff.

I can't recall who had a kit that uses
Pacer complete front suspension.
Steering wheel, I do not recall either.
Welding was involved.
Maybe it was FATMAN FABRICATION?

Admittedly I have not seen 1 installed other than the
Assembly // Installation Manual 20some years ago.

However, I do believe
the original frame is not cut out, nor off.
Some boxing may have been involved.

Chevs Of The 40s has the basic steel parts.

I read on a Chevy Truck Forum the big problems are
weight and Pacer parts availability.

1 guy mentioned Volaré complete suspension.

Good Luck with sorting it out.

For right now I'm looking at keeping what I have. I get so frustrated with new junk parts though, It's one of the reasons I bought new gaskets for my 160k water pump on the 5.3. A new water pump was about $30, I was mad just thinking about it leaking in 10k miles. This rack is supposed to have a warranty so I guess I'll take it off and replace it again.

All I can do is empathize. The first rack I put on the 37 lasted less than 500 miles hopefully the second one will do better.


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Whatever you do stay away from Helix/Hoffman Group distributed junk. Unfortunately they are now dealing through many channels of distribution without that brand name evident.

i have never been a fan of r/p of any kind except manual . they leak . i would get a factory rack from a salvage car . if it leaks have it resealed. fat mans is the only kit i would ever install . after replacing 4 fatigued cross members i refuse to install a sheet metal cross member .

Well I talked to carquest this morning. the rack does have a lifetime warranty on it, but the problem is cardone does not have any to rebuild at this time. He's going to get me an AC Delco rack and apply the 95 bucks I paid for this one as a credit to that one. It will cost me about $120 to boot but hopefully it's a better rack.

Does anybody have any experience with a new rack from speedway.I can get my hands on one that has never been installed for $100 .

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Originally Posted by DennyW

hahaha.... Carquest... hahaha

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Ya, I know, that the only part store in town and they supply our shop. It's like playing the lottery getting things from there.

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Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

It's like playing the lottery getting things from there.

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Several years ago the best independent parts house in town sold out to Carquest. Owner wanted to retire. He stayed on with them for a while.

I went in one day to get a GM alternator and to visit with him. He had just got in the Carquest alternator test machine and wanted to use my stuff as a test. I said sure. He checked the old alternator and sure enough, it was bad. He went in the back and got the rebuilt one off the shelf and ran it. It was bad out of the box! He got another and it was bad too! The third one had to be reclocked as it was for another application, but at least it did charge.

I had always depended on his parts being good and had never had any trouble, but after that, I started driving to the next town and visiting the best alternator rebuilder in this area!:LOL:

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Originally Posted by Hotrod46

Several years ago the best independent parts house in town sold out to Carquest. Owner wanted to retire. He stayed on with them for a while.

I went in one day to get a GM alternator and to visit with him. He had just got in the Carquest alternator test machine and wanted to use my stuff as a test. I said sure. He checked the old alternator and sure enough, it was bad. He went in the back and got the rebuilt one off the shelf and ran it. It was bad out of the box! He got another and it was bad too! The third one had to be reclocked as it was for another application, but at least it did charge.

I had always depended on his parts being good and had never had any trouble, but after that, I started driving to the next town and visiting the best alternator rebuilder in this area!:LOL:

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Sounds like some of the junk you can get from O'Reillys.

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Originally Posted by Hotrod46

Several years ago the best independent parts house in town sold out to Carquest. Owner wanted to retire. He stayed on with them for a while.

I went in one day to get a GM alternator and to visit with him. He had just got in the Carquest alternator test machine and wanted to use my stuff as a test. I said sure. He checked the old alternator and sure enough, it was bad. He went in the back and got the rebuilt one off the shelf and ran it. It was bad out of the box! He got another and it was bad too! The third one had to be reclocked as it was for another application, but at least it did charge.

I had always depended on his parts being good and had never had any trouble, but after that, I started driving to the next town and visiting the best alternator rebuilder in this area!:LOL:

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That's one thing that we've learned rather quickly is to never buy anything electrical there. We've had a few that didn't make it off the lot, that was enough for us. He knows the stuff we won't buy, anything that says World American can literally go from the box to the garbage can. We don't deal much with auto stuff at our shop so it's mostly consumables and truck brakes and such. The truck brakes are not from the Carquest line. Come to think of it nearly all the stuff we get from there is from other manufactures that he keeps in the store. I guess that speaks volumes. The racks are re-manufactured by Cardone, and I'm a little worried that the Delco one could be too with another $100 tacked on it. My other concern is the Speedway one is made in Pakistan or somewhere like that. I miss the days when I was surprised when a replacement part failed. Arnold Motor and Sturdevants seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of the Wall Mart part stores.

AC Delco used to always be top quality stuff. I’ve been out of the car repair business for 17 years now, so I’m I bit out of the loop. I’m hoping that Delco hasn't gone down the tubes, I know a lot of stuff has.

I’m sorry to hear about your two racks in 6000 miles. That’s pretty painful.

I brake cleaned everything dry and I had my wife turn the wheel while I was underneath watching, and it turns out I had a seaping fitting. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown carquest under the bus quite so quick, but when past experience tells me that they're part more than likely failed I think that says something too.

So what’s your overall opinion of the MII as far as drivability? I’m thinking of doing either an MII or a Dakota front stub on my old truck this winter.

if going mII go Fatman fabrication . the cross member is made from thick wall tubing . not lite weight sheet metal welded together . over the years i have replaced 4 of them due to fatigue cracks .

I would use a Dakota clip or s-10 . My M Ii is getting a lot better the more I screw with it but I think S-10s and Dakotas drive nicer and are less noisy when hitting bumps. The next thing I'm going to do with it is replace the m2 springs with some coil over shocks to hopefully get rid of some of the spring noise when I hit bumps and get a softer ride. Maybe I'm just bitter but I'll never put another one in again. The guy who was mentoring me while I was putting this thing together convinced me to go with a mustang 2 suspension versus a frame swap. Now he's doing a frame swap on one.

There are rubber spring pads that are supposed to go between the springs and the upper mounts. Ford put them on the original installation. They might help with the spring noise.

I guess different folks have different experiences. The MII in my 46 has been in use for about 22 years. Other than having to overcome the twitchy MII rack and GM pump thing, I've never had any trouble with it. I fixed the pump issue with a Heidt's inline bypass valve, expensive for sure, but the simplest way to get the feel just right for whatever setup you happen to be running.

Everything is stock except the brakes, which were upgraded to 11". The crossmember is stock MII that we cut out of a junk MII and beefed up some. I think that might be the key. The basic MII has been modified so much over the years by the various manufacturers, there's no telling how far the geometry has been changed and some just don't work very well.

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Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

I would use a Dakota clip or s-10 . My M Ii is getting a lot better the more I screw with it but I think S-10s and Dakotas drive nicer and are less noisy when hitting bumps. The next thing I'm going to do with it is replace the m2 springs with some coil over shocks to hopefully get rid of some of the spring noise when I hit bumps and get a softer ride. Maybe I'm just bitter but I'll never put another one in again. The guy who was mentoring me while I was putting this thing together convinced me to go with a mustang 2 suspension versus a frame swap. Now he's doing a frame swap on one.

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That’s what I was thinking, just buy a 1st generation Dakota and swap the frame clip and the rear end. That will upgrade steering and brakes. The old flathead runs so good I’m going to keep it.

Hot Rod 46, I did add the spring pads and I think it may of helped but not sure. It drives alright now but whenever I drive my S-10 Blazer I get mad cause it rides and drives better than the all the suspension that I spent a crap load of money and time on.

I hate it when you break the bank trying to get something right and still have issues. I’ve been ready to torch my 48 a few times