CO track thread

[monkeytaco]

i'd be willing to help with a steering rack swap, and offer my garage as a place to do it. I want some hands on experience with it before I go doing it on my car.

[blefevre]

At my rate it will be summer before I get a full weekend. If I can find a shop thatll do it for a reasonable price it might be worth it just to have a safe car.

[Bishop]

Bah, not what I wanted to hear. Autosport werks pretty much said they won't swap a E36 rack in and a new E30 one is such a waste. I need more free time....

Drive the jeep for a few days and wrench at night? Shouldn't take too long.

It's not a bad swap on an e30 to put an e36 rack in, probably a weekend. I'd go with the 95 M3 rack since it's got better geometry than the Z3 rack (scrub radius). The Z3 is much quicker lock to lock though, twitchy/darty almost. I haven't driven the 96+ M3 rack though.

Nothing against David, but please don't go off of what he said quite yet. I know that they FINALLY made a thread with exact ratios and pluses and minuses to every rack the people were using and blah blah blah. Finally someone made a comprehensive e36 rack thread and if I remember, the 95 m3 wasn't the rack of choice... But I never read it in full and it's been a while

[Bimmerman325i]

Drive the jeep for a few days and wrench at night? Shouldn't take too long.

Nothing against David, but please don't go off of what he said quite yet. I know that they FINALLY made a thread with exact ratios and pluses and minuses to every rack the people were using and blah blah blah. Finally someone made a comprehensive e36 rack thread and if I remember, the 95 m3 wasn't the rack of choice... But I never read it in full and it's been a while

The rack of choice is the 2.7lock-lock Z3 rack, because it's less turns lock to lock. However, it has a larger scrub radius, so I'd go with the 95 rack (also, from driving my car with the 95 rack and Roland's with the 2.7 Z3, I prefer my 95).

just a data point.

[Bishop]

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=172261

[blefevre]

Drive the jeep for a few days and wrench at night? Shouldn't take too long.

Sadly out of the option. I keep my tools at my friends place 45 minutes away because he has a driveway/heated garage. I only have about 3 hours of free time every night. Bah I need a house (garage) so bad!

[Bimmerman325i]

Yup, and the opinions in there are amazing. Drive either before you choose.

The Z3 is far quicker on center, almost annoyingly so in my opinion. Good for a track or autocross car, not so fun on a DD. The 95 M3, which has very similar caster geometry to an E30 M3 (offset lower bushing is same part, many of you have that part), is much nicer to DD with and has a plenty fast ratio. Yes, it's progressive. Who cares? It behaves very well.

I've driven e36s with both racks. E30s with either rack will not be much, if any, different in terms of feel and lock to lock behavior. The Z3 is faster. It's not my favorite.

[blefevre]

I just want to be able to turn left when I turn my steering wheel left, lol. I don't really care about the lock to lock or anything. Any E36 rack will make me happy. I feel like a super hero driving the Ti compared to the E30.

[fsmtnbiker]

You could probably just grab an E36 rack from a junkyard. They don't typically fail like yours has.. At worst it will have a little play on-center. Mine does, but it also has 217k on it.

[fsmtnbiker]

David - I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but scrub radius is not the right term. Scrub radius is the radius that the center of the contact patch moves in, with respect to the centerline of the upper strut mount and lower balljoint. Wheel spacers and camber shims can affect it, but a steering rack cannot.

[Bimmerman325i]

David - I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but scrub radius is not the right term. Scrub radius is the radius that the center of the contact patch moves in, with respect to the centerline of the upper strut mount and lower balljoint. Wheel spacers and camber shims can affect it, but a steering rack cannot.

good point. I think that's what I read in a thread on e30 rack swaps (not the one ben linked), but that definitely isn't the right term. My bad.

[Bishop]

I never said to go with one rack over the other, I just offered a thread that had some info in it.... I haven't read it....

Chris - care to comment on whether it'd be better bang for your buck, for my car at least, weekend warrior at the MOST right now, to have kept my 17s and run 235/40 star specs and replaced the tires, or 15x8s and 225/45s... The tires for the 15s are like $50 cheaper per corner, and they're RS3s compared to star specs... I think in the long run, the 15s are a better choice because it'll be cheaper to race / learn. Down the road, if I add more power and brakes, the 17s would probably be the right choice. your thoughts?

[Bimmerman325i]

Chris-

just fyi, the difference in unsprung mass per corner between those two setups is 4.5lbs.

[Bishop]

lol, guess who thinks I made a big mistake selling my 17s to consider at 15" setup...

[blefevre]

Why's that? Tires are cheaper, wheels are lighter. You aren't do competition or have huge brakes. 17's were badass though...