In the course of restoring my 64 falcon sprint convertible I decided to convert to Unisteers (
Unisteer Performance Products ) power rack and pinion steering. In addition I have also replaced the front brakes with 1976 Granada disk brakes.
The problem I am having is connecting the outer tie rod ends that came with the installation kit to the Granada disk brakes. As long as I leave the coils off the outer tie rods connect just fine. The problem is I can not get the coils installed without doing some serious contortions which I am afraid will bend or break something. If I put the coils on first I would have to use a sledge hammer on the steering rack to even get close to make it fit. I still have the old drum brakes and I compared the spindle on both and other than extra holes on the Granada spindle to hold the calipers they appear to be virtually identical. Unisteer has also said this is a common swap using there setup.
The coils I am using are new and were supposed to be for a stock Falcon. What I am wondering is if they are the wrong ones. Is there some way to tell? Are they too big? Assuming they are sitting on a flat surface how high should they measure from top to bottom? Do I need to cut them down? Has anyone done this installation before? Unfortunately I dont have original coils to compare against.
I plan on calling Unisteers tech support tomorrow but if any one has done this swap before I would sure appreciate some advice.