I put in my MII frontend a few weeks back and found the rack was about 4" to short for the 48-52 so I bought a set of rack extensions but they were the wrong thread pitch so I was going to machine some that were the 9/16x18 I needed. In the mean time I was talking to a friend that has owned and or built 30+ streetrods and told him the problem and my fix for it. He told me the granada outer tie rods were longer so I got one today to try it and sure enough they will fix the problem. I should have the second one Monday so I can get the frontend turning with the steering wheel, it will be almost like a real truck.

I thought this might help someone else out

Mike

 

You must be piecing it together with your own parts? Regardless, I'm 100% sure the AM's ahve the right rack without extending/modding anything...sure...probably cost more than extensions, but for 299 or so you have a new rack to get ya through the corners with.

 

I bought the speedway crossmember and used original MII stuff after I replaced the ball joints and bushings with a factory rack so it ends up short. Heidts and Art Morrison sell the rack extensions for power as well as manual racks so it must be a common problem but if you use the granada tie rod ends you don't have any extra things in the steering to come loose/break etc.

Mike

 

Mike, if you use the longer outter tie rod ends rather than spacing the inners, you'll likely have a bump steer problem. You want the inners to pivot right in front of the lower control arm bushings, so the steering and control arm move in the same arc. Using the longer outter tie rod ends will solve your length problem, but you'll notice the inners will be inboard of the control arm bushings. The steering and control arm will then move in different arcs, steering the truck for you on bumps. Thats bump steer. The inner spacers are the right solution.

 

some kits center the rack with a left and right spacer .the fatman kit is offset to clear headers, and uses 1 spacer on right side only. good luck