I don't think that would be an issue as long as nothing binds when in full turn. VerticaL position is more important then forwards and backwards I think. Just the further away you get from the solid surface(crossmember) the less sturdy it will be. That's about it I would say.

 

ohh, now we're getting somewhere! the two spots on the cross member are only about 2" across anyway. it's not full contact even stock. I think at this point I need to remove the dust covers to really see the pivot points. maybe tonight or tomorrow i'll do that, and it will be more clear. thank you people for these reply's and keep them coming if you got something, i'm feeling better about this. kurt.

 

well, I've been busy playing with this and I made a plate that looks like it could work. I started with a piece 1/2"x2-1/2", made a cardboard pattern, and cut it out. the hardest part was finding 2 m12 flat head bolts as that's what's used to mount the rack to the cross member. here's some pics, it's not done, but i'll post up more as it goes together.

 

here it is installed. it pretty much disappears once the rack goes in, but I think it solved my problems of centering, uneven turning radius, tie-rod pivots are "just" on the outside of the line of upper and lower control arms pivots. tie rod ends went on with even turns. I had to grind the heck out of the driver side motor mount bracket to clear racks u- joint. here are some pics. I painted it with some bronze paint I had just so it won't rust while waiting for the next step, it'll get power coated if it proves it self useful, but it really blends in.

 

I feel for you. I too have been caught on the bad end of a deal with a "professional" fabricator. The experience was so bad that I swore to learn to do everything myself and never again farm out any type of work.

I admire your efforts at getting your rack centered left-to-right. However if the front end was narrowed than in principle the rack must be also.

You might want to Google "bump-steer" and do some reading.

It might not be horrible in your case as from my experience both working on my '56 and playing around with suspension software, the angle of the tie rods (relative to the lower control arm) is more significant than the length of the tie rods in dictating bump-steer behavior.

If you are interested, you can read about my own experience correcting bump-steer on my '56 here:

1956 F100 (Project Fat Max) Build Thread - Page 4

The bump steer stuff starts about half way down the page and continues on to the next page.

 

thanks for your reply. this rack was chosen because in was narrower than the stock crown vic rack. it's not perfect, but at this point I need to move the truck around and couldn't even do that! when I paid the guy (Edward richiie) he was very motivated, but when it came to details, he really dropped the ball, and it becomes the buyers problem to finish it up. I wasn't going to say anything negative about this, but after months and months of trying to get answers and getting nothing, i'll talk about it now. I remember checking out your truck one night for hours and really liking it and thinking, this is not a truck just built for looks, it's got an agenda. so why don't you drag your bump steer gauge over to my house so I can have a well handling truck too? kidding. when I get it running though, I would like to go over the front end again. I've got to deal with the sway bar soon too. again thanks for your reply, kurt.