74weld steering rack coming!

[swooshdave]

Info dump on IG.

they will have one at the hammers. Anyone there check it out and send pic.......please.

I expect that ya'll can hear my credit card weeping...

Sponsored

 

[Rkgzx9leftcoast]

I expect that ya'll can hear my credit card weeping...

Its going to have to smoke a Camel after that banging.....

 

[VTR_16]

 

[mpeugeot]

Funny, much of what some of us predicted. It's a solid concept. $3k is not a bad price for the housing to be honest. That's a lot of aluminum and machining, it's going to likely go up!

 

[Tex]

Aww damn it I was $500 off. I bet that $4,900 price tag on a completely new setup is going to have some sticker shock, but that pinion box does require some fancy machining.

I wonder if the lack of adjustability for the rack guide is going to be a problem later on when that delrin starts wearing. It's certainly better supported in that area though.

 

[Bird Dog Off Road]

Funny, much of what some of us predicted. It's a solid concept. $3k is not a bad price for the housing to be honest. That's a lot of aluminum and machining, it's going to likely go up!

$3k is only if you already have a Hoss 3.0 unit to send them.

 

[Raptor911]

5k is not bad.

 

[Tex]

It's really not an outrageous price for what it is, though it's certainly a high cost to fix something that shouldn't be a problem. I think there may be cheaper solutions possible that would work for most people that have broken racks in the past though.

Also keep in mind that you can buy a 3.0 rack for a lot less than $1900, so if you can source it yourself and send it to them, the total price will be more like $4,000-4,500 instead. I got mine for $900-something plus a $400 core charge that I could potentially get back by sending the old rack in (probably more if I just sell it outright), and maybe $100-150 for shipping.

 

[Razorback]

74Weld is certainly doing the Lord's work.

 

[mpeugeot]

$3k is only if you already have a Hoss 3.0 unit to send them.

That's why I said price for the housing, some of us, as @Tex suggested, already have HOSS 3.0 steering racks in hand (for a lot less than $1900).

If the 3.0 racks are internally the same as the non-3.0, it would be really cool to upgrade the standard rack. I suspect that the mount for the rack motor may be different.

 

[Tex]

If the 3.0 racks are internally the same as the non-3.0, it would be really cool to upgrade the standard rack. I suspect that the mount for the rack motor may be different.

I think perhaps it's a little shortsighted by not having a 2.0 upgrade option included if they're saying the only real difference is the motor. The extra assist afforded by the 3.0 motor might not be worth the cost of a whole 3.0 rack to a lot of people if they could just use their 2.0 rack instead, and it wouldn't need any programming done for non-3.0 Broncos. If the difference is just the motor, then all they really need to do is modify their design slightly to fit a 2.0 motor, or make the mounting flange accept adapter plates for both motors. Maybe it'll be something offered later on, who knows, but I'm sure it would help with sticker shock if they could use their 2.0 instead.

Honestly I'm kind of tempted to send them my 3.0 rack now and use the 2.0 as a test rabbit for modifications later.

 

[Ramble_Offroad]

 

[mspeter]

Echoing two prior comments:

1. I applaud the captured delrin bushing design for the pinion/rack, but IMO, it must have either a dynamic pressure (aka Pinion spring preload), _or_ an end-customer-viable method to adjust the fixed-lash to account for tens & tens of thousands of wear miles.

2. A second mid-section design that accommodates standard-size motor/belt etc. Would save on onerous rack programming. But even using a new replacement standard motor/controller would need programming too. No clear line of sight (yet ?) for Procal to handle the steering programming for hoss3. There is also the 3rd level risk of dealer techs inadvertently bricking the retrofited HOSS3 when doing ‘hail-Mary’ blanket s/w updates for other service/warranty issues..

 

[Tex]

1. I applaud the captured delrin bushing design for the pinion/rack, but IMO, it must have either a dynamic pressure (aka Pinion spring preload), _or_ an end-customer-viable method to adjust the fixed-lash to account for tens & tens of thousands of wear miles.

Maybe this isn't as big of a problem as it sounds? I don't know what kind of tolerance and movement the rack bar has in relation to the housing, and the pinion in relation to the housing. It could be that there's so much slop in there that a spring preload is only necessary because there's just so much movement possible between the gears. If you eliminate the ability for the bar to wiggle around in the housing, and you eliminate the pinion from moving as well, maybe we're looking at hundreds of thousands of miles before it gets to the point of needing some adjustment. Or it might end up needing adjustment twice as often as new tires, I really couldn't guess about how it would shake down long term.

Looks like the only way to swap that bushing out is by removing the rack and disassembling it to some degree, I don't think you'd be able to replace it while it was on the vehicle and I wouldn't want to try for that matter. Even if it's just a $5 part, that's a full day of work and a new alignment at least, assuming you know how to properly disassemble and reassemble the rack. Worth it for a bulletproof rack? Maybe, depends on how long that bushing lasts.

Adding spring pressure to the delrin bushing would put you back at square one just about, since that would localize the stress back to a rack guide again. It likely wouldn't do any good though, as the wear is probably going to happen on the bushing ID rather than the OD where a rack guide would be putting pressure against.

The opposing end of the pinion appears to stick out of the housing a bit on the other side, presumably for some kind of nut and bearing to secure the pinion to the housing. If there was a way to adjust where on the housing the end of the pinion shaft was fastened to, and the bearings on the input side were self aligning, that might be enough for an end-user to offset some amount of bushing wear by moving the pinion down closer to the rack bar. So instead of pushing the rack bar down into the pinion with a rack guide to get the gears to mesh correctly, you'd be pushing the pinion up into the rack bar to get the gears to mesh correctly. The problem here is that too much wear on the bushing ID would mean the rack bar was being located and held in that bushing by the pinion itself...meaning the pinion could be doing the bushing's job and transferring rack bar stresses to the pinion instead of to the bushing in some cases. Maybe the pinion is engineered to take some amount of lateral stress, maybe it wasn't, but it might be an explorable avenue for end-user adjustability.

It would be nice if there was a way to preload the pinion up to the rack bar instead of rack bar down to the pinion, that would be the most logical step, but I don't see anything on their housing that would accommodate that.

 

[mspeter]

Tex, All good points! Design appears to be lifetime fixed-lash setting, with a precise chosen to-fit bushing during assembly. I tend to agree the lifetime combined wear on the delrin bushing, pinion & pinion bearings may not be noticeable. If the pinion has any taper to it, it could possibly be shimmed in/out on a workbench.

Sponsored