I finally did find a rack & pinion vendor who can come very close to meeting all my requirements. I believe I've spent about 6 weeks on various vendors, and I'm so glad to have it in the rear view mirror. I had to make one compromise, but it's small, and not a quality- or function-related compromise.
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Th mounting system is also simpler than the others I was looking at, and should allow me to get it lower in the chassis, which may improve bump steer.
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I still could not get inner tie rods long enough, or with the metric threads, so I'll need to make an adapter. It's not a huge task, or a difficult one, and I have a small lathe that can do the job.
The red mark in the photo below, added onto a mock-up of a similar product, shows how close the end of the inner tie rod will be to the Lincoln outer tie rods I just bought. I'll need to made an adapter out of hex stock with 9/16-18 female threads on the inner side and M14-1.5R male threads
for the outer end. I'll use the original hex form as the adjuster nut. Final details TBD. The rack should be done and on the way to me in 7-10 days.
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Meanwhile, work on the suspension brackets continued. I have a little bit of a fetish about round holes and precision. I keep working to improve as I go through the process. My latest try is building temporary jigs out of scrap material for my drill press to improve consistency of location, and drilling 1/64" undersize and finishing the holes with a hand reamer.
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The 2"x3"x0.120" RHS does provide a pretty close fit for the poly bushings and compression tubes. There is room for a little movement of the bushings on the tubes, but too little to shim with even a real thin washer, so it's to be lived with, I think.
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All-in-all, some progress was made.
Cheers,