My 1994 Z-28 convertible has the most horrid front suspension and steering. Is it possible to replace the current steering rack with a racing manual rack and tightening up the front suspension to eliminate the sloppy handling ? Please provide sourcing info if available. I'd like to keep the car if I could tighten up the steering and suspension.

 

first you need to find where the slop is coming from. have someone bounce the steering wheel back and forth while your under the front looking at things to see where its moving. outer tie rod ends are common fail point causing slop. the rack can also wear and cause slop but is not as common. there is also a leather looking connector in the steering shaft under the hood that can also get worn and cause slop so check there as well.

 

I had this same problem before I parked my car. I'm going to have to address it before I get my car back on the road.

 

I have a similar issue...
The u-joint in the intermediate steering shaft is bad on my car, causing a clunking sound when the steering wheel is turned back in forth. It doesn't appear as though the u-joint itself can be replaced, I had to buy a used shaft. It also appears as though the shaft seal on the rack is leaking and needs replacing. There's a kit you can buy for this fix.

I haven't done the repairs myself yet to give feedback, but hopefully this info helps.

 

170 bucks for new rack. 180 for rack and tie rod ends
are you sure its not the tilt steering in the column that's causing slop/clunk. try tilting it in different positions and see what happens

 

You want to check the rag joint first. When I bought my 93 it did not have a motor in it. the guy told me it needed a rack so I put it on the list. After I got it moving around there was a lot of play. If I laid my hand on the rag joint and I had my son turn the wheel I could feel the play.

I bought the kit mentioned above. You can see it in my 93 thread in my sig.

https://www.unbalancedengineering.com/Camaro/ I put in their rag joint eliminator and the oversize pivot pins. That tightened everything up.

 

Might not be a bad idea to change all these parts since the car had seen better days, well, in my case anyway. Going to have to put that on hold until the work to my engine is almost done. I figured I'd do another $1000 in front end parts.

 

Just my opinion but don't replace the rack unless it needs it. These new aftermarket racks are not as good as the originals. Many aftermarket ones require replacement within 2 years.

 

I seen they was new. when I got the one in the car 10 or 15 years ago all they had was rebuilt. it sat around for years before the one in the car started leaking and I put it in. guess I was lucky to get it when I did.

 

That is how racks normally fail. They leak well before you can feel the play or the steering gets real hard which is just leaking internally. The seals can handle very little play. They are not like a wheel seals that handle a slightly bent axle. Back in the 80's we used to rebuild racks. 95% of the time it was the internal seals and that was it.

It is always tuff to judge failure rates bases on the net. One guy that have failures post everywhere. Meanwhile a 100 other guys never have an issue and never post. A big part of good parts is repeatability. You figure if you have 3 failures out of 100 units you sell 1000 units that 30 people pissed off posting everywhere the unit is junk but you still have a 97% of not having an issue.
FYI GM allows a failure rate of 60 parts per million on non-critical features and 1 in a million on critical or safety features. That is just for manufacture variation. It does not take into account poor engineering.