elwood4ever

I have a 1984 with manual steering. I've made a lot of mild performance upgrades, and now I'm at the point where I'm happy with the car's overall driveability, except the steering. There's too much "play", which I can't seem to eliminate by adjusting the box. I'm considering my options:

1. Send the manual box to Red-Head (or some other shop) to have it rebuilt (no underhood tear-up)
2. Swap in a power box and run it in manual mode (quicker / higher effort / no underhood tear-up)
3. Swap in a power box and run it in powered mode (quicker / lower effort / some underhood tear-up)
4. Change to rack & pinion (???)

I have 205/50-15 performance tires on the front, so parking lot steering effort is fairly high. I use the car as a summertime daily driver, as well as performance weekend driving.
I'm interested in hearing your experiences and recommendations.

12aturbo

REMEMBER... RE-speed.... billy made a beautiful rack kit...but anyway . atkins rebuilds boxes

elwood4ever

I've generally heard good things about the Re-Speed rack kit. I would consider it if one became available.

FiveLetter

I have owned my 1985 GSL-SE for over twenty-eight years and like elwood4evr have gotten it to where I have always wanted it as far as handling and appearance go but have always hated the fact that Mazda used a steering gear box that was state of the art in the 1940's for their RX7 sports car. I found in unnerving to be doing 80 mph on the freeway and hit that dead spot in the wheel and get zero road feedback in the steering wheel and thought this suck. If you are interested in solution to your "wandering steering" problem on your RX7 go to eBay and type in Mazda RX7 SA/FB Rack & Pinion Kit (for some reason I couldn't put the link in this post.) Scott at M Theory Inc has developed a rack and pinion kit that is as close to "plug and play" as you can get. I have had mine installed for about two months now and absolutely love it! If you turn the steering wheel the tires move it's as simple as that, "ZERO" play in the steering wheel. This kit was an answer to a problem I didn't think I would see in my lifetime and it has put the "fun" back into driving my RX7, I have a 330 mm Nardi wood steering wheel which resulted in my having to really muscle the steering wheel when parking or getting in or out of my garage but no more with this kit installed. Is this kit "pricey"? Yes, it is, is it worth it? In my opinion hell yes! It all depends on what you want your RX7 driving experience be, I lived with the play for twenty-eight years but when I found this option I jumped. I got to know Scott when I contacted him about his kit and found out he owns a 85 GSL-se too and it's why he has over the years refined this kit for his own car. I had to have a shop install of my kit and when they screwed the install up and drove from GA to Indianapolis to fix it for me. Now who does that? If you are handy with tools, have jack stands and a floor jack you can install this kit in your garage in a day (or weekend) if you prefer. I'm including some photos of the kit on my car that I took when I had my friend prepping it of the post-install alignment. Scott provides great instructions and will answer any and all questions you might have about how to install his kit, and you can't ask for more than that.








Now she's done! :-)