Thinking about electric power steering on my Gen 4 Funco. If you have installed Electric on your buggy please share.

What system does it run as far as a rack and the unit model itself?
It has the normal Extreme labeled rack (not sure who actually makes this rack for them) and a 400W Electric Motor, not sure of the brand, I would have to pop the hood off to check. I'm running 33's on the front but I know he uses the same setup on 35's as well.
 
If you're keeping a hydraulic rack, you can just loop the lines to keep everything lubricated, but disable the power assist.
 
If you're keeping a hydraulic rack, you can just loop the lines to keep everything lubricated, but disable the power assist.
I will be going to a manual rack if I go this route. Although I did not think of that. Cool.
 
If you're keeping a hydraulic rack, you can just loop the lines to keep everything lubricated, but disable the power assist.
You now have me thinking. I could easily put my Gen 4 rack back together. Teeth have some wear on the center teeth where it rides going straight but not horrible. Normal wear from the amount of miles on the car. For sure the aluminum for my spool valve is considerably worn and Grant has an upgrade for that if you keep the stock rack. The two aluminum machined blocks at each end are now unobtanium. I believe he said 2008 was the last year for that rack or those parts. Mine have some wear but I think the could be sanded and used again. It is not a load bearing surface. I did have one boot full of oil where it went past the two o-rings. Anyway I digress. If I put my stock rack back together and just packed grease in for the gears I could then in my case put the EPAS unit inline of the steering shaft. That would be a ton less work than putting in my gear one super rack which will be out of the truck this summer at some point. That project will be probably 100-150 hours of labor alone.
 
The gear one rack has a recessed area and I had built my mount to drop down in to that. Super strong. Guessing I could cut that piece off of my chromo cross tube and re-use. The spreader bar would be really easy to build with two pieces of flat long plate and spacers between. Then the heims go in between the pieces on each end. I would like to put the pivots in the same spot so the geometry stays stock. Going down the rabbit hole of playing with bumpsteer is a pain in the ass and above my pay grade. I would imagine this rack is super beefy as far as gear size. Good question I will ask Parker because I know what size the stock Funco is. Although I have not heard of gears ever breaking in a Funco rack. Decisions, decisions.
 

Attachments

  • 20240529_062719.jpg
    20240529_062719.jpg
    122 KB · Views: 1
  • 20240529_062734.jpg
    20240529_062734.jpg
    118.9 KB · Views: 1
  • 20240529_093331.jpg
    20240529_093331.jpg
    165.4 KB · Views: 1
  • 20240529_093756.jpg
    20240529_093756.jpg
    119.1 KB · Views: 1
You now have me thinking. I could easily put my Gen 4 rack back together. Teeth have some wear on the center teeth where it rides going straight but not horrible. Normal wear from the amount of miles on the car. For sure the aluminum for my spool valve is considerably worn and Grant has an upgrade for that if you keep the stock rack. The two aluminum machined blocks at each end are now unobtanium. I believe he said 2008 was the last year for that rack or those parts. Mine have some wear but I think the could be sanded and used again. It is not a load bearing surface. I did have one boot full of oil where it went past the two o-rings. Anyway I digress. If I put my stock rack back together and just packed grease in for the gears I could then in my case put the EPAS unit inline of the steering shaft. That would be a ton less work than putting in my gear one super rack which will be out of the truck this summer at some point. That project will be probably 100-150 hours of labor alone.
I think the Funco rack is a modified OE rack from somewhere.

But yeah, all of us import racers would just loop the lines to remove PS drag when a manual rack wasn't available. The rack on the USTCC racecar has been looped like this for 20-30k race miles now. Really no different than when you first install a new rack and cycle it back and forth a bunch of times to bleed fluid through it.
 
Back
Top