I am placing this in the SRT catagory because it seems SRT owners are more apt to modify thier cars, are less satisfied with things the way they are and generally seem to be more ****.
Those of us that have driven a lot of cars will agree that in comparison to other cars in our class our steering suffers. The use of rack and pinion would have helped this issue greatly but at a cost to Dam./Chrys. that they were unwilling to spend.
Has anyone done any research on a conversion for our car. Has anyone had enough experiance in steering systems that may shed light on the possibility
of converting to a rack and pinion?

 

No idea if this would work but its a thought. Auto Parts and Car Parts at Buy Auto Parts#

 

I saw a slk 320 turn the wheel and I swear that the camber changed massivly, I could not beoieve the cars are same chassis after that. Woody BTW that was sittting still.

 

The idea crossed my mind but I don't know much about the conversions. It seems like the only thing that needs to be done on other cars is just change the steering linkage and physically mount the rack on the crossmember. With many conversion kits, the PS pump doesn't need to be changed and isn't a big deal if it does. I just don't think we have room to mount the rack without having ground clearance issues.

 

is the rack designed to mount under, below the cross menmber?

 

This was my primary grip about the car. The steering gives zero feedback. After driving a few BMW's and Hondas(owned 2 93-97 preludes) around i couldn't understand why a more intuitive and responsive rack wasn't put into this car. it basically 1980's tech, they put a steering dampner on it mainly because the rack oscillates. without it the car would wander all over the place its a rather dated and poor design.

 

It seems that these days it is almost impossible to find a car of any stature that doesn't use the rack system.
I guess I want my SRT the type of car that I would like to allow ANYONE to drive and be impressed. With the numbers it is able to put down on the course I would like the steering to be as impressive. If I were to get that figured out, "Battle of the Supercars" here I come...

 

I have been thinking of this to, I have been researching and taking measurements to upgrade the front suspention on my SRT to the new stlye SLK and the one used in the C, CLK.
the knuckle, upper and lower control arms and steering. also the caliper would be on the inside of the wheel .
Parts are not that much to toy around with. Im gonna keep researching the idea.

 

Also when I had my 2005 C230K, that thing could turn like no other!! the wheels literally almost were horizonal at full turn.

 

Yea my wife has a 05 C230 too and it is an odd sight to see a wheel tilt that much (without a broken suspension!)

 

Jimmy,
Keep us posted if you come to any conclusions.
Thanks,
Mike

 

I am still working on this, We got some parts in from a yard we deal with. I hope we can figure something out. The biggest difference I see now is the mount for the strut on the C/SLK compaired to the shock mount on the Xfire/170SLK, in the engine compartment. there is more of an angle on the C..

 

Has anyone gone any further than speculation on this?

 

The original post was almost ten years ago.

 

yea, don’t waist your time on it

 

some years later....... My wife had a 2013 slk and the steering was effortless. Little finger required only....so just wondering if there is any way to upgrade the steering pump to match this????