The rack gear itself is machined from a round bar of 300M alloy steel, a full 7/8″ diameter on the standard unit and 1.0″ diameter on the super strength race rack. The gear is vacuum furnace heat treated to 280,000 psi tensile strength and then carbon nitride plasma coated to increase tooth strength and to give corrosion resistance.
Some of BilletKing’s competitors use a square section rack gear as they are readily available commercially in a variety of low cost alloys, this also makes the housing easier to machine by just milling a slot into the two or three housing half sections, this of course opens the possibility of movement or failure at the joints.
BilletKing prefer to go the more difficult route and use the stronger round section rack gear and align boring the single piece housing to maintain the structural integrity of the whole unit, this also keeps the close tolerances that we require for minimum backlash in the gears.
The helical pinion gear is CNC hobbed from H11 aerospace tool steel and through hardened.
The rod end clevises are CNC machined from a block of chrome-molly steel and have locating lugs machined into the end that mate with slots in the rack gear to prevent the clevis from turning and to keep them vertical to the wheels. The clevises are bolted to the rack end with (supplied) grade 12.9 metric allen head bolts and spring washers.
The rack and pinion comes complete with steel tie rods, clevises, dust boots and all required hardware.
The optional race tie rods are made from high strength 2024 aircraft structural aluminum and hard anodized to match the rack housing. The kit comes with all grade 8 hardware, chrome molly high misalignment rod ends, chrome molly clevises and heat treated 17-4 stainless outer joint pins.
