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MikeJr. 65 122s project

Yeah I'm trying to get my stuff right so I can. I need to put my car on the dyno. Honestly though I was shocked how well the ITB setup worked out. I've done very little tuning and aside from an untuned accel enrich it runs pretty clean.
 
Awesome work, keep us posted on how the power steering works for you. Trying to figure out a way to make steering a bit easier on our rallycross 122 running 195 tires.
 
As much as I appreciate a good rack, a well rebuilt box on these is plenty. Even with the fat tires I had on my last Amazon, the box that Ian and Eric had rebuilt was perfect for it.
 
matt b said:
As much as I appreciate a good rack, a well rebuilt box on these is plenty. Even with the fat tires I had on my last Amazon, the box that Ian and Eric had rebuilt was perfect for it.
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And I might still go that route if this doesn?t work out, although my box is in pretty good shape. The car has less than 60k original miles on it.
 
MikeJr. said:
And I might still go that route if this doesn?t work out, although my box is in pretty good shape. The car has less than 60k original miles on it.
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I feel the only real benefit to a steering rack in an Amazon is the elimination of the drag link and thus less pivot points. This should in turn make for more direct steering in addition to the removal of slop from a steering box, which even when adjusted properly needs some "slop" to operate correctly without binding the worm gear. In any case I'll keep watching this, curious to hear your impressions once it's in and on the road.
 
I like the idea of the rack for space reasons. There really isnt a whole lot of room for large radiator, intercooler or oil cooler up front. I ended up going semi-V-mount to get around making a rack work... but now I'm back to the cad screen to have an air-water ic worked out.
 
Thinking about making something similar to what flaming river does with several of their kits. They make a cradle bracket that goes between the frame rails and bolts where the steering box and idler arm go. This method looks to allow a more inward pivot of the tie rod as it bolts to a bracket that is bolted to the fixed inner tie rods of the rack. I've barley done any research into this method, but it looks promising. I may invest in a bump steer gauge to help with this rack project. Thoughts?
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R32RennSport said:
I feel the only real benefit to a steering rack in an Amazon is the elimination of the drag link and thus less pivot points. This should in turn make for more direct steering in addition to the removal of slop from a steering box, which even when adjusted properly needs some "slop" to operate correctly without binding the worm gear. In any case I'll keep watching this, curious to hear your impressions once it's in and on the road.
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Eliminating slop is exactly what I am looking for. Power assist will be nice too, but the "old car slop" is what I'd like to get rid of. If I wanted power assisted steering alone I'd just do the Prius electric power steering under dash which I have considered
 
Let's hear more about this electric power steering option. I hadn't heard of using prius parts.
 
Search around sspony - lots of folks have done it -- Prius, Saturn and Yaris units commonly used. Not too difficult to make work if you have room under the dash. VERY difficult to do in a way where you preserve feel, feedback and even return-to-center function that's anywhere close to what you had before. All of that is a function of the software that controls the unit -- and when it gets used in an entirely different application, you can get assist but almost always without refinement. There are black boxes that allow boost level to be tailored - but all the rest of the subtlety that makes good steering good steering is usually absent. Having said all that - there are a lot of folks that are thrilled to have boost without doing anything under the hood. And they're happy. The OEM's have taken a good decade of development and they're just in the last few years delivering systems that rival the best hyd-boost from before. There's a guy in the Volvo restomod group that just had it added to his 122 - he's in DC. Forget the name. And having said all that - I have no idea what the steering is like in the Amazons to start with -- for all I know it's like most old American muscle - devoid of any feel or feedback. If so, maybe nothing to lose!

MikeJr. - I think the approach pictured above has the potential to solve the bump steer issues presented by a rack that's too long for the 122 application.
 
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sspony said:
Let's hear more about this electric power steering option. I hadn't heard of using prius parts.
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There is a company called EZ Power Steering that sells a nice kit for $1200.

There are a few different E-PS Units you can use to do this swap. This guys goes into depth on what motors are best.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f4TYQ_KJSpc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cERfqzKfoAk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JAE1D70MHgk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lDGjRSHUj1g" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here is a link to one type of controller
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Saturn-Vue...763061?hash=item212b61fdf5:g:DRQAAOSwr7tZfvQP
 
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So I bought a set of widened stock 15" wheels off ebay. They were widened to 7.5", and these are replacing my 5.5" wide wheels I got new from VP autoparts. The wheels came primered, so we had to paint them at the shop. I also went with 225/45ZR15 Hankook Ventus tires which are much wider and lower profile than the Goodyears. They dropped the car almost another inch. I really like the way it turned out, and it handles so much better. I really don't notice any difference at parking lot speed with the wider tires either.


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Looking great! I was going to go the other way and get rid of my 7 inch steels and get some 5.5's but now I'm thinking I might hold on to them.
 
Yeah, I've learned to just avoid trying to turn the steering wheel when at a full, complete stop. If the car can move even just an inch or two while I'm cranking the wheel around, it's a lot easier.
 
So I've been really thinking about painting this thing blue, color code 99 blue to be exact. I know everyone seems to like the beige, and beige is semi-popular at the moment, but I always ask myself "What color would I pick if I was buying it brand new?", and I always go back to blue. Don't get me wrong the beige is ok, but blue has always been my favorite color, and Volvo has some very nice blues in their history.



I'm thinking of the original code 99 blue, because it is my favorite shade of blue, which is light blue. It originally came on the last two production years of 122, 1969, and 1970.


Here are some examples of code 99



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