Ok, I thought it would be easy. It ain't. But I'm determined. Here's the story so far:

I have a '75 244 dl that I love. She's one cool car. But she has manual steering and I want power.....

So I went out to my local U-Pull one day and got myself a nice PS rack out of a 1979-1980 car. Four to five years newer than my car, but hey it's before the big revision in 1981 so it should be cool I thought. One end of this rack from the yard has a U clamp to attach it to the car and the other is kinda solid cast metal with two holes for two bolts to go in. I cleaned it up and got all excited about my power steering that I thought I was soon to have ....

Then I noticed my current manual steering rack is different in regard to how it's attached to the car. It has TWO U clamps to attach it. But I thought that those two bolts would go through the holes of one of the U-clamps. I spend a lot of time getting the old rack and those darn outer tie rod ends off and then go to fit my new rack and IT DOESN'T FIT ONTO THE CAR! The actual steering gear is fine but the rack does not sit straight on my car. I put the old one back. Then I had to have a beer or two to get over 7 hours work for not much in the way of results.

What should I do? I have since read that there are two types of rack. If I got a PS rack with the two U-clamps holding it onto the car from a 1977 244dl would that fit? Are the racks with U-clamps interchangeable? There is a car out at my local yard with this type of rack. I'm in college so am kinda poor -- I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone can give me some idea of whether it's worth my while to get this one. Does a 77 rack fit into a 75 car? What are the racks called? How else can I identify the two different types? Is there a conversion kit available?

THANK YOU for reading all this!!!!!!!! Erik.
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thanks from derro