I am pretty close to attempting a steering conversion on my XR fairmont and I just wanted to see if anyone has any info or had past experience with this. I have done a search on this forum but realy havnt found much info at all but I thought this was a pretty popular upgrade for XR-XY falcon owners. Yes I have thought about the RRS conversion, but thats probably going to cost over 3 grand by the time I get all the bits and pieces and fit it, and realy Im just looking to improve the steering on the car, not take it racing on twisty roads.
I understand that some mods will need to be done to my chassis rail.
I went to a wrecking yard and asked if I could check out a chassis rail on an XF and Iv noticed a recess on the top part where the box sits and also another one on the side of the rail between the mounting bolt holes. The guy at the yard said hes done these conversions before and advised me to heat up the chassis rail with an oxy and beat the dents into it with a hammer. That dosnt sound quite right to me, but at the same time Im pretty nervous about cutting into and welding bits of my chassis aswell.
Id realy appreciate any info anyone has, especially if youve seen or done it yourself. Or if there are alternatives to improving the steering on these early falcons (other than RRS) please share your knowledge, Im sure it will be useful to many others aswel as myself.

i converted my xr fairmont to xy steering box and column, i got a reco box with 16/1 ratio like the gt's had.

It can b done but the holes for the box r different & one has to b drilled & tubed & u also loose some turning circle. Some mob in WA do a conversion I don't know if they do a kit or not.

Yeah when I googled the topic one of the results is some place in WA. They had some pics but looking at the size of the chunk they took out of the chassis and comparing it to that on an XF it seemed to me like it was overkill. I know the bolt holes need to be redrilled and id have to put in some crush tubes but Iv its the cutting pieces of the chassis that im not sure about because, like every other topic, Ive heard many different opinions.
A gt steering box would be cool, however that would make the steering tougher and are those boxes any better in terms of the amount of play they had compared to the original?
Iv owned an XF and an FE LTD in the past and would be happy enough if the steering in my XR was the same as those.

when they reco them here, they use a power steering gear set, giving the 16/1 ratio.
there is sweet f/a play in a reco'ed steering box
i've had 7" front wheels and 235 rubber before and the steering was sweet, cant beat the 2.5 turns lock to lock.

I did think about just getting my existing box reco'ed but I think I prefer to have power steering, which is a shame for me I guess because it would be alot easier. 2.5 turns sounds cool but it may be abit hard trying to park the thing especially with a smaller aftermarket steering wheel and Im looking to build a cruiser not something for the race track. Later model steering into an XR - XY has come up a fair few times looking at older posts on this forum, however most of them end with people recommending a RRS kit (which is easy to recommend but alot harder to fork out the cash for), or without any real answer so Im just looking for some advice on carrying out conversion for myself and a fair few others who have wondered how to do the same thing in the past

im in the process of doing it my self, im still learing, as my mate done it not long ago, yes you have to notch the rail, which is a sinch if your handy with a mig and a grinder, as for the legalitys im not sure about that so i dont condone it for street use you need a XY steering collum which you have already, and i need so if anyone has a cheap one let me know!! which i believe needs to be shortened but im not 100% on that as i have heard one say yes one say no,, ill get a pic of mine and ill do a template if you want me to. got pics but they too big,

oh dont hold your breath for the pic, ill be busy the next couple of days, and its cold out side and got flat batt in camera,sorry mate.

Another advantage of running that steering box is you can use the integrated power steer instead old the dreaded ram type they had in XR-XY / ZA-ZD's, a friend had it done on his ZC but I never stuck my head under to have a look! but he seemed to think it was pretty straight fwd to do.

Thanks Provoked, any pics or a template would realy be very appreciated whenever you get a chance. Im not in any real rush Iv had the car sitting in the garage for a couple of years now but just got my motor back so thats given me new motivation to start working on it again and hopefuly finish it off.
As far as legality goes Im just hoping that any mods to the rail will be to hard to see with the box in the way and the exhaust. I think Im going to need and engineers certificate for the car anyway but ill just worry bout that when the time comes.
I have a steering column I bought ages ago off an XC I think, because I vaguely remember being told, or reading that I needed a later model column and XA to XC were a good option. The later columns, maybe XW on are collapsible so I know thats one reason theyre recommended. Maybe an XA to XC column will do for you as Im guessing theyed be easier to find than XY and probably cheaper aswel. At this point though Im guessing if I can manage to fit the box, making a column fit wont be as much of a challenge so Im not as worried about that part.

1 try these mate, ill make a template, but i dont know how to send that, im noty real good on the computer,

 

 

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Hey thanks alot those pics are great. Great job and it looks like it fits like a glove. What kind of welder did you use? Ive got an arc welder sitting in the garage that Ive never used. Ive used a mig before but only for pannel work, never anything as thick as a chassis.
Have you put crush tubes in the new hole? Did you even have to drill a new hole? Because it looks like those bolt holes are pretty much in the same location as whats already in the chassis.
If you can be bothered making a template that would be great. I guess it depends on the type of file it is. Maybe you can just stick in on the thread like a picture. Your pics have already helped heaps though. Thanks.

i got a 170 amp mig, the holes are pretty close, as you can see one hole has been slotted, and one was moved up about 15mm the other is untouched.