If there is no need for rack and pinion ill stay with the original box and rebuild it, does anyone know where to get parts for one? Shortening the steering arms sounds good but would it make that much of a difference? As for the phantom grip or lsd i dont know what diff i have,i would also like to know if the standard diff will handle an L16 and possibly a worked L18?

A h165 or bw68 will put up with l series easy enough

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Yes, it will. However, the standard box has a good, fast gear ratio (15:1). So whether you shorten the arms with teh stock box or the R&P box doesn't really matter.

For information on swapping Rack & Pinion, see Steering Gearbox Swaps.

For info about shortened arms, see Knuckle Arm.

just get the original box rebuilt and leave the steering arms

the first thing to break will be the uni joints in the tail shaft, they need to be upgraded

if you have a h145 (sedan and coupe diff) you should upgrade to the ute H165

If i change it, ill only have to swap centers? I looked on the phantom grip website but couldnt find one for a H165? Does you know where to get an LSD or phantom grip?

no, a h165 has a larger housing and axles too, you need the full diff, both axles and center fail in the h145

i do not have a genuine phantom grip, i got mine through Tayell Automotive in VIC years ago

there is also the very rare opportunity to buy a torsen LSD for H165, brand new, from Topgear on this website at this moment

you will also be keen to look at diff ratios

perhaps you should tell us a lot more about your plans and location so we can better assist you with advise

One of the things to look out for with re-building a steering box is who does it and how.

As a very very general comment, you can get the worm gear hard chrome plated (which is something considerably different to the chrome on the bumpers and other parts!) But the 'issue' is that the worm wears mostly in the centre area, and next to zero wear at each end.So if they plate it too thick, it starts to bind at each end with new balls in there. To do it perfectly, you'd want to chrome it, then machine it so it is even.I don't know of anyone setup with the right fixtures on a milling machine (I would presume youd do it on one with an indexer and some other bits) - but it certainly _is_ doable.

Bur given the complexity involved, for my own pursuits (and fwiw my current one isn't too bad) is looking into ourcing a new rhd steering box from Nissan. Since they built utes (bakkies) in Sth Africa until only a few years ago, there's a good chance there's still some steering boxes in stock somewhere. I'm looking into it at the moment.

It won't 'quicken' the steering much, but you can sometimes find a happy medium by going to a slightly smaller steering wheel. Depending on your own physical size, a smaller diameter wheel can help turn somewhat close to 180 degrees in either direction without having to move your grip at all. With a bigger wheel, you end up hitting your legs (or at least potentially so) obviously a smaller wheel makes for higher steering effort, but on dirt and loose ground, you'd not have too much trouble with it.

I totally agree with everyone saying to avoid a completely locked diff. If you have absolutely no other option, you 'might' try it somewhere to see what it's like, but it is vastly inferior and 'hairier' than a lsd type diff (of any type) off road. Heck, they are hard enough to drive (the fully locked diff) on dry smooth bitumen. BUt on loose ground, they really screw up corner entry off the throttle, and then want to snap too easily the other direction when you apply it. They are similarly dangerous on bitumen in the wet (and no word of a lie could easily prove fatal in such conditions)

V8 supercars are (or at least were, I haven't looked at their regs in a couple of years) mandated with a spool in the rear - i.e. fully locked diff. And you could really tell if you focused on how they performed particularly mid corner, and indeed in the wet.

I've got one of the topgear 'tor-sen' style diffs (but it is not yet in the car). I can tell you for sure that they are exceptionally well manufactured, and would probably kick butt in teh application you have planned. About the only thing they 'don't' do is provide good traction if one wheel is completely off the ground, and you are stationary. But unless you are doing 'rock-crawling' it's just never going to come up in rally driving, at least not significantly. And just to play devil s advocate, if you were stuck with a wheel up, if you pull the handbrake on about half way, it'll offer enough resistance to turning for the wheel off the ground that it'd direct power to the wheel on thr ground.

If i can get a new one that might be the go, otherwise i will rebuild the one i have got. I'd like to thank everyone who posted their thoughts and ideas it's been a great help

interesting stuff j-mac

i have changed my mind though - in an autocross a locked diff would probably be pretty good, as you know the track, i would not like it in rally when there are many suprises

10 years ago, I vaguely remember the price for a new steering box/column unit from Nissan ZA was about 15%-25% the cost of a new 1200. Was in the range of $1000 (+freight,gst,duty).
They also offered rebuilding service... can't remember the details on that.

That's not as much money to me these days, but it's still significant. If I could source a new steering box for less than $500 I'd say I'd be interested.