Knowing the wheel positioning is one of the factors I need to work out in order to solve for the windshield positioning. To get the wheel positioning established, I need to have the suspension setup and wheels aligned or at least real close on alignment. Part of suspension setup is mounting the Pinto rack & pinion unit. The drivers side was easy as it had mounting holes already drilled in the casting and all I needed to do was drill out matching holes in the chassis. The passenger side however didn’t have a built-in mount.
I looked online and found a nice machined aluminum mount could be purchased. But it also occurred to me that I could make this mount myself. I had acquired a Bridgeport mill about a year ago and have been slowly teaching myself how to use it. Machining out this mount looked like a great practice project and I found a chunk of ¾” thick aluminum plate in my metal collection.
After cutting out a rectangular piece just a bit larger than needed, I machined the edges to square it up and bored a 1 3/8” hole in it.
After some more machining operations, I had added mounting holes and took off some unneeded excess metal. Once installed, it holds the rack firm and even looks pretty good.
