i was also looking to lose weight off the car

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1973 plymouth duster 225 slant six .30 over, erson 270 cam, 9.5 to 1 compression, big valves, headers, and a holley 4 bbl
http://cardomain.com/ride/3135091

hey that thing got a hemi? naw its just a slant six

The amount of weight lost is not worth the effort to lose it, especially if you're replacing a manual box to start with.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I was leafing through a magazine and came across an ad for Mopar A/B/E Body rack & pinion steering kits:

http://www.unisteer.com/

Their e-store only lists kits for B & E Bodies but their on-line catalog lists kits for A-Bodies with big blocks and small blocks, which cost $1599 (see catalog p11).

If a guy had his car up on a hoist long enough to puzzle through it the cost could be around the $300 mark.

Racks cost $20 around here...... An Aussie port side idler.....steering coupler.......a half day at the machine shop.....

My bogger uses the "in front " system. When I was looking for a used rack I found far more "behind" units.

I would not ever do a "in front" system on an A body.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Don't count on it. The RHD K-frame, pitman arm, idler arm, and other steering linkage parts are way different. It's not just a mirror image of the LHD K-frame.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

<shrug> Then we look at the pitman arm and see if we can make it into an idler. (weld tube in arm...press in bushing , centre bolt to plate bolted where steering box used to be.....

Its all small fab.....just fussy is all.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

I went with a rack on my Oz Charger...here you can see the factory setup on top, and the rack setup under it.. the K frame is a jig built piece from Oz..they have been doing them for many years now, and the rack is placed so there is no bump steer issues, etc. Car drove TONS better after the conversion.
You can also see (as mentioned) how different the Aussie steering setup is to a US setup.

Is the Aussie/US steering geometry the same?( just curious)

Thats a nice rack job. The key to no bump steer lies in keeping the stock(or close to it ) steering geometry. The rack must behind the steering centre line....and the rack width must correlate with the centre link width.
The rack body must be on a centre line with the tie rod end holes on the spindles. Anything else will promate bumpsteer.
If you can do those things with simple fab you are in.

Wanting the steering in front of the axle centreline is not a good place to start with this....

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

The Aussie stuff mounts completely different to the US version, and with that, the angles of the pitman and idler might be different as well (don't recall off hand)
The tie rod/rack arm length of the rack is basically the same as the lower control arm, hence not the bad bump steer issues. The rack is an off the shelf Holden piece actually..tie rod ends and all are the perfect fit into the Charger.
Just a matter of making up the intermediate steering shaft (steering column to rack) The Oz cars mount the steering box much further back then a US car so the shaft there is pretty straight forward to do. (I shortened the Holden one actually..)

Good info. Thanks.
Having the steering mounted further back is good for pan clearance.......

A North American K would have the rack mounted closer to the K member.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

No prob

Here is a shot of the steering shaft....