Many of us have heard about the fiasco surrounding the Flaming River rack. Many more have likely missed out on the story behind this part, and a few here have had the misfortune of trying to install it on their own car. For those of us that were not part of the VMF group purchase, please enlighten us with your first hand account of working with FR and what the outcome was.

The purpose of this thread is not to slander Flaming River. They've already done a good job of messing up their reputation on their own with this piece. In light of a recent Mustang magazine highlighting the part as a true bolt-on (as long as you happen to live down the road from Flaming River and can have them make a custom cradle for your application). I would just like to have an eisily-referenced thread with first-hand accounts by real people that tried this piece.

If you managed to make it work on your car, great! We want to hear your story too.

This is a chance to learn about a product from the people that buy and drive them, without the magazine advertorial approach that glosses over the important details so that the advertiser can sell more parts.

 

For clarity... I was the person who put together the Group Purchase on the VMF over the winter. I don't recall off hand how many actually shipped of these, the number would probably exceed a dozen if you count the 5 or so units I sold off on eBay. I can tell you for a fact that no one who purchased them have successfully installed them that I am aware of. Several people returned the setups (myself included), some have yet to try and install them, others may have resold them at a profit since the price was so low, and others never gave me any feedback.

If anyone has specific questions about them I can take a shot. I have not bothered to follow up on any progress or changes they may have made since April timeframe, but given the people I worked with at FR I would not have any faith in their ability to correctly engineer this kit.

 

Thanks for the clarification Jay. FWIW, my intention for this thread was not to point fingers or drege up any past issues so much as it was to have something to reference when people show up here to ask questions about the product. Since we have first-hand accounts, I thought it may help to hear the whys and hows that surround it. It just seemed that the article I read glossed over the real issues so much, many more people might get burned.

 

I did notice they gave the kit some corny name like the Black Widow or something to try a freshen the marketing of it. An interesting challenge would be to find more than one person on a forum somewhere who has installed it and gotten it all to fit and work properly.

That article made everyone look like morons... front cover says "Easy Rack and Pinion" or something to that effect. Don't know how it works at the publisher but when I need to get a custom part made by the supplier for a relatively common car setup... I don't call it "easy".

 

So what were the problems?

Header clearance? Steering shaft problems? What else?

 

Problems I am aware of:

- Cradles not fitting frame
- Cradles not fitting racks
- Header clearance
- Excessive bumpsteer numbers
- Instructions missing information and containing false info (over torque specs for supplied hardware)
- Length of tie rod adapters
- Wrong tie rod adapters and/or tie rods
- "Spray Painted" components instead of advertised powder coating
- Incorrect shipments and back orders
- General lack of concern by company representatives and continuous false promises...

Perhaps more, it's been sometime.

 

Has anyone found the easy bolt-in rack system that you were looking for? I'm not a mechanic, but I can set up a gas grill. If it's follow-the-instructions and a nut and bolt operation, I'm in. Any suggestions on brands that do fit and are well made ?

 

i've heard nothing but good stuff about randall's rack and he is a really great guy to talk to as well. i have emailed and asked him several questions about his rack and he always responds within 24 hours or less, one guy on stangnet emailed him on a sunday and got an answer from him that day, randall even got his phone number and called him personally to work through the issue, which was solved very easily. and the issue was one that could not easily be foreseen, since the guy who bought the rack couldn't get the recommended moog tie rod, so he bought a TRW unit instead and the number of threads were different from the moog piece. randall really seems to be a great guy, another member even got a call from randall while randall was at a care show and got the info he needed as well and that wasn't even for a problem just information. i will be getting my rack from randall when it's time. check it out www.randallsrack.com

 

This is a Flaming River thread... the general R&P discussion is here: http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?showtopic=2671

Blake, maybe you want to convert the FAQ to a wider Rack and Pinion discussion?

 

I would prefer to keep this thread specific to the Flaming River unit so that it can be referenced and we can learn from actual hands-on accounts and not fall victim to magazine articles that gloss over real issues and refer to the part as a "bolt on" when we have yet to hear of anyone that can properly install it.