There is no shortage of hopup parts for Losi’s 22 series of vehicles, some of them are for bling (do people still use that word?) others for function. Exotek’s Steering Rack Conversion kit covers both. I had noticed that the steering rack in my 22SCT had become quite sloppy over this summer racing season so I took to the web to find a replacement. This kit is not a drop in replacement and some modifications are required to install it, but if I was able to do it, most anyone can.

Included in the kit is the bellcrank steering links, standoffs, bearings, hardware, a very nice pair of aluminum servo mounts and instruction sheet.

I started by tearing down the front of the truck right down to the chassis and removed the servo and stock servo mounts. The chassis side rails also need to be removed for a slight modification.

The servo mounts to the backside of the new servo mounts and here is where the first modification was needed. I had to remove the ribbing from the ears of my servo. A sharp hobby knife did the job nicely.

Before:

After:

Next up was the side rail work. A hobby knife and a set of calipers are needed here. The area around front set of holes on the side rails need to be trimmed until they are 5.5mm wide as shown.

Next, I installed the new steering rack standoffs.

And the servo.

The assembly of the rack itself is quite simple.

Things at this point are starting tome together, but the trickiest part of the install is coming up.

This next step takes a bit of trial and error to get it right. The upper nylon bulkhead of the truck needs to have some material removed on both sides for clearance for the steering linkage and servo horn. I used a dremel and slowly ground the spots down, checking until everything had clearance and didn’t hit. Be careful not to remove too much as it could weaken the bulkhead. You can see on each side of the bulkhead where I had to use the dremel.

All that’s left to do is bolt everything back up and race!

It is apparent right from the start that this kit removes almost all of the slop that can be found when using the stock steering rack. I have been racing with this setup for about a month and it has performed flawlessly, and it is a great looking upgrade too. To see more of Exotek’s fine products, visit http://www.exotekracing.com/