Adjusting Steering Rack

[Robster]

My 8% rack is just over 3 years old, less than 20 thousand miles and failed the MOT due to wear in the knuckles!mad.gif The rack has just been rebuilt at Titan. I asked them why it had worn so early in its life, and was told that they need adjusting every so often (the large nut on the top of the rack) to preload the pinion. How often do people check the racks and adjust them? How should I check the rack for wear in the first place???

 

If you havn't checked yours, I would suggest that you do, as apparently in my case the lack of adjustment helped accelerate the wear in the rack.

[sjwb]

Robster,

I posted this a while ago. You may find it useful - especially the last sentence.

If I remember correctly the damper button should have 0.002 / 0.004 endfloat. This needs to be measured along the complete used length of the rack in order to avoid preload (binding). The damper spring will keep the contact of the pinion and rack only to alieviate rack knock (not really relevant to a Seven.

The bottom line, as correctly mention previously, is to avoid binding.

By the way, one of the best rack lubricants is EP140 - yes 140, at about a 1/4 of a pint.

 

Steve B