Is there a bushing missing in this 3.2 steering rack?

I'm working with a friend of mine on his 3.2 mondial steering rack. We removed the rack a few days ago and now checking it out on the bench. There was some play in the steering which didn't appear to be from worn ball joints or the rubber rack mounts.

It's a TRW rack, part number 37502213/219 with an additional number 15518 7016 on it.

The gear and rack teeth look very good - no perceptible wear on either. Everything about the rack looks good...except there doesn't appear to be any kind of bushing on the end of the rack housing (see arrow in pic). The absence of a bushing here appears to allow some play in the rack as the rack rod moves about (against the spring loaded tensioner....) as the gear is turned.

Is there supposed to be a bushing? The Parts Manual doesn't show an exploded diagram of the rack internals unfortunately.

Thanks in advance.
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I've worked with a few different ferrari racks (and non ferrari...) and there's generally some type of seal or bushing (or both) on both ends of the rack housing...the purpose being two fold: support the toothed rack rod and help contain the grease in the housing.

On this rack there's nothing on the driver's side of the housing....no bushing or seal at all.....this allows the toothed rack rod to move around a bit and thereby "ride up" on the pinion gear creating some play in the motion.

I've made some silicon bronze bushings before for racks and this has worked well. Thinking about doing the same here....

Anyone have any experience with this TRW rack? Love to see an exploded diagram of the darn thing.

Thanks

 

Thanks afterburner.

I took the rack apart, cleaned everything, re-greased it all and put it back together. There was definitely a lot of old and dried grease in the housing and on the gears. I noticed that when reassembled, there was little/no play in the pinion end of the rack. I'm thinking the plastic cup bushing (spring loaded) which presses the rack rod up against the pinion gear had perhaps become seized in the bore at full depression due to the accumulation of dried grease....thus allowing some slop in the motion between rack rod and pinion gear. It sure feels a lot better now than when it came out when running the rack through the full stroke.

It may be just that simple.....will report back shortly.

 

Thanks afterburner, yes, the spring pressure can be adjusted by the addition/removal of shims.

Turns out the problem my rack had was the piston/puck against which the spring applies pressure had become stuck in the bore due to an accumulation of dried grease. Cleaning and lubricating everything (rack, pinion, rod joints, etc.) has made the rack function much, much better. The car now steers like it should.

A time consuming, but inexpensive, repair.