Rebuilt steering rack - now it's really stiff...

If the steering rack has some play around dead center (wear is in that position, of course) and you tighten it, it will become very hard when you turn it, as other gears wasn't weared and so now they haven't anymore the minimum play they need

The solution is to replace the steering rack gears (like I did on my 45069)

Ciao

 

It sounds like you replaced the passenger side bushing? If so, did you use a bronze oilite bushing? Further, if you used a bronze bushing, did you drill the hole for the set screw all the way through? If you do not drill the hole the perfect depth when the screw is screwed in it pushes the inside of the bushing against the rack. If you drill all the way through there is not going to be an issue.

Did the rack slide freely before you put it back on the car?

When I rebuilt my rack two years ago, it seemed stiff after installing the new bronze bushing. I removed the set screw and it immediately felt better. The hole was not quite deep enough and thus additional pressure.

Or what Albert said.

Removing the rack is not too bad if you slide it out from the drivers side wheel well. Of course, better if you do not have to remove it but it sounds like you will need to in order to resolve the issue.

 

Jack the front up and see how it feels with no scrub on the tyres

 

There is a shim kit involved in setting preload on the pinion? Perhaps this needs to be re-adjusted?

 

I had mine rebuilt $$ but was not happy with the feel so I did it all again! I ended up changing the shims several time to get the right feel I dont like it too loose or to tight. I ended up making a shim out of aluminum foil and sandwiching it between two of the other shims. The thinnest one was not thin enough, and the thickest one as too thick just like goldilocks! The Pantera guys and Rick M on this sight really helped out. It was one of the harder things Ive done but I am not that smart! HA

 

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no play on the steer and a light steer too: just only one way, new gears. It works.

ciao

 

Ah, ok. Maybe you installed badly the bushing (or something else) or the bushing is not perfect. I thought you you adjusted the play through the shimmings: my mistake.

Sorry

ciao

 

Andy,
these original racks are actually rebuildable and since I saw, how badly these new racks on the market are manufactured I would even prefer bigger expenses in rebuilding, than purchasing any of these new ones. There must be a reason, that Ferrari UK refuses to stock these. Had some conversation with Keith Tyler some time ago.

The points rkljr is mentioning I would check first.
The increased center play is overrated. Increased wear in the center area of the rack doesn't automatically render a rack useless or make it impossible to adjust.
Note, that the adjustment plunger is not fixed, but spring pre-loaded.
And therefore able to balance a certain amount of wear. If able to move freely.

Best
Martin

 

I could not disagree more.

Best
Martin

 

I would upgrade to a bronze bushing as recommended on the Pantera site. The plastic ones get pounded to pieces pretty quickly. Mine was just little bits of plastic when I removed it, my car as less that 30K miles on it.

 

I had to ream out the bushing a couple of times with a brake ream. I did one too much and had to buy another bushing. I was also told when the screw goes in, or when the bushing is in its location the tension in the bore would be tighter from the snug fit, both I found to be true ended up just right but after lots on work. The early GT4's had chassis mount that did not allow for easy removal took me 4 hours to get one off.....

 

The Lotus Elan workshop manual contains a test after rebuilding the rack (also uses Cam Gears rack as do all British cars of the era) which is to check the pinion rotates when a 2 lb weight is applied at a radius of 8 inches. But there should not be any resistance caused by the bushes, the resistance is adjusted by changing shims to increase or decrease the pressure of the pinion pressure pad which is spring loaded as Martin mentioned.

 

You always learn a lot here.

Ciao

 

This is exactly due to the fact, what I pointed out several times, that the axis of the rack housing and the rack itself is never perfectly aligned, but slight angle misalignment depends on the adjustment on the driver's side.
The soft original plastic bushing was able to balance this tiny amount of misalignment, therefore the triangular shape, but a solid metal bushing is not. If manufactured too exact it will bind, because the toothed rack is tilted a bit.
Even my Delrin bushing I had to make with significant bearing play.
A perfect solution would be a swivel bushing like I showed in Crowndog's thread.
Technically spoken. While adjusting the rack against the pinion on the driver's side the toothed rack is slightly moving sideways. This means, that the other bearing side -the passenger side bushing- is the pivot point.
Also the reason, why there's no driver's side bushing, which would never ever work with this rack design.

Best
Martin

 

Thats a very important point. If there is no play at all in the bush, there is no way of knowing that the correct resistance on the shim adjustment has been reached because the resistance could either be caused by the pinion preload (correct) or the bush binding (incorrect).

On a more general note, there should be masses of people here in the UK who can rebuild these racks as they are so common on British cars. I have never had one done by anyone so no specific recommendations though.

 

Andy,but don't you think, that it's highly unlikely, that someone ever rebuilt a rack from a mass production car? Like I never heard of a rebuild of a VW Golf steering rack I can hardly imagine, that someone rebuilds a rack from a Mini or Morris Marina or whatever.
When these racks were still available from the manufacturer's stock they were of good quality and not so expensive, that rebuilding would have been reasonable.
It hurts to imagine, how many rebuildable racks probably have been scrapped.
The 308 rack is a Mini-rack. O.k., but the longer tie rods obviously did justify the decuple price.
BTW. Wasn't CamGear, the original manufacturer bought by TRW? and the latter by ZF?
Shame on them. The latter founded a 'Automotive Tradition Department' some years ago, but give a **** on remanufacturing parts like for example Bosch.
They prefer sending pinstripe-suited 'cheese and wine guys' to big Classic Car fairs to tell people, that they have found a few Alfa gearboxes in their shed, but that was it.

Best
Martin

 

Try these guys. This is off an old thread from this site



Kiley- Clinton
0121 7728000
0121 7665959
Rebuild and uprate Ferrari steering rack. Bushes off old mini as are tie rod ends( moggy minor)
All in £320