Steering Rack Spacer Shims

[TomB]

Well I made the shims tonight, went to fit them with my rack, and when the rack is lifted up 8mm, the steering rack bellows catch on the holes in the skin. So Ill leave them out for now and see how I get on with the widetrack first before deciding what to do.  

[Bob L]

Hi Tom,

I suspect the amount of aluminium you would need to remove from the side skins would be very similar to us all. I too am thinking of this so would be interested any measurements of the finished hole. At least this would provide an approx starting point to work from.

[Paul Deslandes]

I realise that the affect of raising the rack and the bellows interfering with the side skin was overlooked in the original article, so apologies for that.  I can feel an addendum coming on!

In my experience a good way of enlarging sideskin holes is to use a flap wheel on an electric drill or flexible drive although, in the case of the bellows, there might not be enough room to get in there.  A Dremel with a little cylinder sanding drum would probably work just as well and it should be possible to pull the bellows sufficiently out of the way, maybe protected with a bit of card or tape.

Paul

[Wrightpayne]

Has anyone done this on a K dry sump car. Does raising the rack alter the rake of the steering column bringing it close to the dry sump cradle? The steering column is pretty close anyway.

Also, what is the maximum spacer height that can be used without altering the rack hole in the sideskin?

Ian

[Paul Deslandes]

I've no experience of the K series dry sump setup but you should be able to twist the rack in the mounts to mitigate at least some of the rake change, the UJ taking up the alignment.

The increase in rack height does bring the steering bellows close to the top of the track rod holes but if necessary these can be eased a bit to add enough clearance using a file or flap wheel, Dremel etc.  I raised my rack by 9mm but didn't need to alter the holes.

Paul

[Richard Price]

I helped fitting DS onto a car with the  VVC / 140 Xpower rhs engine mount. I ground quite a bit off the DS pump cradle to create clearance for the column. Lifting the rack would have the same effect as the lower engine mount.