Anyone assembled a steering rack?

[Roger Ford]

I've got a rack, two tie rods, and a couple of "cup and nut" fixings to hold them together. There are two small pins 1/8th of a inch thick. From looking at the old one I need to drill between the nut and cup and insert the pin.

Questions: 

1. how tight should the cups be done up? I presume so that the tie rods move stiffly but aren't loose.

2. What is the technique with the pins? Do I drill a 1/8 hole then bash the pins so they expand and lock in place? How do I avoid drilling to far and messing up the threads underneath? (like I did with the old one when I drilled the pins out).

[Jonathan Kay]

Looks as if Steve Marsh has done it.

Jonathan

[7 wonders of the world]

Track rods need to be tight enough to offer even consistent resistance through full articulation of the range, you should be able to move them around with a firm finger, but not require a full hand.

Once achieved you can drill the pin hole marginally deeper than the length of the pin on the join between the rack and the collar, drift the pin in and stake across with a punch or small chisel. pins are usually sized slightly larger than stock drill sizes to ensure an interference fit too.

[Richard Price]

I've done a couple of racks as 7wofw says.

How do I avoid drilling to far and messing up the threads underneath? (like I did with the old one when I drilled the pins out). 

You need to drill through the joint between the cup and the lock nut, and through into the rack it's self. It's unlikely that you'll drill out the previous peg and then be able unscrew the parts without a bit of effort, as the threads of the rack will be slightly damaged in the process. Before reassembling with the new parts, the threads of the rack can be repaired with a thread file like the one in the link below. 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thread-Repair-Restore-Files-for-Imperial-Metric-Internal-External-Use-/111217057975?var=&hash=item19e50da0b7:m:mQ_8QgqLHzMf77oKOm9XvLw

​When reassembling the rack, don't pack grease behind the nylon cups in the end of the rack. You can think you've tightened the cup enough, but, after time, the track rod goes loose again...  (don't ask how I know that .....      )

 

[Wrightpayne]

just looked at my 1988 Haynes manual for the Mini and it explains the process - I think most manuals of that era explain how to do the task.

Ian

[CharlesElliott]

Send to Titan, they know how to do it

[phil 01]

Hello Roger this is an extract from the SELOC site, the section where it mentions press out pinion is not really necessary if just replacing track rods,cups,springs,lock pins 

regards phil

Time & Tools
Time: 1 hour to remove rack
Tools: 17mm deep socket / 17 mm spanner to release track rod end, 13mm socket, 17mm socket, ratchet, numerous extension bars, 13mm spanner, 32mm spanner, 36mm spanner, 5mm allenkey, chisel and hammer (to remove rivnut), drill, 2.5mm and 3mm drill bits, vice

2 Reconditioning

 

Now you need to split the track rod ends from the steering arms. Slacken the nuts off to the end of the thread. At this point, it's worth giving the nut a whack upwards with a copper mallet, as this is sometimes enough to free the joint without reaching for your balljoint splitter. If this doesn't work, you're best to use a scissor-type splitter to free the joint.

Now, with both track rod ends released you need to free the bottom steering column UJ from the rack pinion. To do this, first mark the rack pinion in relation to the bottom UJ. I used a dab of tippex (cos it has a handy brush in the lid!). This will help you get the two parts joind back together again afterwards in such a way that hopefully the steering wheel still points in the right direction! Now remove the bottom pinch bolt (13mm) from the bottom UJ. You'll need to get a 13mm spanner on the nut to stop it turning with the bolt.

Now you can remove the 4 bolts that hold the steering rack to the bulkhead. There's two on the bulkhead on the passenger side, and 2 on the bulkhead on the driver's side. The bottom ones need a 13mm socket, the top ones are 17mm socket. I used 2 12" extensions and a 6" extension on the sockets so I could sit in the seats and do it in relative comfort without being upside down in the footwells. Once you've cracked the bolts off and start undoing them, you may find that they're quite hard to turn until they're almost out. This is because they are coated in threadlock and is quite normal.

WIth the bolts out, you should be able to wiggle the rack towards the front of the car a bit, and then wiggle the bottom steering column UJ so that it comes off the rack pinion and you can swing it out of the way.

I then pulled out the rubber grommet around the hole in the bulkhead that the pinion comes through, as this will give you a bit more room in a minute.

Theory goes you should now be able to push the rack towards the front of the car so the pinion clears the bulkhead hole, then slide the rack out.

However, no amount of wiggling back and forth worked on mine. The problem is a rivnut on the front face of the steering rack channel that prevents the rack moving far enough forwards to clear the bulkhead. If you look in the front services compartment, you'll see it just above the outlet from the heater motor. This rivnut isn't needed on right hand drive cars.

I used a sharp chisel to knock the front face off it (in the front services compartment). Then a long screwdriver and a healthy whack to the back of it down the steering rack channel got rid of it.

You should now be able to get in the footwell and tilt the steering rack pinion upwards and it should just clear the hole in the bulkhead. Then just withdraw the rack along the channel.

[edit]S2

No different to S1 described above for me, apart from there is no need to remove the rivnut, just ask for someone to help you twist it out, it will come.

[edit]Reconditioning

The rack is made by Titan Motorsport, and they will sell all parts to the public on the condition of a £25 minimum order value. And to be honest, they are very helpful too!

I removed my rack as there was play, which I suspected to be the nylon cups at the inner end of each track rod.

I ordered 2 of the cups (£3.50 each), 2 of the springs that sit behind the cups (£ ), 2 of the locking pins that lock the cups to the locking nuts (£ each), and 2 gaitors (£4.50 each).

[From Titan Motorsport, March 2007: A1161611200A3 - £3.35EA - Nylon shoes, A1161610900A3 - 52p - Spring, A1161916700A3 - 28p - Locking Pin. Note: There is a minimum charge fee of £25]

Steering Rack overhaul common parts

This seems to be the most common cause of play in the rack.

Steering Rack exploded view courtesy of Titan Motorsport

You will need to source grease to re-build your rack. The "rocol MTS1000" is now know as "rocol Sapphire hi-pressure bearing grease" and the "scheerol mpt2 grease" is actually called "spheerol mp2". I sourced this from RS but there are other places that sell them. Note 400g is a lot but that was all they had at the time I ordered.

RS Stock No. Qty Unit Price Goods Value Description 198-3136 1 £2.82 £2.82 Spheerol MP2 bearing grease,400gm 330-6288 1 £14.15 £14.15 Sapphire hi-pressurebearing grease,400gm 288-4793 1 £6.00 £6.00 Pocket spring balance w/hook & ring,30kg Running Total £22.97 Delivery charge £4.95 VAT £4.19 Order total £32.11

Start by removing the cable ties that hold the gaitors on and sliding the gaitors back to the track rod ends (I left the track rod ends in situ, the theory being the tracking wouldn't be too far out when I put it back together).

This exposes the inner ends of the track rods and the cup joint that they sit in.

You will see that the cup joint has a locknut. Between the lock nut and cup joint body there is a small locking pin (roll pin) that needs to be carefully drilled out (using a 2.5 / 3mm drill bit).

Once the locking pin it removed, it should be possible to (carefully) clamp the rack bar in a vice and undo the locknut using a 32mm spanner.

Once the locknut is released, the cup joint will unscrew from the end of the rack.

Remove the cup joint noting the nylon cup and spring that are in there.

Repeat for the other track rod.

Upon reassembly the two joints should be tightned to a point where a load of 3 to 4 Kg, applied 152mm down the track control arm from the centre of the ball in the joint (ie right near the end), is required to move it. Lock at this point, re-drill, and pin. A centre punch on the end of the locking pin will spread it slightly, securing it. 

At this point, I'd noticed that my rack preload seemed far to loose, in that I could turn the pinion shaft with just my finger and thumb, and that when I did this the rack, to my mind, sounded "noisy". There was also one point in the travel where it went "tight".

I made the decision to strip down the rack and re-lube it.

First step in doing this is to remove the pinion. To do this, first undo the Rack Bar Thrust Pad bolt locking nut using a 36mm spanner, then back out the thrust pad bolt using a 5mm allen key. Then remove the circlip that holds the pinion assembly in, and then use your vice and suitable sockets to press it out of the rack body.

You can then carefully withdraw the rack from the end of the rack body.

After a bit of cleaning and degreasing, I found that the internals were pretty much fine, with the exception of a marked tooth on the rack which was causing the tight spot I'd noticed. I just dressed this with a fine file.

Upon reassembly the Rack Bar Thrust Pad should be adjusted to give a preload that allows a horizontaly mounted rack to be pulled along its entire length by a force of 50 - 70 N.

[Roger Ford]

Thanks for all the advice on this. I've now done the job, but hated drilling through into the rack threads themselves. Let's hope I don't need to disassemble it again for a long time.