[DeTomaso] Steering rack adventures

MikeLDrew at aol.com MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sun Aug 3 06:32:00 EDT 2008


In a message dated 8/3/08 3 25 53, charlesmccall at gmail.com writes:


> Tomas has two possible explanations - during assembly there was some dirt 
> of
> something in the assembly which meant that the rack was ok when bench
> tested, but when installed and driven this dirt broke down and opened up all
> kinds of clearance, allowing lots of play. Or, the rack was just badly
> assembled from day one, installed, and nobody ever looked into it.
> 

I suspect that tolorences have simply increased due to wear.   You have 
pretty high miles on that car, and the widebody cars are especially hard on 
steering racks.

I've horsed around with my own rack because of the same problem.   I don't 
have as much play as you do, but I do have more than I like.   Removing a 
single, thin shim results in about the same amount of play, accompanied by binding.  
 So the shim went back in. :<(

My original rack is standing in the corner of my garage, used as a display to 
show how these things work.   I assumed the one I pulled out of a 
lower-mileage wrecked car was better because mine had 73K miles on it.   But now I'm not 
so sure.   This winter I will probably completely strip my old rack and 
inspect it, then swap them out, in the hopes of eliminating the play.

Failing that, it's a 600 Euro phone call to Roland. :<(

Mike


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