[DeTomaso] Steering rack adventures

Thu Aug 14 15:24:54 EDT 2008

I assume you'd be left to fabricate them on your own. I wouldn't worry about that, the shims required are normally very thin and fit is not critical. Scissors and a hole punch should do it. See your local bearing shop first though, they may have something that almost fits that's easy to adapt.

Tomas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Asa Jay Laughton" <asajay at asajay.com>
To: "pantera forum" <detomaso at realbig.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 3:01 AM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Steering rack adventures

> Just to clarify, there are two covers on the steering rack.  One covers 
> the bottom of the pinion shaft and the other covers a kind of shoe that 
> rides on the back of the rack and contains a stiff spring between it and 
> the cover.
> 
> My assumption here is that you are adding/removing shims from that 
> second cover that presses on the shoe.  In a situation where the rack is 
> too stiff, and there are no extra shims to add, where does one find some 
> shims?
> 
> Asa Jay
> 
> Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
> 
> & Shelley Marie
> Spokane, WA
> 
> 1973 Pantera L 5533
> [ASASCAT]
>    
> ******************************     
> http://www.asajay.com
> http://www.351c.info
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Tomas Gunnarsson wrote:
>> I'd like to add that although there are differences between the racks (as I found out when Thomas Törnblom rebuilt his -84 GT5 rack around the same time as I did my -71 rack) this particular adjustment is similar if not identical between the two.
>>
>> Tomas
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Charles McCall" <charlesmccall at gmail.com>
>> To: "pantera forum" <detomaso at realbig.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 12:25 PM
>> Subject: [DeTomaso] Steering rack adventures
>>
>>
>>   
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Ever since I bought my GT5-S, it has tramlined fairly badly. The car has
>>> been a handful to drive, particularly on bad roads. Under hard braking, the
>>> car would dart from side to side - not pull to one particular side, but
>>> would go left-right-left-right requiring constant correction.
>>>
>>> Last year I installed offset bushings up front, which improved the situation
>>> greatly, although not completely.
>>>
>>> At Le Mans this year, Mike Drew pointed out that I had all kinds of play in
>>> the steering system. The car has more or less always been like that, so I
>>> had not particularly noticed. But he was right - there was all kinds of
>>> play.
>>>
>>> Taking advantage of a visit by Tomas Gunnarsson this week, we just came in
>>> from looking at what was happening. Basically, one tire (passenger side) was
>>> nice and tight, but on the driver's side, turning the wheel resulted in
>>> up-and-down movement of the tie rod instead of side-to-side. There was lots
>>> of play on this side tire, which allowed all kinds of weird toe in/toe out
>>> settings, depending on the position of the wheel. Tomas was hoping that it
>>> was just a adjustment issue - there are a series of shims that basically
>>> adjust between binding the steering rack and allowing free play between the
>>> rack and column.
>>>
>>> Off came the cover and we found 4 shims inside - one thick and three of
>>> various (thinner) thicknnesses. We reinstalled the cover with NO shims and
>>> found that the steering rack now was binding, but there was zero play. A-ha!
>>> To make a long story short, we experimented, adding shims until we got no
>>> binding, then removing them until it bound, and adding one more to get
>>> minimum clearance. My steering rack is now completely tight, with no play
>>> whatsoever, perhaps for the first time in the history of the car!
>>>
>>> What I found amazing was that this steering rack was assembled this way.
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> Note that early steering racks and late steering racks are apparently quite
>>> different, but those of you with late model cars, if you have play in your
>>> steering wheel the fix could be free and could be done in a couple of hours.
>>>
>>>
>>> Anyway I'm a happy camper as I had been mentally preparing myself for buying
>>> a new steering rack... we just came back from a short test drive and it
>>> feels like a new car. The darting under heavy braking is gone, and the
>>> steering is now rather direct, as it should be.
>>>
>>> Your mileage may vary...
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