[DeTomaso] Steering rack bushing and oil

[cengles at cox.net]

Dear Asa, 

I wonder if Mike Drew is recommending using the heavy weight gear oil or switching to the special (?) grease instead. I recollect that Rick Moseley discovered that the steering rack in a Ferrari 308 or 323 was the same as the Pantera and that Ferrari packed their racks in grease rather than oil. I switched mine over to grease about five years ago and I have had no problems and no gear oil leaks from the rack or the boots. (Duh: there is no oil to leak out anymore!!) 

Curious, Chuck Engles


---- Asa Jay Laughton <asajay at asajay.com> wrote:
>Hi gang,
>
>There are those of you who may remember I rebuilt the steering rack on
>my Pantera back in 1999 on my way to the Las Vegas Fun Rally. It got a
>new brass bushing, thorough cleaning and new oil. Well, today it's in
>all it's component pieces again. hmmm.
>
>Well, as it turns out at some point I still had that weird clunk up
>front and when leveraged ala checking for the worn nylon bushing, I
>found slop. Passion of the rebuild what it was, I probably neglected to
>make sure the bushing was a snug fit in the bore of the rack case.
>Today, after removing the passenger side boot, I found the bushing
>almost wiggling around in the bore on it's own.
>
>What about that set screw you put in? Good question, it was nice and
>tight, in fact, after removal, the bushing had a definite mark from the
>set screw. Well, maybe it wasn't tight enough, or maybe the bushing
>wore just a little, but the fact was, it was slopping around in the bore.
>
>So here I am, measuring the bushing at 1.197" and wondering if that is
>the best dimension. And then, I head out to The Pantera place and find
>a really nice article by Mike Drew, the infamous mentor and guide who
>helped with the first rebuild almost 10 years ago. :)
>
>Well, from the article, it looks like these bushings come in two sizes.
>The article also mentions a "step" in the rack tube that the original
>bushing rides in. Hmmm, methinks I got a bushing for that step, and not
>one to augment the original bushing which would take up that slop.
>
>Oh, didn't I mention that? Yea, we left the original in place as it
>didn't appear to be harming anything. Well, 10 years later, I found the
>gear oil we put in has helped more of the old bushing to break loose and
>nylon parts were found everywhere. <sigh> gotta love it. And the gear
>oil didn't seem to get along with one of the two boots we used. I guess
>that's not too surprising, we didn't have matched boots on it.
>
>So anyway, it looks like I need to extract the old bushing and Mike has
>provided some nice instructions on how one might do that. I'll give
>that a shot tomorrow. And it looks like we are now -not- recommending
>gear oil, which I think didn't work quite as nice as we thought anyway.
>Oh it lubed things nice and slippery, but it just drains away and out
>the boots. So we'll try the 0-weight grease instead.
>
>All this as I prepare to remove the bushings from a-arms. All has been
>disassembled and is laying on my garage floor. The arms themselves look
>to be in pretty good shape, the bushing (at least in front) seem good
>although weather checked and cracked on the outside edges. Having it
>all out, I'll be replacing them anyway.
>
>Turns out both lower ball joints were extremely loose and making
>definite metal to metal contact. The uppers were in pretty good shape,
>difficult to move, but smooth. One had a broken boot, the other was
>fine. Well, I'm in there, and I got the parts from Wilkinson last year,
>so out they all go and all new stuff goes in. Once this is all done,
>I'll turn the car around and take apart the rear and see how the
>uprights, shafts, ball joints and bushings look back there.
>
>Asa Jay
>Pantera Mechanics Northwest.
>
>Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
>
>&Shelley Marie
>Spokane, WA