[DeTomaso] Steering rack bushing and oil

[clay willmott]

I am doing my rack now, Mike does suggest Zero Weight.
Mine was also rebuilt a couple of years ago and had the bronze bushing.  The passenger inner tie rod was over tightened and had fused in the rubber boot.  Thus it was affecting my steering each time I hit bumps as it could not move with the suspension properly.
 
Clay> Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 09:53:26 -0400> From: cengles at cox.net> To: asajay at asajay.com> CC: detomaso at realbig.com> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Steering rack bushing and oil> > > 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> _______________________________________________> > Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA> > Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/> > DeTomaso mailing list> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
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