[DeTomaso] Steering Rack Bearings - 1622 ZZ are not the right ones!!

[Richard Barkley]

  Rob,

I'm afraid to say but you don't have the right kind of bearing for this 
application. I went through this about 10 years ago. The problem is that 
the rack and pinion gears are cut at about a 45 deg angle which means 
there will be an axial load on the bearings about equal to the load on 
the rack. Regular ball bearings are meant for primarily radial loads and 
can fail quickly with axial loads although, due to the low rotation 
rates that may not be the case here. The original bearings have the 
balls contacted at a 45 deg angle. Here's a link to pictures and 
diagrams on my website.

http://home.earthlink.net/~rlbpantera/rack/index.html

Here's the discussion that went on in 2000:
http://realbig.com/detomaso/2000-03/814.html
hit the < or > arrows to move through the discussion. Fortunately nobody 
at that time suggested that I use a regular BB as a replacement.

At the time Larry Stock had some of the bearings and I bought a pair 
from him. The bearings you have now may work for a while (maybe quite a 
while?) but should eventually fail. A better alternative, if the correct 
ones can't be found, would be a deep grove bearing (the 1622 ZZ don't 
appear to be that) which are better at handling axial loads.

Richard

robert stewart Wrote:
A few weeks back John Taphorn and I removed the steering rack from my 
car hoping
for a relatively quick exercise of cleaning to up, painting adding the 
zerk and
lube. When we took the rack apart we found that top bearings that sit in 
an open
race where in many pieces.

After a quick consultation with Mike Drew there didn't appear to be a 
well know
replacement for the bearing.

John suggested I visit a good friend of Gray Gregory - Lars Nielsen at 
Motion
Industries in Houston. To say Lars was helpful would have been a huge
understatement. He took the rack measured the bits and pieces of the 
bearing and
race and identified a replacement suggesting a fully enclosed bearing 
instead of
the open one. In addition he took the rack into the backroom and worked 
with one
of his shop guys to remove the other bearing and race.  It was quite a 
pain to
get out. Heck he even used a parts washer to clean up the rack. Can you say
"above and beyond".

The two bearings which are part number 1622 ZZ cost me about $4 each and 
are
fantastic. The rack turns very easily  and even though the bearings are 
sealed
the lubricate that we put in through the zerk is still able to move 
throughout
the rack as intended.

Thanks to Gray, Lars and John.

Rob

-- 
-----
Sincerely, Richard Barkley

To Ski or not to Ski, that is the question!

Richard Barkley (310) 373-6695 (home)
E-mail:  rlbpantera<atsign>  earthlink.net
ZONKEY'S home page: http://home.earthlink.net/~rlbpantera
Mammoth Lakes Vacation Condo: 2BR+loft/3Bath - Horizons 4 #186 (760) 934-6758
Condo web address: http://home.earthlink.net/~rbarkley