[DeTomaso] Ruined rack

Mike Drew MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sun Apr 26 18:16:06 EDT 2020


Guys,

I’m doing a pandemic garage cleanup and came across my box of steering rack wreckage. 

Years ago I found out about a poor slob with a Ferrari 308 GT4 Dino. He had paid $1500 (!!!) to have a ‘professional Ferrari mechanic) rebuild his rack. When he got it back he found the car very difficult to steer, but he was told it would break in over time so he kept driving it. He drove it sporadically for a couple of years and it never got better, until one day one of his tie rods snapped into two pieces (!!!) and he went off the road, fortunately with little damage. 

Rick Moseley told him to send it to me, since it’s the same as the Pantera rack. 

I was astounded when I got it. Both tie rods had been so dramatically overtightened that they could not be moved AT ALL. When the suspension went up and down, the tie rods apparently BENT instead of moving!  The rack was so tight that I couldn’t turn it either.  I had to hold it in a vice and use vice-grips on the pinion and even then could barely move it.

After I got the tie rods off, I took the rack apart and was astonished to see what had happened to the rack teeth:

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The bottom close-up photo shows how the teeth are supposed to look (on the end).  The pinion gear was similarly trashed.  Needless to say there was no salvaging these parts. Fortunately I had some extra rack bits and was able to piece his rack back together and get him back on the road. 

I have never seen rack wear like this, before or since. I have seen plenty of racks that were bone dry inside but the teeth were still in good shape. This was an expensive lesson for that poor guy!

Mike


Sent from my iPad


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