[DeTomaso] Ruined rack

[Joseph F Byrd, Jr]

Any ideal what the problem was that initially caused the "hard" steering.   Was it possibly the pinion was too close to the rack?

-----Original Message-----
From: DeTomaso <detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com> On Behalf Of Mike Drew via DeTomaso
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2020 6:16 PM
To: De Tomaso Forum <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
Subject: [DeTomaso] Ruined rack

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: