Steering Rack

[General Lee]

Hi,


Had my nova on the old axle stands, on the front because i had a big knocking, fixed the big knocking, (near side bottom ball joint loose)also had a small knocking while cornering. Anyway i wobbled both the wheels from left to right and traced it back to the steering rack, it feels loose both sides where it goes into the spring gaitors and there is also a little bit of play in the steering. anybody know whats wrong or how to correct it?

Thanks
Nath:thumb:

[AlexW]

Could just be worn, i presume its not acualy the rod ends.

Afaik its best to replace, If you need one i have oone here.

[General Lee]

No not the rod ends they have just been replaced, and the car has only covered 39 000 miles so i hope they don't wear that quick.

[AlexW]

Could be lack of lube (altho ive never had to grease any before), or just the grease dryed out. Wack off the boots and inspect!

[mikey14sr]

Could be the inner track rod joints under the gaitors, but if the miles are genuinely that low they should still be ok.

I've only replaced a rack on a nova once, and that had done around 150k, still got the new rack lying around after stripping the SR.

[General Lee]

would it be noticeable by eye if the inner track rod joints had gone? i'll have a butch.

[GRUNT 16V]

Bang A New Rack In There If There Is Any Play There Only £30 Ish + Vat

[mikey14sr]

would it be noticeable by eye if the inner track rod joints had gone? i'll have a butch.

Only if they're really fooked, you can usually feel any play in them by holding the gaitor tightly while rocking the steering though.

On my SR I still had some play in the steering even after changing the rack, turned out the UJ wasn't tight on the steering column!

[kenny_afh]

having just built a rack and noseying about inside it a bit id say your problem will lie in the pinch bolt on the bottom of the steering rack (behind the pedals) or the pinion shaft it connects to, which is supported by a bearing which may be worn but tbh i think the bearing is a bit over-specced and thus unlikely to wear out that much so check the pinch bolt and the rubber donut on the column first.

oh and maybe this is stating the obvious but are the 4 rack mounting nuts fully tight?

[novaguy08]

Its possible that the rack has been worn out, even though its not covered that many miles its at a good few years old!

Not sure on how to correct it but rather then fiddling about with removing it taking it apart and finding out why its loose i would just chuck a whole other rack in there, thought i had one knocking and it turns out that it wasnt, was something else, so i have a perfectly good rack with the track rods now seized on lol (good job i changed it!)