Steering rack rebuild

[terrygahl]

After checking my Elan S3's steering rack, turns out I have the wear detent on the straight ahead tooth.

I saw forum posts that discussed replacing the bushings on the ends of the rack, but did not see any mention of replacement of the rack itself.

Given that the pinion is harder than the rack and probably not worn, does any body sell the rack as a part, as well as the bushings? If not I guess it means replacement of the whole unit.

tks, terry

[john.p.clegg]

Why don't you turn the pinion through 180 degrees,this should make it tight at straight ahead but with two sloppy spots either side where you will probably not notice them?
John

[type26owner]

Terry,
Dave Bean Engineering had replacement racks a couple of years ago and likely still do have them in stock. They also got me one LHD new pinion a few weeks ago but I may have gotten the last one. The pinion you have is likely reusable but will look battle scarred.

The wear happens mostly to the female tooth profile pocket in the rack. Once the crown of the pinion tooth hits the bottom of the tooth in the rack it stops wearing any deeper. That is about an extra 1/16" IIRC. Also the plunger on the backside of the rack will wear a trench into the rack where it is suppose to be applying a spring load all the time and it will exactly be opposite the detent. When this happened to me there weren't any replacement racks. I used a special bronze brazing rod to the build up the surfaces again and recut them. I whined to Dave Bean and he got racks made after that. I bought ones of those racks but have yet to install it since my repaired rack is still okay.

I'd like to give Dave Bean a plug here since he's the only one willing to find replacement parts for really obsure items especially for the racecars that will likely sit on the shelf for thirty years before selling. That's a dedicated Lotus parts guy that is not driven solely by the pursuit of making money. Thanks Dave!

[terrygahl]

Thanks guys. Will try DBE Monday.

They did the work on my head 20 years ago when I did the restoration, including the C prod valve sizes and it came out well. Strong running Twin Cam.


terry

[Bruce Crowthorne]

Or give M & P Steering in Gillingham a call. 01634 576654

They recently rebuilt my Elise rack and I was very pleased with them.

Other aspect is that the pinion is probably a Triumph part, so should be easy and cheap to source
Bruce