Steering Gear

[bcmc33]

I have just removed the steering gear from my car and stripped it down to discover that it is very much the same as an S3 gear I purchesed from eBay some time ago. The idea was to refurbish the S3 gear and do a quick swap for the existing gear.

However, I then decided to get 5.5? Minilite wheels with the maximum backspace of 115.5mm for knock-on wheels. This was no problem for the rear suspension with small springs, but would definitely be a problen for the front wheels fouling the stabiliser bar.

I made the assumption that the gears would be in-line with the data published in the Buckland Manual for S1-3 (5? stroke) and S4& Sprint (4?? stroke), but this does not appear to be the case. There is, of course, no reason to assume that the gear from my car is the OE gear, but then the 155 tyres did not come within ?? of the stabiliser bar, so in my case, the Buckland explanation for the shorter stroke does not seem to apply.

I calculated that I would need to shorten the stroke by ?? to allow for the wider wheels and tyres, but now I think I will play safe and make the stroke 4??.

Having said all this, does anyone else have experience or comments on this issue?