Steering rack...is it broke?

[Gaverick]

So the situation is this;

One front wheel jacked up and the other front on the ground. If I rock the raised wheel at the 3 & 9 position I have about 1"-1.5" of play.

I have just put on new track rods and track rod ends. The same thing happens on both sides. There is no play at 6 & 12.

Does this sound like a knackered rack?

 

[1812lsd]

I have a knackered rack, Fred found it by having both wheels off the ground, grab a wheel and go lock to lock & listen for noise. Mine is very noisy in the area where the column joins the rack.
Yours might be different though, but it does sound suspect.

 

[Dan@SJM]

1-1.5 inches?!? or cm? or mm?

It could be rack, rack bushes, or even lower ball joints.

 

[Gaverick]

Inches. Ball joints are only a few months old, rack was not moving in the bushes at all.

 

[Dan@SJM]

Certainly sounds like a knackered rack then.

 

[Gaverick]

That's my fear. With the engine off if I turn the steering wheel sharply to the left or right I get a single knock too. Also over bumps it seems to skip around, especially in the wet.

I'm guessing since I tested using the wheels this rules out the possibility of a worn U joint?

 

[AlexW]

How much steering wheel movement do you have before the wheels move?

 

[Gaverick]

That's the odd bit that puzzles me a bit, there is no slack in the steering wheel, the wheels will start to turn as soon as I turn the steering wheel. It's only when pulling and pushing the tyres it starts to move and clonk or when turning the wheel sharply it gets to a point and then knocks.

 

[jhandy2]

That's my fear. With the engine off if I turn the steering wheel sharply to the left or right I get a single knock too. Also over bumps it seems to skip around, especially in the wet.

I'm guessing since I tested using the wheels this rules out the possibility of a worn U joint?

mine also does this..
could it be rack also?

 

[Gaverick]

How much steering wheel movement do you have before the wheels move?

Upon closer inspection I've got about 10 degrees of play either way in the steering wheel. I'll put a video up shortly.

 

[Gaverick]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vCeTj5RZHc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[MarkLD]

Just thought I would add my experience as it might help as I had similar symptoms as you.

My phase 1 172 has had vague steering for a while with a dead feeling when driving straight. After replacing everything, track rod ends, top mounts, wishbone mounts, rack mounts, steering rack the only thing left was the steering column. I thought it must be a knackered UJ but once stripping the column off the car and inspecting the UJ's they were all fine. So after a bit of head scratching and further inspection I noticed that the bottom UJ could be held and twisted in relation to the column by some 10 degrees ! Not good. It looks like the UJ is bonded to the sliding part of the column and has worn out/gone soft which meant a knackered column. As I can't afford a new column and didn't want to buy a second hand one which may be just as knackered, I decided to weld the UJ part onto the inner section and see if that fixed the problem and bloody hell it has, steering feels razor sharp like it did when I bought the car 12 years ago. So after god knows how long and some considerable amount of cash I have finally found the route cause of the issue

I'm not saying that this is your problem but certainly worth inspecting/checking.

Good luck with sorting it

Mark

 

[Gaverick]

Thanks for that I was wondering about the UJ. When unbolting the column from the rack do you do it from under the car or from in the footwell. Just had a quick look but couldn't easily tell due to the rubber boot which I wasn't sure how to remove.

 

[Gaverick]

Car currently looks like this, replacing wheel bearings, steering rack and bushes and wishbones. There is slight play in the UJ, about 5mm each way.

 

[Gaverick]

Anybody know if you can replace the pipes that bridge across the steering rack with braided hoses? They are very stuck and I'd like to just chop them and replace with a length of braided if possible.

 

[dml6881]

Sorry to bring up an old thread. But this sounds like my last option too. I've tried and replaced everything bar the rack. My question is can the rack be removed and be replaced without removing the engine?