Steering Rack - S1 reborn

[campbell]

As some may know, my S1 has been on ramps since about the start of April.

Robin has kindly been assisting, er leading, er doing (!) a number of jobs with me, er for me, including "C" service, gearshift linkage service, gearbox oil change, and biggest of all, steering rack change.

Big up Fat Bob Fisics first off.

But the point of this post was to highlight the immediate differences having changed the rack.

I had a bunch of clonking which had prevailed in the front of the car since what felt like quite low miles. It's thus possible that my rack was getting tired from an early age, and my S1 did do pretty hefty mileages during the first 3 or 4 years of ownership - such was the novelty factor!

We tried a number of solutions to cure the problem, like ARB bushes, balljoints etc. No tangible improvement really. But having swapped the rack for an exchange unit from http://www.carparts-direct.co.uk/parts- ... ring-racks, the difference is shocking. It feels like a new car. OK so there are still some residual crashes and bangs but NOTHING like before.

It's all a bit stiff at the moment - we also swapped out a balljoint with damaged rubber at the same time and these can also be a bit stiff initially - but I'm hopeful that a few miles up north over the summer will sort that out.

The job of swapping out the rack is not trivial, but nor is it hugely complex...as we discovered it's primarily about patience, a little ingenuity, and occasionally a smidge of luck. We now have all the info...and Robin has a couple of the scars...to pass on to other lucky souls contemplating this valuable bit of rejuvenation

Hats off once again to the power and benevolence of SE, and here's to the Winter Maintenance Programme for next year. Which I will try to start in the winter, this time, not the spring

Campbell
(apprentice mechanic AKA spanner-holder faction)

PS - the exchange rack was about £140, shipped. New they are approaching £400 I believe.

[robin]

To be fair we mostly followed the SELOC wiki entry for how to do it, and where we ignored the guide we ended up realizing that we shouldn't have!

What the guide didn't describe very well is the way in which you reassemble the rack to the steering column, which we did without undoing the upper part of the column, but I think would probably have been easier if we had done it that way. getting the wheel UJ back onto the spline on the rack whilst it was also attached to the spline on the column was a PITA to say the least, as there just isn't really enough room to make these engage without pushing the UJ as far up the column as it will go (hard when the column splines are painted).

Anyway, I'm glad it's done and I hope not to do another any time soon

Cheers,
Robin

[campbell]

Anyway, I'm glad it's done and I hope not to do another any time soon

...which, for those who don't know Robin very well, is code for "this really is a fecker of a job and tried even my galactic-scale patience"

It also goes a long way to explaining why, if you want your rack refurbed by Kenneth Brown Motor Engineers in Hillington, they charge you either £100 if you hand the rack in to them, or £250 if you hand them the whole car! Some might say that £150 premium is well-spent, of course...

But for those considering a refurb...if Kenneth inspects your rack and it's fubarred, you are going to need a fresh one anyway. My rack bar itself was badly corroded and beyond repair. So not all racks are saveable...

Thanks again Robin, that's yet a few more stars on your Help Thy Neighbour Sticker Chart

[Shug]

Although if I'm unkind, it also means you paid a chap to do the easy bit... Half an hour's work in refurbing the thing and it's so simple, not even I could f*ck it up! Did you drill out the unused rivnuts (from memory) - I got away with leaving them in and doing a lot of rack rotating as it came out.

Out of interest, where was the corrosion - on the rack itself? Or the casing? Mine came out grubby but cleaned up fine and the internals were pristine.

[campbell]

Well in reality, had I opened up the rack and stared inside, I would either have changed the cup washer thingies etc and just put it all back together, still fubarred, or I'd have looked at what would turn out to be the rack bar, all rusty and fecked, and thought "Hm, is that meant to be like that I wonder?" and ground to a halt in any case!

I discussed DIY refurb with my Chief Engineer and the computer said No, hence left it to the pros. And then had to buy a new one anyway! (Cost me £20 plus vodka and tonic for the inspection but well worth it IMHO...two trips to Hillington were fun as well!!)

For removal, as per SELOC tech wiki, we knocked off one rivnut in the services compartment which fouls the rack rotation / removal - it took us long enough with that gone, TBH, so hats off to you for leaving it there!

Needless to say, the car is going so well now that Lisa is off to work in it today



Campbel

[2F45T4U]

i had to chomp off the rivets as well with a bit of flat bar, it came out no bother after that and has done a couple of times since.

i tried to find equivelant track-rods to rebuild my rack because the ball joints were the only bits that had play. the rack and pinion was sweet, but even if it was a tad worn you could shim out any of the back-lash.
Would make a cheap rebuild or good spare. Especially when you see the likes of Corsa C track rods for £8 and theyre not a kick in the arse off the lotus ones.

the search continues...

[robin]

Changing to a refurbished rack once every 5 years for 120-odd quid is an absolute bargain; the fact that you could perhaps do it for 50 quids worth of parts doesn't make me want to do it twice as often

Cheers,
Robin

[2F45T4U]

Changing to a refurbished rack once every 5 years for 120-odd quid is an absolute bargain; the fact that you could perhaps do it for 50 quids worth of parts doesn't make me want to do it twice as often

Cheers,
Robin

i know where youre coming from, but somtimes there is satisfaction to be had from part matching. especially when you have a dead rack lying gathering dust in the workshop.

[Shug]

...and 50 quid would get you bits to do it three times...

[campbell]

I'm too tired to do the maths and economics on all this, all I can say is that I now expect my rack to see out the remainder of my ownership of the car, so one rack in at least 12 years of happy motoring ain't bad

Take the point about part-matching, job satisfaction etc. That's what I've been telling myself whilst painting our lounge-kitchen-diner for what feels like the last century, although it's only been about 3 weeks

Campbell

[Shug]

Aye - totally cool mate. I've just finally found something I disagree with Robin on and I've got a little giddy

[campbell]

Careful. It can both intoxicating and dangerous all at the same time!

If Robin was running a motor engineers business, I think his views might be different. But so would his charge out rates

So I'm just agreeing with everything he says for now

[tut]

Just resurrected this thread as I needed Campbell's post. I have play in the steering column which is probably the cause of the remaining wander at times on N3. I have a partial kit here of gaiters and a couple of inserts, I think Campbell bought them as well, but I am going to put the rack back to Carparts as Campbell did for a rebuilt one.

As mine is LHD they can not use a stock exchange, but will send it away for a rebuild for the same price of £97 plus £15 shipping, collection and delivery, so a complete door to door for £112, which is pretty good going. Next thing of course will be a plea for a pit crew team to remove it for me, if anybody has done one before in the area it would be a big help, nice comfy large heated garage to work in, so thankfully that rules you out Robin.

tut

[campbell]

Removal is a fiddle but easier than the refit. There are probably a couple of additional tricks to help with the refit, but ultimately, 2 pairs of hands, preferably one pair very small yet strong, and a lorra lorra patience. Oh and some new issues to explore since it's a left-hooker, maybes, but OTOH maybe it'll actually be easier

Robin might post a summary procedure to help...

One observation is that he did a lot of the work from inside the pax side of the car, leaning over into driver's footwell, rather than diving straight into the driver's side. I was literally holding the spanners and this reduces the number of fosberry flops involved I guess!

[Gourlay83]

Just resurrected this thread as I needed Campbell's post. I have play in the steering column which is probably the cause of the remaining wander at times on N3. I have a partial kit here of gaiters and a couple of inserts, I think Campbell bought them as well, but I am going to put the rack back to Carparts as Campbell did for a rebuilt one.

As mine is LHD they can not use a stock exchange, but will send it away for a rebuild for the same price of £97 plus £15 shipping, collection and delivery, so a complete door to door for £112, which is pretty good going. Next thing of course will be a plea for a pit crew team to remove it for me, if anybody has done one before in the area it would be a big help, nice comfy large heated garage to work in, so thankfully that rules you out Robin.

tut

Have you checked the steering knuckles on the colum itself ?, before you start removing the steering rack. As it's Something i had to replace on mine. Infact Elise parts do a version where one joint is welded to the shaft with the other removable (for instalation).