Scottish Elises

The steering has developed a bit of play and once I feel resistance theres a wee clunk noise. The steering rack is brand new, not sure about the track rod ends(im thinking these are the culprits). Can the ball joints cause play/clunk like this too?

The track rod ends tend to only clunk when you are going over a rough surface or when you change from steering one way to the other.
If you are experiencing stiffness - Congratulations!!
No, stiffness is likely to be due to the steering rack or a miss aligned joint in the steering column.

The UJ in the steering column needs to be bloody tight. Have heard of this causing mystery steering clunks.

Ahh fortunatley I have no problems with stiffness, mechanically I mean!. I was told by a mechanic who inspected the car that it seems to be the "knuckle" joint or something which you can actually see behine the pedal box which is part of the steering column. He said it wont be the actual rack. Also the ARB bushes have worn which will cause the clunking over bumps.
Does this sound right to you guys? If so what the hell is a knuckle joint?

It's the UJ I was talking about above

Universal Joint.

Oh, and it's not part of the column, it's a separate bolt-on bit. Shouldn't be too expensive, either - as it's probably out a Metro!

Sounds right and as Shug says is probably a Metro part.

Pah... a metro part...tis no wonder im the butt of jokes from my jap car owning mates. I'd never live this one down lol.

You'd be surprised how many incidental greasy bits are out a metro... The engine started life as a metro lump, before boring and stroking, all sorts of things like wheel bearings etc. too.

Oh, here's one to shame you - Stephen uncovered this wee gem... Know what the balljoints are off?

A Vauxhall Chevette!!!

Actually, there's a point to all this... In the 60's, there wasn't a formula 1 team (barring Ferrari) which didn't use a steering rack out of some ancient economy car (a Hillman something-or-other IIRC). Why? It was cheap, available, light and did exactly the job it needed to!

Same deal with greasy bits in the Elise. The car originally cost £4.7 million to develop... Put that in context - Ford are quite happy spending £10million ADVERTISING ONE MODEL for a year... in one country!

So, they picked readily available bits that didn't need hundreds of thousands spent in testing, which were as light and durable as they needed to be anyway...

The bonus side-effect for us is that we get bits cheap off the shelf, if we know what to look for

Shug,
I suggested this before over on Yahoo but no-one took me up, but could we start a wee database of part numbers / fitment etc to give members a start as to where to look for bits.

The FAQ started this, but never continued - prolly best to start a sticky post here. Whack a new post up with any info you've got, I'll stick it to the top of the technical forum and I'll update as we get more info.

Cheers
Shug

Just found out that the UJ is off a Corsa (airbag model) as is the shaft. As I pointed out last night, it does look like the joint is worn, but to be extra-sure, get in with a couple of spanners (difficult, but do-able) and make sure the pinch bolts are hernia-inducing tight. If there is still play, then go looking for a Corsa UJ - Stephen, any way you can find out a part number for this?

Thanks shuggster. The drive in your car was most inspirational! Really grateful for the terrifying experience lol! Ill check this post up if ye can find the part number. Thanks mate.

... "I was shugged at Loch Fyne..."

Watch out ladies... hes an animal