Rebuilding the steering rack. Anyone tried these yet?

[gamerguy51]

Hey guys, I found out I need a new p/s bushing after taking out my steering rack. Upon disassembly I found a broken nylon cup that sits inside the jam nuts. Well, surprise nobody has that part. So after much googling I think i've found a suitable replacement part. Apparently the Lotus's manufactured around the same time feature the same or similar rack. There is a site that sells phosphor bronze versions of these cups. Has anyone tried these yet? If so let me know how they worked out. Also I commissioned a bronze bushing maker on ebay to make the bushing for under $10. I'll let you guys know how it turned out!

http://www.seriouslylotus.com/suspen...or-bronze-cups

[gamerguy51]

Well it was a little more difficult than I expected but me and my father in law successfully rebuilt 754's steering rack. You guys said it they don't sell parts for it and you were part correct. Seriously Lotus's cups worked fabulously as well as my $10 custom made brass bushing from ebay. Here's a couple pictures to show you the parts. By the way including new boots the whole rebuild only cost me $118. Not bad considering a rebuilt unit costs over 3 times that from specialtauto. I'll be happy to answer any questions you guys have!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0cyww3089l..._211615507.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ic4m911m3..._220000447.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0qg8ks0u86..._211603139.jpg

[NightFlyer]

AWESOME - great info here!

Thanks for sharing

[Josh]

and i just bought a new steering rack! Dammit.

[TTait]

Not bad considering a rebuilt unit costs over 3 times that from specialtauto.

SpecialTauto rebuilt steering racks are not worth the gamble - terrible experiences with 2 of them. Rebuild yourself or get a new one from DMC. At best a crappy rack will make your car miserable to drive, at worst...

[DrJeff]

...as my $10 custom made brass bushing from ebay....

Can you give us any details on the brass bushings? Thanks.

[Mark D]

PJ Grady sells new nylon bushings for the steering rack arms. He also sells replacement sleeve bushings for the passenger side of the rack. Prices were pretty reasonable if I remember correctly. For around 50 bucks I rebuilt my rack instead of buying a new one and that included the cost to have it powder coated. Here are a few photos, sorry some of them are a little blurry

Broken bushing:





Rebuild:

[DMCMW Dave]

The only downside to rebuilding the racks is that you can't repair worn teeth on the rack itself. They obviously will wear in a very small area, i.e. where it is engaged when you are going down the road. This will not be an issue with low mile racks (which many of them are!) but if you take one apart and it's full of water/rust etc. or has a zillion miles on it, keep in mind that it will probably still be sloppy when steered straight ahead, and if you shim the clearance out of it, it will be tight everywhere else.

This is probably why you hear good/bad things about rebuilt racks. If you rebuild a good core it might be OK, if you rebuild a worn rack it will still be worn. That's why Houston spent the bucks to get them reproduced, the average quality of the cores was getting pretty bad.

[vwdmc16]

Dmch racks are all new? I wish I had known that.

[DMCMW Dave]

Yes. Complete with tie rod ends and the mounting bushings.

108754 rack.jpg