Steering Rack Refurb

Working on the engine bay, I noticed some black debris on the bulkhead seam lip underneath the steering rack. Investigation showed that it was bits or rubberised plastic from the boot on the steering rack.

Whipped the rack off and sure enough the gaiter boot is toasted. This is literally the reality because the exhaust on the EW engine is going to be right next to it belting out heat, even the paint on the steering knuckle is toasted.

As with everything on this car it’s filthy so a good clean later and a fresh coat of paint, it’s ready for a new boot kit and to be pumped with fresh grease. At which point the job should be done, but no… The rack was mounted with three odd bolts, cut down and without the large head the original bolts had.

A quick scan on eBay yielded a seller for the original parts. What turned up are these, which are not the right bolts. The one below are standard pitch and the threads in the bulk head are fine pitch.

It turned out the threads on two of the bulkhead mounts were damaged so those captive nuts had to be replaced and given the ludicrous price for some of the original spec bolts that someone had for sale, I went for some spreader washers and conventional cap heads.

I’ve bought some extruded aluminium heat shield material to prevent toasting in future. I’ll need to get the engine and exhaust back in place before mounting that.