Friday 6 July 2012

Steering rack

I had already fitted the steering rack but ran into problems with the standard GBS track rod extensions, they would only wind on about 1" and had noticeable rust on the internal threads.

I am taking the front suspension off again at some point & will be removing it as a single unit upright & wishbones - so the ball joints are not being tightened to the uprights & no IVA covers. I don't want to have to break those joints later.


The M14 x2 tap arrived today, so cleaned up the threads and had another go:

Initially again it looked like they would not wind on enough, I rang GBS - the advice is the extensions should wind all the way on to the steering rack - I'm nearly there, may re-tap at some point before final fitting. I can't see how this would be possible without cleaning the threads - the tap is a must have tool IMHO.

The extensions wind on freely enough not to spin the track rod arm itself; the balljoints need a spanner - I suspect its a dirty external thread on the extension, but hoping to get away without buying a die to clean that too.

Nearside needs a little more work - doesn't quite wind on enough yet:

Vertical clearance is tight over the suspension pivot points (GT chassis) I'll need to play with this again when the side panels are on, at the moment the nearside end is ok, but the offside a little tight:

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