Steering Rack - again

[Stevekid1]

Hi All,

Approximately a month ago I had a newly refurbished steering rack fitted to the car, the old one had given up at the passenger side gaiter. Within a month and less than 100 miles, the new rack leaks worse than the old one so much so that the last time I used the car (Sunday 6th September) it left a trail of drips up an down the drive. On a 30 mile run the level in the pump reservoir dropped by nearly 50mm. I am not prepared to drive the car again so now have to try and remove the rack myself. I attach a photo of the part that is leaking. Can anyone tell me why this part would be leaking and is it possible for me to try and re-seat the joint to cure the problem. Not getting a great deal of joy from the supplier at present and just want to get the car back on the road as quickly as possible.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers, Steve P9150006.JPG

[trunt]

You should be able to tighten up that connection. A fitting is threaded into the piston (?) inside and it is sealed up against the body of the rack using a little sealant. Then the steel pipe is threaded into that fitting. With any luck the steel pipe just needs tightened in the fitting but maybe the fitting will need to be resealed.

Perhaps search for some pictures to show you how it goes together.

[MandM]

As above, I used this stuff in the blue bottle , a bit of plumbers tape should work as well but for both you will need to remove that fitting, if you remove it DO NOT move the wheels or steering wheel this fitting is used to locate the cyclinder sleeve. see photo
P1090537.JPGP1060393.JPGP1080562.JPG

If you are going to use thread lock don't use the high strength one

if you lose the position of the sleeve you will have to strip and reseal the rack (but having said that it should NOT move useless you move something as stated)

Is the fitting cracked?

Hope this is helpful

[Stevekid1]

Thanks both for your replies. Martin, as always, it seems you have been there and done it! I cannot access the fitting with the rack fitted to the car so am going to remove the rack myself and leave the track rod ends in position. So if I secure the rack on a bench so that it cannot move, will the inner shaft stay put? I can strip this joint from my old rack and have the securing nut ready to insert immediately. The supplier has offered to send me a new pipe just in case there is damage to the existing one but is pretty much blaming the fitting garage for the leak. Is it just the shoulder of the securing nut that would need taping with PTFE tape or the sealant applied? I assume the threaded section will be inside the fluid area?

Thanks, Steve