Steering rack shim???

[David_Doan]

Any idea why my car would have a 1/4" shim on one side of the rack? It is on the right hand side and pushes the right side of the rack 1/4" forward. I can find no chassis damage that this might be compensating for. I'm hoping someone will just says its normal.

 

[PHerder]

It is to line up the rack with the steering column. I have the same thing.

 

[David_Doan]

Thanks, that makes sense.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

I replaced the pinion gear while I had the rack out on Bugsy. It significantly tightened up the feel of the rack. On a BE that gear used to be pretty cheap. Simple to replace. There are .010 copper shims that are used with the pinion gear that need to be used. There is a procedure to installing that needs to be followed or rack will lock up at an less that desirable time but procedure is simple. Need more shims, can be cut from hobby store copper.

Clean all of the swarf out of the rack mounting holes wit ha tap. You are cleaning up aluminum so be careful but lots of junk in those holes. In renewing bolts be careful on length. Too long and bolts will feel tight as they bottom out and rack is not tight. I used a pice of inner tube on both sides of the rack mounts glued in place. Rack does not move. Do not reuse metal lock nut on steering column pinch bolt. Only use new bolt, one time usage only.

 

[David_Doan]

Thanks Rut. My rack is pretty tight, it looks new, I'm pretty sure the PO replaced it. The PO was the 2nd owner and spent a lot of money on the mechanicals. He only drove it about 3000 miles.

 

[Billm]

That shim is factory stock for the side away from the driver.
BillM

 

[nomad]

If you mount the rack in its clamps with bike inner tube and the steering still binds you may have to add shims to the stock shim or to the other side to get things perfect.

Kurt.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Agreed. The copper .010 Shims I mentioned are part of pinion gear replacement and shim the actual pinior gear internal to the rack. My issue, I replaced the bolts on the rack with new bolts that were a hair too long. Bolts bottomed out and although I thought they were torqued and tightened properly, rack was moving around and not correctly clamped to the brackets. An extra washer and correct sized bolts solved the issue. Be sure and use a bottoming tap to clean all of the swark out of the rack mounting holes. Lots of crap gets in there over the years.