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What is this hole in my steering rack

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middie

middie

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Gentlemen - I am from the MG Midget "side" of the forum, with a late model 1500 (which really has a heck of a lot of the good Triumph stuff in it anyway).

My problem is with the steering rack (Triumph sourced). I put on new boots and tie-rods, filled one boot with gearbox oil, and turned it on its end to let the oil trickle down into the lower boot.

Unfortunately I lost a lot of oil through a hole situated at the underneath side (when I fit it) and I'm not sure what it is for. Is it a filling hole for the oil, and should it have some sort of a cap on it to stop oil dribbling out when turning the steering wheel backwards and forwards?

Rack is not installed, so I can't really run a check, but I'm confused about having a hole underneath where it just has to leak. And how would you put oil in it when it is underneath? Surely not take out the rack?????

Thanks in advance, Wazza
 

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I seem to remember a small nylon button in the rack assembly. That may be what is missing from that hole.
The boots are not intended to hold gear oil just grease the rack and joints. Some racks have a grease fitting on top, others have a bolt that serves as a grounding point.
 
No sure what TR the rack was sourced from, but FWIW the TR4 rack has a threaded hole for lubing. It uses a threaded plug to secure a ground connection but to lube you replace the plug with a zerk and use a grease gun.

[ <span style="font-style: italic">Ignore the arrow, was showing someone how the boot attaches</span> ]

ground2.jpg


Is the hole you picture threaded?

I know some cars sopecify oil for the rack but even when that is the spec it can be the dickens to keep in. You will want to find out more about the soecific rack you're using, hopefully modern grease will suffice.
 
That hole is on the TR6's rack, don't know if it is also on the 4, for the rack clamp button as talked about before. I think it is for centralizing the rack evenly
 
I have the same hole. It's not the lube hole, nor is it the hole for the ground strap. I believe the hole is sealed in a sense by the rubber bushing that fits around the steering tube under the U-Clamps. I've thought it may be some kind of relief hole, or hole for escape of pressure or moisture but there may have once been a nylon plug in there as indicated above. As you tell I'm just guessing. When I reassembled mine I just cleaned it and made sure it was sealed by the bushing.
 
Thank you for your informative replies - who would have thought a little hole would hold such wonders. Looks like I will have to empty out the gear oil and put some grease in its place, and then find some type of nylon plug. Although I haven't tried to install into the car as yet to see if the holding clamps do the same job.

I'm converting from LHD to RHD therefore the RHD rack hasn't been married up the car.

Is there a special grease I should be looking for??? I've been chasing this question on a number of forums and one reply said that there was a "semi-liquid" grease by Shell which did the trick???? Perhaps this is something like the "<span style="font-style: italic">self-leveling greases such as Castrol SL</span>" also mentioned.

There is no thread in the hole, which is why I'm so confused about its use. I do have the threaded plug as Geo pointed out, so I will have a go at taking it out to see what is in there. BTW - as I'm from Down Under I must confess I've never heard of a "zerk"??

I don't know which Triumph the rack was sourced from (the motor is out of the Spitfire) but I did find this little gem when searching for a solution.
<span style="font-style: italic">"If you can find Midget 1500 racks, they have a much larger "plastic plug" for controlling rack end slop & this is a worthwhile conversion as it gets rid of many annoying rattles in the rack. I just drill out the TR rack body and make a big plug as per the Midget." </span>
<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">https://www.tsoaq.org.au/technical-information/22-steering-racks.html</span></span>

Wazza
 
Many thanks - that exactly the piece I'm looking for. A simple nylon plug which stops leakage. I've looked at the brackets which will eventually hold the rack and see there is no rubber there - but I'll be cutting up an old bicycle tyre to fix up that problem.

I'm also going to look around for semi-fluid grease and find a Zerk fitting which fits into the thread at the top of the steering rack.

Thank you to all the helpful people on the Triumph site.

Wazza
 
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