Steering rack warning
 

I'm concious most here will be using Escort racks rather than a shortened Sierra rack like my Indy but this warning may still be relevant.

A couple of weeks ago i did a u turn whilst dropping off my eldest at the local station. Part of the way through the turn something felt a bit odd, i just thought it was a bit of mud under one of the wheels so gave it a tad more load pedal and promptly ended up on the pavement with the front wheels pointing in different directions. Fortunately the only pedestrian in range got out of the way in time.

It turned out the rack had been DIY shortened by the previous owner and he clearly hadn't cut a good enough thread in the end that was shortened. It was always just a matter of time before the rack end pulled straight out of the poor thread in the rack so i was lucky it was a relatively low speeds, close to home and that no one got hurt. I'm laughing about it now but it would have been a different ending if i'd been hacking round the country lanes at the time.

I briefly toyed with the idea of building up the hole in the end of the rack with weld and just re drilling and tapping but in the end decided that piece of mind was worth more tha the money i'd save and ordered a new professionally modified rack- upgrading to a quick rack at the same time so there would be something positive out of the experience.

Always check the quality of any threads that may have been DIY tapped before you rely on them.

That had the potential to be rather nasty. :eek:

Glad it gave out at low speed & that you are ok. :)

Prime example of why steering racks are best left to the folks who know what they are doing & have the equipment to do the job right.

One glance at the steering rack on my new project was enough to make me go out & buy a new one. ( Didn't even bother opening it up )

Hope you are back on the road soon. :)

helicoil might fix it

I thought helicoils were for internal threads ?

thats what sierra racks have dont thay?

The new rack is on and it's a revelation. I got a quick rack this time as I wanted to get something positive out of a bit of a bad experience and i'm glad i paid the extra. It's amazingly responsive compared to the old rack and theres also far less bump steer.