A&Q about 350Z
Q:
I've started to prepare the rack for fitting the new rack and pinion and thought it'd be a good idea to start a thread for it.
Here's a couple of pics of the bulkhead strengthing my car has had. I was getting a lot of rackmount movement and then bulkhead flex when using slicks.
So firstly welded (badly!) a section of angle iron inbetween the rack mounts, then later realised this had transfered the movement to the actual bulkhead flexing around the drivers side mount, so welded (badly!) a 3mm plate cut to shape around the mount and butted upto the ridge.
At the same time welded (badly!) a small fillet to support the passenger side mount.
It's very difficult to really get at the bulkhead to do this work with the engine in, hence the crap welding, helps taking the manifold off, but still limited room. We did originally weld a support under the drivers side mount too but this had to be ground off again as it fouled on the bottom of the manifold.
Anyway follow haynes book for rack removal, should only take an hr or so, i also removed manifold as it needed to come off for another job anyway, could possibly be done without but might be tight. Rack and steering arms were then removed complete, from the nearside. It just fits through the hole.
Here's the assembly with the steering arms removed and wirebrushed ready to paint later.
Haynes book doesn't cover rack stripdown so, so far i'm upto here. I've removed the top cover on the rack which adjusts tension between rack and pinion, careful when you undo this as it's got a spring in there. Have also removed the cover which goes around the pinion, covering the bearing with a little rubber seal.
As far as i can see the pinion needs to be removed before the rack, but i can't see how to do this yet, any ideas?? It doesn't pull out by hand..
A:
its got to have had the bearing pressed onto the pinion, and then been pressed in to the housing. how about reattaching the universal joint to the pinion, then tapping that with a mallet?
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Time to get the slide hammer out of the tool box mabe.
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yeah definitely, unless you need to keep the old pinion and rack it doesn`t matter what happens to them really, as long as the housing isn`t damaged in the process...
A:
i found that the pinion came out with a little persuading. connect the UJ back up a few taps and it'll come no bother.
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Agree with pol - I did this with a rack previously. Pinion should come loose.
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Cheers folks, i'll finish it later today hopefully.
A:
In the 1st pic where you welded the bulkhead did you also do the bit just below & to the left of what looks like an earthing wire?
You can see it better from my pic (from another thread):
as mine cracked also along the horizontal edge.
A:
i've seam welded every bit of the rack and added a brace bar between the 2 mounting points as per above. im going to beef it up a bit more before the car go's to paint. some triangular 3mm steel onto the rack and bulkhead should do the job.
can anyone else organise a group buy on solid rack mounts? i quite fancy a set for the racer but it seems the one that was spoken about before has fallen on it's ****. would take 3 sets straight away for mine and mates cars!
A:
The way to do a GB is to talk to Comp Brake. They are ex-TAS, and just need a group order to kick things off again. Mfr-ing to orders, they shouldn't have a prob with tbh.
A:
In the 1st pic where you welded the bulkhead did you also do the bit just below & to the left of what looks like an earthing wire?
You can see it better from my pic (from another thread):
as mine cracked also along the horizontal edge.
Yep also originally braced it from below but that's what i had to grind off again to clear the bottom of the manifold flange.
A:
Update, Fitted the UJ back on and the pinion knocked out easily with a tap from a hammer, then the rack came out easily aswell.
Fitted the bearing and circlip like so.
But have come across a snag, the bearing supplied is a different size to the the one fitted and the rack housing, see pic.
I was going to just go and get a slightly bigger bearing tomorrow but then realised that the cover is supposed to fit to the bearing too, and won't fit correctly with a bigger bearing, the old bearing won't come off and can't be reused anyway. So has anybody got an additional spare rack housing???
Chris i'm assuming it was a vag rack used as the master and mine must be a odd aftermarket one..
A:
They had 2 rack housings off me:
OE housing - 31.75mm ID
?Non OE?/can't recall (just pulling it apart) - yep, 31.8 without taking the bearing out to measure ID, so same
< quakes >
A:
Wonder if yours is remanufactured with bigger bearing?
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Sounds about right
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Bugger,nothing is ever simple, is it ?
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Nope, bit of PITA.
I'm now on the look out for another rack housing if anybody has got one spare and v. cheap then please pm me.
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i've got a rack housing siting about but will be holding onto it unitl my mates rack arrives incase one of the housings is of no use. i assume all mk1 models (i.e. an L and a gti) rack housings are the same?
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Can't you take the bearing to VAG to get matched up?
Or maybe somewhere else?
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Yeah Mike, i can get a bigger bearing but i'll also have to get the cover remachined so it pushes against the outerface of the bearing, otherwise it will stop the bigger bearing from turning. Can be done but it'd be easier to get a another housing.
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Have a look at . These might save you some hassle.
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any luck yet
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No still on the look out for another rack, hopefully infinity's got one but i'll have to sort in out in dec now as i'm on holiday next week.
I'll update when done.
A:
I'm ready to put the bits into my casing. I bought a pair of Lemfoeder track rods and ends from GSF. £50's worth. The only thing I forgot to do before I stripped it was note where the notch on the pinion went when the rack was centred. Anyone know the answer?