BBi Steering Rack Problem

Hi all. Well here's a new one. My '84 BBi has a rebuilt steering rack in it and has for quite a few years now. It has seemed to work OK until this weekend.

When starting out to a local event the steering worked fine. However as the car heated up (90 degree day) the steering began to bind. After about 40 minutes of freeway/city driving, the binding was to the point of the steering wheel staying where you put it!

After lunch at the event, and the car sitting for about an hour and a half (in 90 degree weather), it was time to leave. The steering worked fine! No binding. But about 5 minutes into driving the binding returned and was as bad as before.

When I pulled the car into my garage and shut it off, I moved the steering wheel left and right which produced a "groaning" sound from the area of the rack, and yes it was binding. After the car cooled down, there was no noise and no binding.

As I reflected on this situation I realized that the rack had always done this but only to a very small degree and it wasn't bothersome.

I have the old rack out of the car ( Cam Gear Ltd.), so I decided to have a look inside and see what was there that might bind. The only thing I could see were bushings on either side of the rack gear which would be nylon on steel (?), and the small piston that pushes down on the rack to keep it in place, which would be steel on steel.

The rack is not leaking fluid either but I have not checked it out to see how much fluid is in it either. The owners manual recommends .33-.37 pts. of 80-90 wt gear oil.

So, anybody out there experience this? Did I get a bad rebuilt rack? I would appreciate any info anyone has.

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks Paul..

I'm going to put it on the rack this weekend and check it out. When I took the "old" rack apart, that is I took the boots off either end, I was surprised to find there are no bushings on the outer ends of the rack..they're inboard closer to the gear section...

And, who/where do you source/get racks rebuilt on cars you service?

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

 

Thanks so much for the info. I did do a search on here, but it didn't pull up much. Perhaps I didn't word it correctly. The "original" rack I have from my car (and I'm suspect now because the small outboard clamps on the end boots are IDEAL and not SERFLEX), has the exact same numbers stamped on it as your 246L rack referenced in the link you provided, but was produced in 1983!

Can you tell me, approximately where are the bushings placed inside the tube? In mine, the right hand outer is about 8" inside..

 

Wow..only one bushing! I had no idea. The screw on my rack is a very short metal screw...thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

 

Thanks!