How will I know when my steering rack is on it's way out?

The steering wheel will shake from side to side at certain speeds, that's one indication......

 

You'll turn left but the car will veer right!!!

 

My 328 would not track well, and followed ruts too easily. I seemed to need to make small corrections when driving down the freeway. New rack bushings and an alignment did not fix it, so I bought a new rack from Ferrari UK (last one they had as I recall) and it was like new again!

For your 308, you will need to get it rebuilt..usually just a bushing inside needs to be replaced, that causes the play in the wheel.

 

Um.....also the wheel may have lost its balance weights and needs a wheel balance to correct the shake.

 

You can also have play in the tie-rod ends on the stub axle,that can cause the car to track all over the road,and can also cause play in the steering. The bushes in the steering rack wear or fall apart. The inner steering rack-ends also can wear,causing the same tracking/steering wheel correction issues. A good mechanic can check it out for you,if you have any doubts

 

It's worse than a thrown weight and only presents itself at rare instances...

Yea, I'll get that fixed it's embarressing ...LOL!

Maybe THAT was Schumi's problem...........yea, that's it!

 

Lol

 

The inner rack support bush can be easily checked...

just jack up the passenger side front wheel, turn the steering wheel fully towards the passengers side, and firmly wiggle the whole wheel left and right... look at the tie rod while you do this.

if there is no feeling of slack, and the tie rod simply moves in and out a little, the bush is probably ok, but if the tie rod moves UP and DOWN (at the swivel inside the rubber boot), the bush is shot.

There are two types of 308 rack. Some have a flared steel tube at the passengers end, and some have a cast alluminium housing. The cast ones are better and easier to rebuild I feel.

The rack and pinions gears rarely wear. There is some adjustment via shims, but basically, if they do wear, it'll 99% for sure be in the straight ahead position, and if you re-shim it to take up this slack, it'll be too tight on wider lock and could be dangerous.

A wheel shimmy is most probably wheel/tyre related.... either balance or distortion of some kind.

Swap the wheels around or borrow some others if you can, to see what effect it has.

 

Significant increase feedback in the steering colum as you go over bumps, rattle and shake audible also.

 

Norwoods makes that bushing and sells it if you want to do your own simple "rebuild"/fix.

 

check for movement in the directions show below on the passenger side of the rack.
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Who sells the rack rebuild kit and how much does it cost. I would think this is an easy rack to rebuild. Also if the large bushing on the pass. sid is bad can it be replaced with the rack in the car by droping the tie rod and removing it .

 

Superformance sell loose racks and pinions, in a choice of ratios for LH and RH drive cars.

I make my own bushes from Bronze bar, and ream to size.

You can't change the bush with the rack in place.

 

While checking my rack (which I replaced with a rebuild from AW Auto Parts this past winter, $400- last I heard they were out of them), I found it easier to check the condition of the rack by removing the outer tie rod ends from the steering arm. Then, I could check for play in the inner tie rod joint, and the internal bushing. After investigation, I decided just to replace the entire thing. It was a floppy mess with almost 60k miles. Not a bad job to remove, install is a little picky- took an hour or so. You will need an alignment after this.
During this time, I also replaced many of the suspension bushings, but the new rack provided the greatest (for the better) change in performance before and after. I had no idea how sloppy my steering was until I replaced the rack and rack mount bushings.

I attached a few photos of the removal. The last is the collar that needs removal to detach the steering column. I marked the rack, collar, and steeing column to aid in the install of the new rack. Disconnecting that collar was a pain becuase of corrosion and tight access.
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Jay, where did you get the rack mount bushing from?Genuine or aftermarket?

 

The racks are the same as Pantera racks. You can buy bronze bushings from Pantera after market suppliers:
http://www.panteraparts.com/
http://www.panteraperformance.com/

For photos of a rack rebuilt see:
http://www.panteraplace.com/page76.htm

And:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/album?.dir=c683&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/my_photos

Brian

 

Can a quicker ratio be installed in place of the OE steering ratio?
If so, where would that part(s) be available?

Greg

77 308 GTB USA

 

Yes you can do a search here for a discussion it..it is sold by Superformance in the UK. Obviously it will increase effort as well. Read the threads first.

 

Thanks Dave (Hugh? )

Greg

 

err... post #14?

http://www.superformance.co.uk/308/308drives.htm

 

So I see Norwoods sella Delrin bushing and if you go to the Pantera site they have a brass bushing. I guess its a toss up at to which is better and will last longer. Opinions?

 

Couldn't find a thread dedicated to this particular steering upgrade--can somebody post the link?

Thanks for the Superformance link, Ferrarifixer!

I feel like my car would really wake up with quicker steering...

Greg
77 308

 

By the time you've pcked and shipped it etc, it becomes expensive. Of course, I have access to several machine shops and can make the bush quite cheaply. I've got 2 on the shelf right now, along with 2 quick racks.

I prefer to make my own bushes also, because if I rebuild an old rack, which perhaps has some wear or corrosion where the bush slides... I can resize the rack and make the bush to fit.