[Fot] Reproduction Steering Racks - INFO NEEDED

[Chuck WATSON]

Here is a summary of comments made on FOT about this issue over the last
several months...some are US and some are UK.  It's all in the FOT archives
first hand:


The tube pulls out if the pinion housing
>> The pinion nut falls off
>> The threads on the track rod ends aren't always machined properly

I had the quick ratio rack fail also. it was 2009 at cal speedway. I was
turning left off the oval and i heard a noise and then I had no
steering.Really scary. The tube separated from the housing. I machined in a
pin on my current
rack which Should hopefully prevent this from happening again.

I thought I'd give you all a heads up on my position with reproduction TR4
> steering racks made in Argentina and supplied by MOSS or via others.
> I have had another near lethal failure this weekend on the Rally of the
Tests,costing me a high placing and a class win as well as the car or worse.
People could have been hurt very badly. This is the second time.
>
> The issues are threefold in my experience, the first two are serious safety
> matters hence my email to this group.
>
> 1. The main steel rack tube is pressed without any notching or machined
> scoring into the alloy pinion housing, meaning that on left hand lock the
rack
> tube parts from the housing and control is lost. This is because the rack
has
> nothing to bear against and therefore the wheels end up pointing in
opposite
> directions. The alloy housing appears to be made from a material of
> insufficiently high quality in my opinion and the press fit is poor.
>
> I am aware of 7 failures now, 6 on competition cars, one of which was mine
and which I was lucky to walk away from.
>
> 2. The nut and spring on the top of the pinion housing (which allows the
rack preload / play to be adjusted) unwinds and falls off, causing loss of
control and excessive play in the rack, as well as ingress of material as it's
open
to the atmosphere. This is another potentially lethal failure mode and caused
because the peening of the pinion housing / nut fails and the nut just
spins itself off. Again my opinion is that this is due to poor material,
design
and manufacturing.
>
> I am aware if two such failures now, one on my car again which we were
lucky to survive unscathed.
>
> The cast alloy pinion housings also appear to be poorly cast, with blow
holes evident in the assembly indicating poor material, process and quality
control.
>
> 3. There is a third problem in that the threads on ends of the rack are not
cut properly, so track rod ends will not fit. Theses need to recut and
again is evidence of poor manufacturing and dimensional control.
>
> I am working with TR Enterprises in the UK to develop a short term fix
(which we have done) and ultimately have some racks made that are fit for
purpose,
however meantime my opinion is that anyone who has one of these 'Made in
Argentina' steering racks should talk to their supplier and satisfy
themselves of their safety in use.
>
I for one will not be using such a rack in an unmodified form and will
replace it as soon as is possible with a product that is designed to be safe
in
use.
I bought a Moss quick ratio steering rack for my TR6 in 2007. 20
minutes after installing it, I heard a metallic sound and then parts
landing on the floor of the garage. Upon inspection I found that the
cap/grease plug and spring had released themselves from the rack &
pinion housing! I quickly returned the rack to Moss with a full
explanation of what happened. Still running the original rack.

Thanks,
Chuck Watson


> From: N197TR4 at cs.com
> Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2014 13:22:15 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Fot] Reproduction Steering Racks - INFO NEEDED
> To: clw2000 at msn.com
>
> Chuck,
>
> Do you have any specific information that we can use?
>
> I hope others will jump on this.
>
> It would be good to get past the hearsay.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> > I did get it.  Glad to see this issue getting some daylight!  Thank you
> > Joe.
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Chuck Watson
> >
> >
> >
>
> </HTML>