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Escort Steering rack
Henrik H - 28/5/10 at 06:22 PM

Hi

I'm building an MNR RT+ and i have some problems with my selfcentering of the steering. I THINK its the steeringrack thats too "tight"... Does anyone know if its possible to lighten it up so it moves more easy?

Best regards Henrik

philw - 28/5/10 at 06:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Henrik H
Hi

I'm building an MNR RT+ and i have some problems with my selfcentering of the steering. I THINK its the steeringrack thats too "tight"... Does anyone know if its possible to lighten it up so it moves more easy?

Best regards Henrik


What's happening, does the steering feel tight when you turn the steering wheel or is it just as you say it will not self center? if it's the latter then i would say you don't have enough castor

daviep - 28/5/10 at 06:32 PM

If you remove the small oval plate which is secured by 2 bolts there are shims and a spring underneath, add more shims to slacken the rack.

Be warned though that you are effectively altering the depth of mesh between the rack and pinion and you end up with play in the rack if you add too many shims.

Davie

Henrik H - 28/5/10 at 07:12 PM

The steering seems fine when i drive, but when i have the car jacked up its pretty hard to turn the wheel by hands (at the wheel), and it makes no diffrense if i disconect the steeringparts that goes up to the steeringwheel. Thats why i thought it might be the rack, but keep giving me tips! Here are my front setup: 8,5 deg caster, 1,2 deg camber, 2mm toein


/ Henrik

craig1410 - 28/5/10 at 08:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Henrik H
Hi

I'm building an MNR RT+ and i have some problems with my selfcentering of the steering. I THINK its the steeringrack thats too "tight"... Does anyone know if its possible to lighten it up so it moves more easy?

Best regards Henrik


Hi,
I had this problem. A few suggestions.

1. Check that you have the correct direction of caster. You should have the top balljoint *behind* the bottom balljoint. This makes sure that the contact patch is behind the line drawn between balljoints and extended to hit the ground.

2. Try stripping the rack down and clean out all the grease and then replace it with gear oil instead. This should help to lighten up the rack a bit.

3. As suggested above, try easing off the slipper plate a bit but bear in mind that this will increase the amount of free play in the rack and taking it to extremes could be dangerous.

4. Try toe-out instead of toe-in. There are no hard and fast rules about which is best for self-centre but in general you will probably want to have some toe-out to sharpen steering response when you set your car up for the road so ideally you want to get it centering on that basis now.

5. If all else fails, do what I did in the end and buy a new rack from Rally Design. I got a 2.4:1 quick rack for around £90 and it has made a huge difference to the car's handling.

I hope this helps, good luck!
Craig.

philw - 28/5/10 at 08:31 PM

Have you got NEG or POS castor? you need about + 6 or less POS

craig1410 - 28/5/10 at 11:52 PM

quote:
Originally posted by philw
Have you got NEG or POS castor? you need about + 6 or less POS


Worth mentioning that positive caster is, as I mentioned above, when the line between balljoints hits the ground ahead of the centre of the contact patch.

mistergrumpy - 29/5/10 at 10:09 AM

Like Craig says. Cleaning it all up worked wonders for my self centreing and then I added a cardboard shim to the clutch (oval plate with spring inside) this sorted mine out.