The 'E' Type Forum

Hi all. I’m in the process of refurbishing a manual steering rack, ahead of removing the factory PAS from my car. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who’s refurbed one themselves before. Which bits did you replace, and which are better to try and reuse the originals? Are there any pattern parts that should be avoided? I’m aware of the need to buy the specific e-type track rod ends with the proper articulation.

This rack came off a LHD car that’s been restored and converted to RHD, so I don’t know what it was like when on the car. So far I’ve stripped everything down. The brass bush in the passenger side is worn, so that will get replaced. The parts available don’t look like the originals though. There’s some polishing and minor wear on the inner track rod ball joints, so they should be replaced if the available parts are good quality. I should probably do pinion bearings whilst it’s apart, though there was no detectable play in the pinion. Do the rack and pinion themselves normally last well?

Hi Tom,

Are you saying that this is a LHD rack that has been converted to a RHD rack?

That is new; can you elaborate?

Paul

No, it’s a LHD rack off a US import. That car was restored and converted to RHD, but never driven in the UK as a LHD car, so I’ve no way of knowing how well, or otherwise this rack works. Hence pulling it apart to check for wear. My car is LHD, and I’m happy to stick with LHD for the time being. I’d just prefer to do without power steering.

Hi Tom,

If you havent seen it already, this may help:

http://www.georgiajag.com/Documents/XKE ... lRack.html

Paul

I’d not seen that before. Very useful, thank you.