Steering Rack lubrication

[dalgrae]

Whilst carrying out some greasing of the front suspension parts I wondered about the steering rack and the single grease nipple and the comparison to the single sided item on my old Triumph motor cycle swing arm and when a grease gun is applied to this all the excess grease will only come out of one side of the swing arm so I assumed the car would be the same with little or no lubrication reaching the off side parts which happens to be where the pinnion shaft teeth and mating rack teeth are. So I decided to remove the pinnion shaft bearing including its shims from the rack this is quite easy working inside the engine bay and removing the 2 bolts this revealed the end of the pinion shaft which was quite dry of any lubrication, I then modified the housing by drilling and tapping and fitting an angled grease nipple all the parts were refitted and the grease nipple angle adjusted until it pointed upright into the engine bay ,I use a small high pressure pump action gun filled with EP90 so now I can lubricate with a lot more certanty both sides of the rack , tommorrow I intend to adjust the front brakes so I will pull off the rack gaitor and see if my modification has been a success

[bmcecosse]

Good idea - but I much prefer the moly grease in the rack. And if greased with rack on full right lock - then straightening the steering pulls the grease through to the right and around the pinion.

[dalgrae]

Thanks reference the Moly grease I did give it some thought ref grease/versus oil but I decided on oil in the end not for any particular reason other than the oil has less distance to travel now so I thought it would get to more places or give a bigger contact coverage

[bmcecosse]

As I have pointed out before - the grease won't run away and hide in the boots......all later racks of exactly this design are specified for grease. I'm willing to accept that probably a 50/50 mix is the best overall compromise!