Problem mating a steering rack pinion to the UJ. E46
Discussion
Tanoon all
Car is a November 1999 E46 323Ci
We are having an issue fitting the rack onto the lower UJ at the moment.
Basically, we cannot get the rack to slip far enough onto the original lower UJ so that the bolt holes match up with the indent in the pinion where the bolts sit in to hold it together.
It almost seems that the pinion diameter on the new rack is too big, as it comes up about 1cm short of where it needs to sat down the pinion on the rack. It seems alot tighter on the new rack and will only go so far before it won't budge any further onto the pinion, even with a gentle bit of persuation from a copper headed hammer.
We have even removed the UJ from the car and tried to fit the two together off the car, and still no joy, yet the UJ goes straight on the old rack with the merest of knocks to sit it in place...
The rack is from ACS and is a refurbed rack. It all seems OK, and indeed a quick call to a very helpful guy who refurbs the racks at said company has confirmed that there is only one rack for the whole of the E46 range(externally, the only difference is the internal ratio for lock to lock) as I thought, and they sell about 20 of them a week with no issues.
So I am at a total loss as to why this rack won't slip far enough into the lower UJ? I have measured every part of the pinion on the rack with a digital vernier caliper at it is near enough the same as the old rack, allowing for the most nominal of manufacturing differences which frankly shouldn't make an issue. I have also counted the splines and there are the same number, with no offset ones to denote where it should be mated.
Obviously I don't want to force it with a beating and risk damaging either the splines on either the pinion or inside the UJ, or damaging the interals of the rack itself, but I have run out of ideas of where to go from here, as we have been struggling for hours with no joy. I have also thought about trying to prize the UJ neck open a tad but again am reluctant as it is aluminium not steel.
The only thing I can possibly think of is corrosion on the splines inside the UJ, as it did take a bit of persuation to remove it, so I have left it in the cleaning tank for the weekend (head part, not the rubber in the UJ submerged!) which a view to carefully scraping out the splines on Monday and trying that, but surely the UJ wouldn't go onto the old rack unless you put in back on exactly the same way if corrosion was an issue?
Any ideas appreciated. The car is stuck on the ramp at work at the moment and I'd appreciate it back ASAP!
Car is a November 1999 E46 323Ci
We are having an issue fitting the rack onto the lower UJ at the moment.
Basically, we cannot get the rack to slip far enough onto the original lower UJ so that the bolt holes match up with the indent in the pinion where the bolts sit in to hold it together.
It almost seems that the pinion diameter on the new rack is too big, as it comes up about 1cm short of where it needs to sat down the pinion on the rack. It seems alot tighter on the new rack and will only go so far before it won't budge any further onto the pinion, even with a gentle bit of persuation from a copper headed hammer.
We have even removed the UJ from the car and tried to fit the two together off the car, and still no joy, yet the UJ goes straight on the old rack with the merest of knocks to sit it in place...
The rack is from ACS and is a refurbed rack. It all seems OK, and indeed a quick call to a very helpful guy who refurbs the racks at said company has confirmed that there is only one rack for the whole of the E46 range(externally, the only difference is the internal ratio for lock to lock) as I thought, and they sell about 20 of them a week with no issues.
So I am at a total loss as to why this rack won't slip far enough into the lower UJ? I have measured every part of the pinion on the rack with a digital vernier caliper at it is near enough the same as the old rack, allowing for the most nominal of manufacturing differences which frankly shouldn't make an issue. I have also counted the splines and there are the same number, with no offset ones to denote where it should be mated.
Obviously I don't want to force it with a beating and risk damaging either the splines on either the pinion or inside the UJ, or damaging the interals of the rack itself, but I have run out of ideas of where to go from here, as we have been struggling for hours with no joy. I have also thought about trying to prize the UJ neck open a tad but again am reluctant as it is aluminium not steel.
The only thing I can possibly think of is corrosion on the splines inside the UJ, as it did take a bit of persuation to remove it, so I have left it in the cleaning tank for the weekend (head part, not the rubber in the UJ submerged!) which a view to carefully scraping out the splines on Monday and trying that, but surely the UJ wouldn't go onto the old rack unless you put in back on exactly the same way if corrosion was an issue?
Any ideas appreciated. The car is stuck on the ramp at work at the moment and I'd appreciate it back ASAP!
Have you measured the diameter of the pinions to compare them?
BMW has gone through several iterations with the E46 steering system after customer feedback on the steering effort/feel. But no idea what changed - the pump or the rack or ???
According to realoem an early E46 and a late one have the same swivel joint; see http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=AM52... and http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=ET56...
BMW has gone through several iterations with the E46 steering system after customer feedback on the steering effort/feel. But no idea what changed - the pump or the rack or ???
According to realoem an early E46 and a late one have the same swivel joint; see http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=AM52... and http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=ET56...
All the racks bar M3 are the same (pinion wise anyway)
I've measured the two with the digi vernier and they are virtually bang on to the tenth of the mm allowing for manufacturing tolerances.
I've also been told that all UJs are thus the same too, hence why I am baffled.
Hopefully a clean up of the UJ should sort the problem!
Thanks
I've measured the two with the digi vernier and they are virtually bang on to the tenth of the mm allowing for manufacturing tolerances.
I've also been told that all UJs are thus the same too, hence why I am baffled.
Hopefully a clean up of the UJ should sort the problem!
Thanks
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