Pre Cat manual steering rack

[Chad speed]

Recently bought some steering rack gaiters for my manual steering 430 from the nice guys at Racing Green only to find (after pulling one side apart) that they were too small. After a bit of head scratching and a return trip to RG it seems as though I have a non PAS car fitted with a PAS rack. I am 99% sure the car was not supplied with PAS and that it has not been modified since. Has anyone come across this before? and can anyone tell me the turns lock to lock for both PAS and non PAS so I can tell if it's just the rack casing that is PAS or the rack itself.
Any help would be great.
Thanks

[Chad speed]

Quinny said:

I can't see how your rack can be a PS rack, running without the pump.

You'ed have a hell of a job turning the wheel. Have a look at the rack where the steering UJ joins, the PS models have 4 pipes connected in this area, if yours are all blanked off I'd be amazed.

The ordinary rack just has the splined shaft for the UJ and is a lot smaller in this area

Agree with what you are saying and the rack does not have the hydraulic connections. But the PAS rack housing is a much larger diameter (55 mm vs about 40 mm) were the gaiter fits and mine corresponds with the PAS dimensions in this area. Whilst at Racing Green I had a look at a manual rack set-up so have seen both first hand. If it was a PAS rack with no PAS as you say the steering would be unbelievably heavy but it's consistent with other non PAS chims and griffs I've driven. Guess it's a TVR thing as they say.

[The AJP Griff]

I wonder if you can remove the hydraulic ram on the pas rack to get a normal weight unassisted rack?They do this with the Pug 205's used in motorsport apparently,so it's possible that some pas racks can be adapted to remove the heavyness when using unassisted.

[spend]

There was an early and later version of the manual racks according to lore.

[yellowgriff]

Many years ago i was on a track day in a cossie which blow the seals out on the P A S ,,, We cut the belt and carried on the track day,, car drove home ok.. bit heavy but not unbearable...Griff could have had a second hand rack fitted before you purchased it, Any they could only find a P A S rack, could be fitted without pump... Cheer GOLDIE

[Barkychoc]

Does this help at all?

Thicker rack (bottom) is off a 96 Chim (now on my V8S ), thinner one (top) is off my 1992 V8S.

The manual rack shown here is based on a Vauxhall Chevette rack (oh yes it is) and chevette gaiters do fit.



If you're interested there's a pic below of a vauxhall chevette rack - the track rods are too short for TVR's - they are removed and replaced with ford ones apparently

Edited by Barkychoc on Thursday 23 April 21:59

[Chad speed]

Thanks Barkychoc, that does help a bit, I think? When I re-fit the new gaiters I will look further (wont be for a few weeks, off to Chatsworth this weekendy) and take some photo's. At this point in time I think I have a manual rack but with larger casing ends. Perhaps there were two types of early manual rack as suggested earlier. - Cheers for now
Chadspeed

[spend]

Most of the manual racks I've seen are an alloy casting with TVR cast in, nothing at all like the pictures Chris posted?

[Barkychoc]

spend said:

Most of the manual racks I've seen are an alloy casting with TVR cast in, nothing at all like the pictures Chris posted?

I guess its hardly surprising that they moved away from the chevette rack given its age and availability - and on the V8S the inner rack portion had to be extended if you look above and the griff has an even wider track than this.

Edited by Barkychoc on Friday 24th April 11:33