Steering rack help please – calling Ireland!

[Luckyone]

I had leaking seal on the input shaft & as Ireland said I got it out by removing the top-section off the main part of the rack. Although I didn’t take it all the way off & now it seems stuck, can I just give it a good tug or is there anything in there I may break?

There is noting left in the chassis now except the steering rack, all the other ends of the pipes connecting to the rack have been disconnected, but they are all still connected to the rack. I was hoping to be lazy & leave them all connected to the top section, but still be able to pull it off. Is there any kind of valve that sticks in to the shaft that may be catching?

I could of course try taking the pipes off, but I’m stuck in work all weekend, with a PC & no Cerb...

[Ireland]

It's probably about 2 years since I changed those seals but I do remember that it came apart relatively easily.

IIRC it's just a case of a small bit of a wiggle / twist and it comes out.

I have my old rack out of the car waiting to be stripped (and photographed) over the next few months but I'll see if I can open the bit that's giving you grief later on tonight.

If I can get to do that I'll take pics and post them here.

[Luckyone]

Ireland said:

It's probably about 2 years since I changed those seals but I do remember that it came apart relatively easily.

IIRC it's just a case of a small bit of a wiggle / twist and it comes out.

I have my old rack out of the car waiting to be stripped (and photographed) over the next few months but I'll see if I can open the bit that's giving you grief later on tonight.

If I can get to do that I'll take pics and post them here.

Thanks very much that would be great. I was wiggling a bit, may be I just need to wiggle a bit more...

[Ireland]

This is what it looks like once you split it ....







I took out the 3 allen-head bolts and had to pull the outer part quiet hard to get it off the rack.

I had to wiggle the centre shaft to get the outer part back on.

It'll probably be obvious to you once you get stuck into it but you'll have to remove a circlip to get the upper seal out.

Oh, and the little circular silver thing in the pics is one of the springs out of one of the oil seals which popped out when I took it apart.

Hopefully this will be of some help to you.

Have fun .....

[Luckyone]

Opps almost missed this things can get lost very quickly on these pages!

That is just what I wanted to see, thanks very much for going to the trouble of taking pics

I guess it's the inner seal with that spring ring thingy that is making it hard to get off, I'll give it a good tug now with out the fear of breaking anything

The parts guy said it's quite common for the outer seal to go hard & leak, but it looks like I'd best get a new inner too if it gets damaged taking it apart.

Edited by Luckyone on Sunday 3rd October 15:38

[Ireland]

Change both.

I think the sizes are in the equivalent parts stickie.

[Luckyone]

Opps, think I may have tugged a little too much!



That inner seal got right caught up, I had to use a pulley puller to get the shaft out & the little spring from the seal was mangled when it came out

I could just stick the pinion shaft back in with the new seals on, but now it's come out the temptation to strip the whole rack is high. Trouble is it was working fine & the seals in the rack weren't leaking so I’m not sure.



If stripping & cleaning up, besides breaking anything else I can't see yet, I'd be a little worried about the needle roller bearing at the end of the pinion shaft. In that cleaning it up totally may not be possible with such tight access so I may just introduce more muck & end up drastically reducing its life span...

Any opinions?

Edited by Luckyone on Tuesday 5th October 10:38

[Ireland]

Hmmmm .....

You've gone a bit further than I have all right.

I don't think I'll get a chance over the next few evenings to take mine apart to that extent to "see what happens next".

Have any of the rest of you stripped a Cerb rack to, or indeed beyond, this point?

What happens next ..... ?????

[julian64]

In your top pic ireland the shaft comes all the way out.

[Ireland]

julian64 said:

In your top pic ireland the shaft comes all the way out.

In the first pic the outer part came away but the shaft itself stayed in place .....



but



From the pics above it looks like the shaft just pulled out so it probably will just push back in again.

Edited by Ireland on Tuesday 5th October 18:29

[Luckyone]

Ireland said:

From the pics above it looks like the shaft just pulled out so it probably will just push back in again.

Yes it did just pull out, the rear seal got so caught up it pulled the shaft with the outer. It has pushed back in ok too now, I have reassembled it for the time being, just with out the seals. I thought it was the best plan to keep the muck out & stop me loosing any bits while I get on with referbing the chassis. It's going to be quite some time till I need to reinstall it, so if you are going to strip your spare one down in the next month or two I'd be very pleased if let me know what happens!
One thing I did notice was power steering fluid had leaked into those ball bearings you can see, at least I assume that's what it was, it was much thinner than grease I'd expect to find. So at the very least they could do with a clean up & re-grease.

[Luckyone]

Ireland said:

From the pics above it looks like the shaft just pulled out so it probably will just push back in again.

Yes it did just pull out, the rear seal got so caught up it pulled the shaft with the outer. It has pushed back in ok too now, I have reassembled it for the time being, just with out the seals. I thought it was the best plan to keep the muck out & stop me loosing any bits while I get on with referbing the chassis. It's going to be quite some time till I need to reinstall it, so if you are going to strip your spare one down in the next month or two I'd be very pleased if let me know what happens!
One thing I did notice was power steering fluid had leaked into those ball bearings you can see, at least I assume that's what it was, it was much thinner than grease I'd expect to find. So at the very least they could do with a clean up & re-grease.

[Ireland]

My plan is to take lots of pictures as I take it apart and post it as a sort of "exploded view" of the rack for others to use.

[julian64]

Nah keep going. The bit that actually explains how it works is under all that. Its a small thin twisting shaft that opens a hole up depending on which way you twist it.