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My car passed its MOT today[:)]

One of the rear brake cylinders was leaking which I knew about, so asked the garage to fit new brake cylinders, and that's all that was required. Got one advisory - that there is slight play on the steering rack. I'll try pumping some grease in but it should be fine for another year at least.

Graham



1982 TR7 dhc Pharoah Gold

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Graham Robertson</i>

My car passed its MOT today[:)]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Well done. Mine passed last week - well it failed on a faulty washer (which was working) and a duff fog lamp switch (which sort of worked if you wiggled it). Took the car back home and screwed up the washer to get a good earth and replaced the switch with one I had lying around - 60 mins. after leaving as a fail, I was leaving with a pass. Had an oil leak advisory - a few drops of oil dripped on the tester's head ....

Graham, why don't you adjust the play out of your steering rack? It is a pretty simple job.

Just undo the large nut in the front of the thing, the one the grease nipple goes in.

Take it out carefully, as there are shims under it & a spring loaded dampener pad in it. The shims are the adjustment. Removing them puts more pressure on the pad, reducing the clearance between the pinion & the rack.

They are very effective, I have never had to take out more than 5 thou of shims, & in fact I have never been able to take out more than 5 thou, without the rack binding on full lock.

Do test the thing on full lock each way, as there is little wear out at the extremities of the rack. The one time I did try removing a 10 thou shim, the rack almost jammed on full lock.

Shouldn't take you more than an hour all up, & makes a nice difference to the precision of the steering.

Hasbeen

Thanks for the advice Hasbeen.

To be honest I have not noticed any play in the steering despite the MOT tester's comment, however the steering was stiff.

I ordered a grease nipple going by the size recommended on another thread but as it turns out it is the wrong size. Never mind, I just slackened and removed the bolt and injected some Castrol LM grease with a normal small syringe. It took nearly two syringes before the grease was squeezing back out. I then put the bolt back, and went for a short drive using the steering 'lock to lock' a few times, then topped up with another half syringe of grease. It's perhaps my imagination but the steering seems to be a lot easier!

Graham



1982 TR7 dhc Pharoah Gold

Measure the thread of the bolt to get the right nipple. I've just done mine a few weeks ago and left the nipple in there and covered with a rubber cover as I figure the only reason they didn't at the facttory was to save 4 pence. As I remember the thread was NPT , possibly 24T but but get your tap and die set out and check first. I keep forgetting to do the couple pumps at either extreme but steering seems lighter than ever.

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