Kurtis,
I don't know if others had such a difficult time installing rack boots -
certainly my adding grease to rack bar prior to assembly made it extremely
trying once it spread everywhere - even with the entire assembly on the work
bench. You might be able to do your's in position - dry or with very minimum
of grease!. If not - yank it out - there is only the two rack mounts, the
u-joint, a ground wire attached to grease nut at pinion, and the rod ends to
remove. (remember the rubber rack mounts on reasembly need to be forced hard
toward the outsides of the car as you tighten brackets or you'll have play at
the mounts.
I am not sure of how the body/frame obstacles would impact removal - my car
is totally stripped.
If you think the ball joints are too sloppy repairs off the car the best way
- but now, if not already, we're getting into heavier 'shipwrights desease'!
(getting involved in taking more and more and more apart - like I did until
every single bolt is off the entire car!). Perhaps you're well aware of this
syndrome already! It's helpfull to have another 'daily driver'.
Don't know about your's but my rack had close to 200,000 miles of use - the
rack, pinion gear, tube bushing, ball joints all needed to be replaced/or
restored (new pinion gear extremely rare but got lucky and found NOS TR6
pinion that fits the later TR4 racks). The rack and pinion teeth usually wear
in the straight ahead driving position. You may notice some slop at the
steering wheel when positioned straight ahead and tighter gear mesh as you
turn out either way. I ended up buying a good toothed used rack bar for $85,
then saved $15 by rotating the inner 'tube-end bushing' to access some
un-worn friction area, I added the TR4A nylon anti-rattle button (the higher
roll-center of TR4As created different geometry of lower wishbone arms
resulting in some rack rattling and this may not be necessary for a TR4 but I
did it anyway), I bought the TR6 pinion for $35 from Moss UK (before they
merged with Moss USA). I was able to restore the ball joints - mostly by
taking out shims from their packing. I had to rework the ball on one side to
get it round again (worn flat spots were due to dirt penetration).
...thought maybe next time I would be better off just exchanging for a TRF
rebuilt rack for $225 although they don't give you the ball joints and most
likely not a new pinion gear/rack - I don't know how they can fix those worn
teeth besides just cranking down on the spring loaded rack bar tensioner.
Well there you have it - hopes this helps!
Carl
'63 TR4 since '74 CT 22326L-O
>>Until you mentioned the problems you had getting the rack boots on, I hadn't
really given the difficulty of the task that much thought. I've taken the
old boots off (both worn torn in a couple of places, but there was still
plenty of grease around the ball joint connections, and noticeable play in
the connections). It looks like the driver's side boot is going to be the
bear.
Kurtis J.
Russellville, Arkansas
1963 TR4<<
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