Rack and pinion / steering clunk

OK gurus, your advice is needed!

The steering on my car is fine when on the ground. No sounds, no binding, no wobbles. A little heavy at slow speed, but I attribute that to the 14 inch steering wheel and the 185 tires. But.........

Put the car on jack stands and the steering binds and goes clunk every 1/4 to 1/2 turn or so. The universal joint is only a year old. Rack is lubed with grease and with no breaks in the boots.

Questions- Reshim the rack attachement per the Twist video? or internal problems?

Gerry where are you when I need you?

Thanks..........................

yes, re-shim...make sure the rack is not too tight. Also, it should have 90w gear oil and not grease...that could also be the cause of your wear. Grease won't work.

Agreed. The pinion gear is probably not perfectly aligned with the rack, or worse yet the pinion shaft could be bent. It would take a lot of force to do that however. Try shimming.

While I agree that oil works better than grease, there are several people who claim good results with grease. Personally I suspect that this is due to the high level of durability of MGB steering racks and not because the grease is actually the right thing. When I was a kid I ran mine dry with torn boots for several years and the rack today (with 300K+ miles on it) is still in great condition. It has run oil all its life, as specified by the factory. The problem with grease is that it gets pushed out of the way, and contaminants / shavings will not settle out but rather will remain in the grease, increasing wear.

I haven't seen the Twist video be it sounds like you need to add a shim, probably the thinnest one you have which should be about 2 or 3 thou in thickness. That should be enough to take the bind out of it. A very little too tight and they bind. Try that first Ralph.

Steve S Wrote: