MOT Help!!!

[frostrobo]

Hi,

My car went for its MOT today and had a couple of problems. According to the tester the "passenger-side steering inner knuckle joint" is loose/allowing play in the steering. (I will double check exact working on MOT doc when I get home) The part he indicated to me was within the concertinered rubber boot which is at the end of the rack.

Does this sound like I just need to order a replacement part? Martin replaced the steering rack in my car with a low-milage one when I bought it, and there is no play on the driver side, so the issue is just at the passenger end.

Pic below shows the indicated part...

Simon_Steering.jpg (61.31 KiB) Viewed 4506 times

Sorry I'm not very technical with car part terminolgy yet...

Any help/advice greatly appreciated,

Thanks,
Simon

[Chriss]

If that part is loose then you need to have the rack looked at ASAP
But you need to pull back the bellow and tighten the nut that attaches the tie rod to the ram. I assume he is talking about this part



The picture shows what is inside the bellow, the ram is the toothed bar.If I was you I would have the rack re built for piece of mind. Sure we could arrange to get the rack off

If you ram / pinion are in good condition, which they should be, I can have your racked re furbished for £35 + delivery & VAT.

[A Van]

Hi Simon

Ok its not too disastrous!, getting a rack refurbed for £35 + vat is an absolute bargain.

Do you have a local mechanic you use, or would you be doing the work yourself?, or do you need us to help?..we have a small army of volunteers here!

I think we might have a new rack floating around somewhere, admittedly that will cost more money.

Al

[hana 5284]

just a idea but darren c has borrowed my new rack but he may have his old rack kicking about, i know he replaced it with a new one but we all know how darren is with his cars it might have been a bit dirty or something and is perfectley ok . just my thought thats all
cheers tys

[frostrobo]

Thank you all so much for the offers of help

I am not confident enough to try to fix something like that at all but I would appriecate someone who knows what they are doing to look at the car. And has a better collection of tools So yes, if anyone local has a couple of free hours and wouldnt mind helping out... I'm at Sutton, Ely

Chriss -That sounds like it could be the problem. That picture is very helpful and I can understand what the problem could be! Otherwise refurbishing the rack is the next option and a no-brainer at £35+vat, again, if anyone would be kind enough to help out..?

Many thanks!

Simon

[hana 5284]

good news simon i live quite close to you
bad news simon i know bugger all about cars
i will come and watch though if you want
or maybe book in at arrans mini meet maybe sometime later in the year im sure someone would help

[arranj]

It sounds to me like Chris is saying that maybe all you need to do is tighten up that nut to get it through its MOT? Is that correct?

[frostrobo]

Yep I hope so. I'm going to have a look either tomorrow evening or over the weekend but I am hoping that the nut is the problem. The rack in the car has only had about 14k miles on it, so I would hope its not that worn yet. I'm just not too confident yet about jacking the car up and and poking around the oily bits! I will see how it goes!

Yes, we do need to do a mini-meet sometime soon!


Simon

[Dan 6511]

Simon-Tec

[Chriss]

It sounds to me like Chris is saying that maybe all you need to do is tighten up that nut to get it through its MOT? Is that correct?

In theory yes, but without seeing the car hard to be sure, it could easily be a track rod end too. Also 14k on a rack does not mean its OK, still coming on for 30 years and depends on how it was stored etc

You would not even need to crack the tie rod, just cut the clips holding on the bellow and slide it off along the tie rod, the nut is round but has cut outs for a spanner. Tighten the right amount,not too tight! then re grease and put the bellow back with cable ties

I am busy until next week but if you still need a hand on I should be able to pop over..have a mini tec maybe weekend after next
anyone else up for that