Steering Rack Mount Repair - How to!

Got vague steering???

My cabrio failed its MOT this year on a common fault… the lovely steering rack mount fracture. I've seen posts here before on the problem and seen a cabby at my local garage having the mount fixed too so thought I'd do a how to on repairing it. It needs doing properly, i.e. weld all the fracture and not just in one place as it will just break again. It's a very high stress point. My MOT tester offered to run a quick bead of weld down in the one easily accessible place but I turned him down on the offer and explained why.

I'm not sure if this is more common on cabbys due to the fact the're 14% heavier but wide tyres are going to make more stress here too. Failing top mount bearings will also add to stress. Basically the more effort needed to turn the steering wheel when parking etc the more stress this joint and the rest of the steering will be taking.

The exhaust down pipe needs removing for access, I removed the entire exhaust and having the special tool for removing the C clips that hold the down pipe to the manifold helps a lot!
I also unbolted the steering rack U clamp and moved the rubber away for access and to stop the rubber melting.

As you can see the mounting bracket was fractured all the way round. The spot welds holding the bracket to the bulkhead hadn't failed.




Clean away the paint around the fracture on the bracket, use a welding clamp to make sure the bracket is tight into its original position and weld it all up properly making sure the welds are as  strong as you can:



I gave the welds a good lick of epoxy mastic after.

It definately improved the handling. The whole steering rack had been able to move from side to side before. The steering wheel would never be in the same position when driving in a straight line after taking a corner!

Cheers,

Ross

Thanks guys this info defo helps!!