MOT fail on steering rack mount

Failed the MOT last week with a strange fault - has anyone else seen this?  The failure was that the steering rack mounting bracket had cracked on the drivers' side.  The fault was only visible when the steering wheel was turned, when the weight of the car was on the front wheels.  My car is a 1988 cabrio.  My other cabrio had  the same fault too, that was a 1986 model.  Is this a common fault, or is my garage very good at finding an obscure fault?
Its welded up now but I had to take the rollbar off, the downpipe off (and make a tool for those spring clips to do it), the engine mount off and pull the rack back to get at it.  Someone had tried to weld it before, but it had broken again.
I'm back on the road now, but I'll try to get the next MOT in August or September, when its not so cold under a car!
Big

It can be common yes, but more so on cars that have been lowered for some reason... Must put more stress on the mounts?!?

Mine failed its MOT on exactly the same thing and yes my cars is lowered :dontknow:

Every time I take my Mk1, the examiner tells me that "those rack mounts aren't going to last long - look at the angle on those steering arms!"…

Not cracked yet, so no fails in that dept.!

can someone show a pics of the mounts ? as im too lazy/ill to go outside in the cold and look at mine……  

Neither of mine were lowered.  The first one had had a hard life though, three out of four coil springs were broken!  I'll try to get a picture of the mount on the old car so you can see where the fault occurs.  The main thing is, you can't see the fault unless the steering wheel is turned with the car stood on its front wheels - You might se it if the car was on ramps, but you won't see it if its on stands.  Big

Is it the area on the bulkhead itself with the threaded studs, or the u-shape brackets themselves?

Big - that would be ideal with a picture.

Hi mk1_driver,

Its the bracket that carries the threaded studs, and the plate next to it.  As you look from the front of the car, there is the bracket with the threaded studs near the steering box input shaft, and a plate to the left of it that is folded down beside the stud bracket.  It appears that the weld between them - I guess it was spot welded originally - breaks, and when the wheel is turned as described before, the gap between the two increases.  When I welded it I also welded the right hand flap of the bracket where it goes onto the bulkhead, and the flap at the left side where it runs near the rear engine mount studs.  

Fixing this has also reduced the suspension knocks I get on uneven roads.  (Changing the track rods & ends also helped.)

Big

I've got some pics.  I WOULD post them if only I could figure out how to?  Can anyone tell me?  
Big

Be very interested to see pics - have a look at chrisb's post….here shoud tell you all you need to know.

Cheers

Sooo… Do I need to upload the pictures to somewhere else on this site, or do I just insert it into the text box I'm currently typing into?  Its probably very easy, but I don't know the exact procedure (Newbie = dense).    :?
The pics are not that good since the camera wouldn't focus in the dark, but they should show you where to look.

Big

You need to upload your photos to somewhere like www.photobucket.com. Each uploaded photo is given a URL, which you insert into your text of your post of this site surrounded by…  so it will look like this…

Cheers

Here it is, finally…

Lets see if that works.

The weld is  between the plates on the left of the clamp strip.

Got to go, end of lunch.  Big