gareth29 said:

Just had bit of battle to remove the rack. Couldn&apos;t find anything online to help really so here goes for the benefit of anyone else attempting this. I&apos;ve only got a couple of pics.<br>
Why remove it?<br>
There has been a loud knocking from the nsf which has gradually got worse until it felt like something was going to fall off or fail. <br>
Getting hold of the track rod and moving it (there shouldn&apos;t be any movement, so the bush is worn) with the joint boot cover removed, the rack could be seen moving against the plastic bushing and there was the knock, albeit a lot quieter.<br>
Its possible to buy bushes for some racks, but not this one. I thought about turning one out of nylon, but with corona travel restrictions, I cant get to my dads lathe! So I bought a used low mileage one online.<br>
I had the nsf strut removed for replacement and this makes access a bit easier.<br>
To make sure I could replace the rack and and maintain the original alignment, I set about marking and measuring......<br>
I put some masking tape on the top of the steering wheel and the column cover and drew a line across them as a reference and at the steering column where it clamps to the rack (next to the clutch pedal), I painted some tippex over the splined shaft coming up from the rack and over the clamp. Once dried, I marked a line in pen over the shaft and clamp.<br>
On the nearside of the rack I put some tape around the rack to mark its position.<br>
I now had a reference mark for everything so that it would go back together exactly the same way.<br>
I then;<br>
-undid the 17mm bolt clamping the column to the splined shaft from the rack and separated them.<br>
-undid the nuts on the track rod end ball joints and split them.<br>
- undid the bolts thru the subframe into the rack, 1no. 18mm per end.<br>
- then I separated the exhaust under the sump to give more access<br>
- and undid the rearward engine mounting so that I could move the motor and box forward to allow the rack to come out.<br>
- then came about 30 min of struggling. <br>
- I realised it wouldnt come out of either side, so moving it to the ns, I could then direct the os end down thru the hole in the middle of the subframe.<br>
- and that was it (not looking forward to putting the new (used) one back in!<br>
- I then measured from the machined outer edge of the rack on the ns to my tape. It was 76mm (see pic).<br>
- it was 13.5mm (both sides) from the inside of the track rod ends to innermost thread.<br>
Maybe I will write something on the reinstallation process.<br>
Hope this is useful to someone.[/QUOT

Hi Gareth 29, great post, just have a few questions about replacing the steering rack. Your help would be great. When you unbolted the steering knuckle, did you remove the plastic covering and unbolt anything from there?
Did splitting the exhaust help if you ended up taking out through the subframe gap?
When you removed the gearbox mount did you have to support it in anyway?
Is it possible just undo most of the subframe bolts and pull the rack out that way?

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