How hard can it be. It's off the car and is covered in oil and grime. I went to town on cleaning it and now it is looking good. So I thought why not take the preload adjuster part off ( seized anyway ) free it all, bit of paint and regrease places.. Then put it back together.... 4hrs of my life given away tonight that I will never get back. Ever, sodding thing So, 1. See picture below to help understand. The preload bit fits with 2 bolts onto a spring, onto a 5mm ish shim, onto a arched cut out chunk of metal that pushes against the rack. That's how I think it came apart. I have backed the adjusting bolt off and it is still tooo tight on the rack making it all very stiff. Oo errr Have I imagined this is the sequence of parts or found something that doesn't belong here. And an o ring fits against the cover Without the shim the bolt isn't long enough to do anything but the spring compression is better, but not adjustable... 2. The top piece is also being a pain in the ass. I fitted the rubber seal into the metal plate that has a slight recess on one side (50 attempts) and bolted it down and that was too tight to turn the rack. It only works if the seal is on top pushed up to the metal plate. Then a big lump of metal fits on top and this bolts it all down. I did wonder if the chunk of metal would fit in the housing to create a space but I cant get it to fit. I must have alzheimer's as I only took the sod apart yesterday. See pic below B4 I
Further on with this I think. I only managed to find a couple of threads regarding manual racks to help me, so... The side preload adjuster part I have put back together. There is resistance with it fitted in turning the rack and when increased it stops it from moving, so I have backed this off. Maybe this is how it was and I just thought it moved easier before!! One of the threads mentioned this being put back in a different order to what I believe mine came out as. I did try there set up but I couldn't get it back together and it does look like the spring fits against the outer plate. If I am wrong please tell me. I fitted the top part and used some gasket sealant as there was no previous gasket. I also drilled a hole in the top cover incase of moisture build up ever!! And the rubber washer is just pushed onto the bottom of the shaft. Not the best pictures but hopefully it may help someone another day.
It looks good to me, I can't see how else it can work, unless there's a different arc on the piece with the notch on it, and it's 180 degrees out?
Cheers Tristan. This simple little task was doing my head in as I could only see it fitting this way. The thread I had seen said the shim was up to the preload screw, then the spring into the bucket. I just could not get it to fit that way as the spring sits nicely onto the part sticking out of the preload plate.
