Steering Rack (brass) End Bushing

[Roady]

Hi everyone, has anyone replaced the brass bushings at each end (internally) from their steering rack?

If so, how did you get old ones out?

 

Cheers

Jason

[peter t]

Had mine replaced by a steering shop and it came back with more play than original. they had to turn up new ones to take all the play out.

 

[Roady]

Spoken to Stew Wilkins - suggests cutting them out (carefully).

Yes from what I understand all the new brass ones are oversized and you then need to bore/hone them to fit your rack.

[Roady]

Ok so far I’ve removed the brass bushes from the left side of 2 steering racks.

My advice thus far is try and see what type of brass bushes you have. One of these I presume had been replaced before and was one solid brass piece, used a hacksaw blade with tape on the end in the rack to prevent it cutting the metal frame, then just tapped it out by hand.

The other, and I think original actually has a split in it - I got this one out by hacksawing (as above) near the split, then used a punch to peel the bushing up at the split then just pulled it out. (Photo below)

Disregard the other cut I’ve made in it, I didn’t see the split in it at first so was doing things the hard way, as always haha.

 

Now some additional points here:

The bushing actually pushes up against a lip to add to the difficulty of this.

You can also use a cutting wheel (dremel - for example) what ever you use you will run the risk of cutting into the housing which holds the bushings.  There is a groove in the frame so if possible I’d try to cut the bushing somewhere here (I’ll try and get a photo but it will be a few days away as tools are down for now).  If you do nick/cut (providing not too deep) the housing I would be inclined to lightly sand away any rough edges and I think it should be ok.  It would be in the direction of movement of the rack, and also the rack itself shouldn’t actually touch that section because it is held between the bushes themselves.  Open to others ideas/opinions on this.

Try not to cut the housing though as it’s obviously not ideal.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Roady
Additional info

[aircobra]

who sells the actual bushings and do they all need reaming first?

 

[Roady]

SW Motorsports sells them - yes I would say all of them are made oversize as everyone’s steering rack will be slightly different diameters depending on wear, so they make it too small so you can make it specifically for your rack.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Roady