MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Frogeye steering rack

My apologies if this subject has been covered before but…
I have a 948 RHD frogeye and have been driving it fairly uneventfully for a couple of years! I have managed to deal with all the problems that have arisen, such as a blown cylinder head gasket, broken gearbox, and even front wheel bearing play, and generally the car is now running reliably and well.
However this year, after it passed the MOT, the tester commented that the steering rack was worn and ideally should be reconditioned or replaced. Although it has taken a while, I have now obtained a reconditioned rack, and I am halfway through the process of fitting it.
It really should be a fairly easy and quick job, but as ever I have hit a couple of problems.
Firstly, I don’t own an oil gun and as an oap, can’t really justify buying one for a ‘one off’ job. My first question is, how do you get 0.28 l of 90 oil into the rack? I’ve tried slipping the inner edge of the offside boot from the rack body, and pouring oil directly into the rack. Although a little oil has gone in, this really isn’t working.
I wondered if I should just fill the rubber boots either side of the rack with oil, but surely this isn’t a solution because the oil would then be in the wrong place. I can’t see how the oil would work it’s way from the boots into the rack especially on the nearside?
On the other hand, does it really matter as long as there is plenty of oil in the boots?

The second issue relates to the spacer that sits behind either the left or right steering rack carrier where the carriers are bolted to the front cross member. The purpose of this spacer is presumably to ensure correct alignment between the rack and steering column.
I haven’t been able to find mention of this spacer in any workshop manual, which is bizarre as I would have thought it was really important to get the alignment right.
In my frog, the spacer is currently located behind the offside carrier, but I think this might be incorrect? I think this issue has been discussed before, and the Moss catalogue seems to suggest that it should be behind the nearside carrier (although I don’t think it states whether this is for a lhd or rhd vehicle??)
Any advice on this would be helpful. Thanks
Phil
P J Dent

Phil,

I use grease ( www.tsl-allstar.nl/) with a grease gun for already 100.000 km. No problems so far. I can highly recommend that grease. I also use it for the front suspension which I never had to rebuild.

I do have a LHD car. Mine is on the steering wheel side. Lining up the steering column is a pain in the ass. I did it in this way:
Lift the front on uprights.
Take the radiator off.
Unbolt the brackets from the car but leave them on the steering rack.
Bolt the steering column to the bracket, with a high graded bolt, and in a straight line. Control that by turning the steering wheel and see that the rack does not move on the frame of the car.
Measure the gap between rack and frame.
Make a spacer or spacers that just fits the gap.
Unbolt the brackets from the rack.
Bolt the brackets to the frame with the spacer in situ.
Bolt the rack to the brackets. I use an old inner tube as packing.
Control if the steering wheel turns even and light.
Be careful while bolting the brackets. I once broke one...They were hard to find and expensive.
Good luck.

Flip


Flip Brühl

Phil,
Steering rack spacer: If you think about it you will see that the steering column is not paralel to the centre line of the car; it points outwards towards the drivers chest. Logically therefore, the spacer would be to slant the steering rack so as to achieve this with the pinion pointing away from being parallel to the car centre line. So on the right on a RHD car, and on the left on a LHD car.

But there is also likely to be variation in the accuracy of the car frame so the spacers may need to compensate for that too.

I did mine more or less as Flip describes. With the front wheels off the ground I started with the rack bolted tight in the clamps (with rubber packing, but don't overtighten). The clamps were bolted loosely to the cross member using just the horizontal bolts on each side, but left slack. Then spin the steering wheel from lock to lock a few times. The rack will take up a natural position and you can measure and compare the space behind each clamp. Do this a few times, changing the last direction of rotation of the steering. If shims are needed, then the gap on one side will be consistently greater and this is where the shim goes.

As for oil, I squirted this into the bellows each side using one of those plastic filler tubes that come with 1/2 litre bottles of gearbox oil. I think putting it in the bellows is OK as when you turn the steering from lock to lock the bellows act as a pump and force the oil into the ends of the rack. I don't think this "bellows pump action" would work as well with grease, which needs to be pumped direct into the rack itself via the grease nipple.
Guy W

Many thanks Flip and Guy for your advice. It is so helpful to know how others have dealt with issues that arise.
Well the recon steering rack is in, and what a difference from the one I took out. It is very smooth and no play at all. Wonderful!
I did as suggested, checking the requirement and position of the spacer, and found that the current position on the steering column side is correct for my frog. Not surprising really I suppose, as it worked fine that way with the old rack.
I’m still not convinced that I have oiled the recon rack properly. My guess is that about half the oil is in the rack, and the rest is in the bellows. The recon rack did not come with an oil nipple, but only a blanking off bolt. So once unscrewed I managed to get some oil in that way. It wasn’t easy though as it really needs some pressure behind it. I then transferred the nipple from the old rack to the new rack so that I can oil it in the future if I can find a gun!
Thanks again, and it’s good to be back on the road.
Phil
P J Dent

The factory position for the spacer is on the pass. side.
J Bubela

Come to think of it, the pinion is designed into the rack casing so that it points slightly outwards. This is because the centre of the steering wheel is further from the centre line of the car than is the pinion from the centre of the rack. But as the rack used was designed for a Morris Minor (l think) the designed offset is too wide for the narrower Sprite which also has a longer steering column.

So the 'fix' was to add a shim. At least l think that is the proper explanation. This would explain why the shim goes on the passenger side, whether the car is LHD or RHD. It skews the rack which brings the pinion round be a degree or so, to point directly at the centre of the steering wheel.
Guy W

Well I don't know what to make of that!!
The shim was definitely on the steering wheel side (ie drivers, or offside) on my rhd frog, and when I fitted the new rack, the pinion aligned absolutely perfectly with the steering column.
If you are correct in saying the shim should be on the passenger side Guy and J Bubela, I don't like to think or worry why my frog should be different. Maybe the frame is twisted or something?
In my case I think I shall just leave it, as the steering column and pinion align so perfectly when the shim is on the steering column side.
Note though that Flip says it is on the steering wheel side on his lhd car!
By the way, I still haven't found any reference to the existence, or placing of shims in any of the workshop manuals I own. That is a bit odd in itself isn't it?
To end I would say that driving the car has been transformed with the recon unit. I wasn't expecting that, and didn't realise the old rack was so shot.
Thanks to all for your comments
Phil
P J Dent

This thread was discussed between 31/07/2015 and 04/08/2015

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.