Hi everyone,

I've been noticing the last few times I've driven my mini that the steering has been feeling (prepare yourselves for an American-ism) 'wandery' - especially if I go from full throttle to no throttle (it feels like the steering isn't really connected for a second and it just pulls / left and right really quickly).

I've checked tie rods, ball joints, steering arms, rack end etc and basically everything is pretty new from when I converted over to discs a while back (timewise a couple of years, distance wise 5,000 miles???). The only thing I haven't touched on the car is the rack itself. I'm working myself up to remove it.

Essentially there is a bit of a click/thunk sound (not very loud) when moving the wheel back and forward when stopped and I can also feel a little vibration when the click/thunk sound occurs through the floor especially around the u-bolts that hold the rack in place (more so on the passenger side than the drivers side). I have had my ex-mechanic father in law give me a hand to check the rack ends and tie rod ends and he can't feel any excess play in them. The sound is present in the rack wobbling the wheel side to side when not moving so definitely steering related.

What I would like to know is, how to procrastinate more about not removing the rack and also, where is the best place to buy bits to overhaul the rack? Not interested in cheap parts - In the last 20ish years I've been involved with this car I can't remember the steering rack ever getting rebuilt so it would be great to only touch it in another 20+ years. I should have a Cam Gear rack in the car and I'd like to keep it that way. Not looking to buy a complete replacement rack as I have more tools/machinery than the average mechanic and would rather recondition it - I own a lathe and can turn up the bush out of bronze / delrin etc if replacement parts won't last.

Please let me know your thoughts / where is the best place to buy QUALITY steering rack parts now.

Thanks, Nick

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

i know im probably stating the obvious
but have you checked the u bolts themselves,as what your describing is the classic symptom of loose u bolts, have seen and felt what your talking about and nearly every time its been loose bolts
cheers josh

Hey Josh, I have checked the bolts. They are very tight - I'm almost at the point now where I'll just about be using the old mechanics trick of doing it up until it strips and back it off 1/2 a turn.

I wish the problem was that easy

Btw, to avoid confusion for anyone reading this, the sound / clunk / thunk etc is still there.

Thanks for the suggestion mate.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

I have just replaced the rack on mine with a lightly used 'new' rack, with the intention of rebuilding the original to swap back later when the new one prematurely wears out, if not before. I believe the Aussie racks are sought after overseas as they are based on the heavier Morris 1100 rack or similar.

Anyway,what I was going to say was that my original rack I removed had quite a bit of movement in the bush on the left hand end. While it is still in the car, if you grip the tie rod in near the rack boot you should be able to move it up and down to feel the play in the bush. It was very obvious in my rack.

Cheers, Tim.

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Don't listen to what I am saying... just understand what I mean.

I know the UK ones aren't easily rebuilt but for $100 plus post, why would you.

Hi Tim, thanks for that. It looks like mine isn't too bad as I can only just make out that it is moving at the rack end. If I turn the wheel to right hand lock it feels pretty tight. It seems to be most prevalent in the straight ahead position (makes sense as the car would be doing slight corrections on the road most of the time).

I definitely want to fix this rack rather than installing a Pommy replacement rack.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

I'd rather repair the current rack (if it is a cam gears) than install one of those inferior UK ones. It's the same reason I keep the Goss mechanical fuel pump - I know I can get replacement pumps easily but I can rebuild the Goss pump to good as new with a kit.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

I know for the Oz made AYA6001 rack, Karcraft carries the rack bush (Nolathane one now), rack boots, wave washers (always replace), oil seals, and the tierod inner joint lock nuts.
Minikingdomonline carries the preload shims, also is the only place I know of that has pinion bearings. Originals are NLA anywhere, but John Smidt has NOS Marina ones with CNC machined adaptors to fit the Mini rack. He also carries the same stuff Karcraft does. In addition he has NOS pinion gears.
Any other rack parts are NLA new. Need to pick and choose good s/h bits.

If you have any queries PM me, I have rebuilt lots of these racks.

Note- UK racks have a smaller diameter rack bar inside, the parts for Oz racks DO NOT fit them.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Thanks Kev. I will see how I go. I have had John recommended in PM for all the bits and bobs that I should need (I'm hoping it will be pretty standard consumables like the rack bush & wave washers and some seals. Hopefully I won't be needing pinion gears etc

I've been fighting bolts and stuff all afternoon and am waiting for some Inox to soak into the subframe tower bolts (as much as I can squirt around). Apart from that the exhaust / carbies are off, engine steady undone, remote shift unbolted at the back near the gear stick and the rear subframe bolts that go into the floor have been removed. Not too much more to go now as it should literally just be remove the subframe tower bolts through the bulkhead and the engine/subframe should drop.........

I'll update this as I go but I'm hoping that tomorrow morning early I can get the rack out of the car and start disassembly to determine what I need (hopefully not too much).

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

getting the rack out is my all time least fun job on a mini.... the rebuild takes 5 minutes.....

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

getting back to the symptoms "wandery" - is there any possibility wheel castor/camber toe could contribute...... no idea really except that it would seem the steering components are fine.

Reason i am saying, i had an old motorbike that used to shake its head on de-throttle due to the castor fork angle and tyre combo ???? just a thought
the other thing that comes to mind is stressed /cracked subframe, so whole frame expands and contracts on heavy acceleration deceleration ?? again more to put out there to get shot down in flames, but thinking a bit laterally

For the last wheel alignment specs from around 2000 miles ago:
front toe LH -0.1mm, RH -0.3mm (total toe out 0.4mm)
Front camber LH -0.51°; RH -0.50°
Caster LH 3.5° RH 3.51°

Rear toe LH 0.5mm RH 0.3mm (total 0.8mm toe in)
Camber LH -0.66° RH -0.56°.

Those are the actuals from my last wheel alignment. It could probably use some more toe out on the front and more toe in on the rear. I wouldn't have thought that would make it feel so wandery as it feel like it has gotten worse in the last month or two and my wheel alignment was done 7/11/2012.

What is everyone's thoughts on the wheel alignment specs?

I'm so close to getting the rack out that I will be rebuilding it no matter what as it is way too much of a PITA but am happy to get another wheel alignment after this is all done (especially as the tie rod ends will be coming off).

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

Rack comes out easy, even on a hydro car.
It is a little more fun to refit. Squeeze the U-bolts to fit in the floor holes first.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Once I got the tower bolts out of the subframe and dropped it down a little it wasn't too bad to get out of there once I got the U bolts out.

I've just had a search for some of your old posts on what gear oil and stuff is needed so I can tear down and make a list myself. I will need to buy some new subframe to floor bolts as I destroyed mine trying to get them out (they seemed to have shorter heads on them than a regular bolt??)




^The original rack for my car.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

With rack centred I fit the LH boot, stand rack vertical with that end down, and almost fill with 90/140 LSX gear oil or equivalent. It takes 200mL max, but 150 is plenty. It takes a while to fill in cold weather. Then fit the RH boot.
I noticed Karcraft's boots are now marked `made in EEC', they are not as thin as some...

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.