Steering rack damper

[Mrbenn]

I'm sure I've seen somwhere that had an adjustable damper cover plate that pushed the damper onto the rack. But I can't find it now. Is it an easy conversion to do? Mine feels a bit loose but if I remove a shim it goes too tight.

[Mrbenn]

Although having said that since changing the tyres from 165/80 R14 to 185/70's the steering has gotten lighter. But that might have been something to do with the tyres that were on, and fitted by a P/O, when I got the car were Van tyres.

[Ian F]

You need shims of varying thickness, easy to make if you buy some shim steel.

Ian F

[Ian F]

An afterthought: Steering boxes typically have an adjuster bolt and locknut to adjust the slack in the box, but I think it's typically shims in a steering rack.

Ian F

[Michael Barclay]

Hi
The MGB steering box is shimmed. Shims are readily available from all the major parts suppliers.
To Adjust the rack. With the plunger fitted without the spring or shims, tighten the cover down until it just possible to rotate the pinion shaft by pulling the rack through the the housing. With a feeler gauge measure the clearance between the cover and its seating on the rack. Add an additional clearance of 0.0005 to 0.003 to arrive at the correct clearance for the standard shims available.
Hope this helps.
mike

[Mrbenn]

There is just the one shim under the cover plate. But it's about 1mm (0.04) thick. I removed that and the steering was pretty much locked. I removed the paper gasket which I added when I had a leak (that turns out to be the seal to the column - Next job) which tightened it up a bit more. So I'm thinkin if I buy 4 or 5 of the 0.005 shims that should work. I don't have any spares lying around unfortunately so time to go shopping.