Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing 1999 Plus8 steering rack

Hi all.
My '99 Plus8 steering rack has quite suddenly developed some lost motion. With the car stationary there is about 1/4 inch free play at the steering wheel, and this play is definitely in the rack and not any of the UJ's. I believe the rack is a Jack Knight ? and is very simple. Like many, I can't fathom out how to post a photo, but the inner track rod ends meet about 1 inch apart on a plate in the middle of the rack. Either side of the plate are rubber bellows, and the outer ends of the rack have conical rubber covers, if that description makes sense ?
My question is equally simple, is there any adjustment possible within the rack it's self, and if not and I need a new one, from which donor vehicle did Morgan source it ?
Stay safe and cheers, John.

1999 Plus8

Here other TM have much more knowledge than me. But below is a link for a first reading. If I'm not mistaken, the steering isn't from a donor vehicle but was made for Morgan. This rack and pinion steering is actually not adjustable in the play but should always stay without play. If it is broken there are replacements from Quaife, which are used by Morgan since 2007.

https://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/steeringr&p.html

It was sourced from a Metro 6R4 Group B rally car....

What normally happens is that the nylon thrust pad that preloads the rack against the pinion, has swollen and stuck
I spin the pad up in the lathe and remove a few thou off of the diameter until it’s a nice sliding fit again and then reset the preload correctly

Simon, that really makes sense, what is the correct preload for a Quaife steering?

I do it by feel I’m afraid...

There are no specs available, and the units differ wildly from the factory

I adjusted my steering after I took everything apart. There was a thread of mine here because my first Ujoints after the steering wheel did not follow each other correctly. I also adjusted my rack and pinion steering by feel. I think I have a smaller problem. My steering was set much too tight. The screw had gone in at the stop. The spring so I think I was compressed too much during all the years. Now it seems that I have very little play to adjust because the spring has become so short and seems to be permanently compressed. It is ok now but I am sure that with a new spring which is wider I would have more subtle adjustment possibilities.

If the nylon thrust pad cannot move freely, no amount of adjustment will change anything

Both the JK and Quaife racks suffer from this problem

In my case the nylon thrust pad moves freely. Just the spring looks so short and seems to be compressed even without pressure on it.

Thank you all for the info, I forgot to mention that the problem is a bit intermittent which probably points to the nylon washer ? I'll investigate today.

Good news and bad. I managed to loosen and remove the large adjuster locking nut and tab washer without taking the rack off. I found that I could 'tighten' the adjuster in by 1/2 a turn and then IAW the GoMog article I backed it off 1/4 turn, refitted the tab washer, tightened the lock nut, and applied the tab washer. A 20 mile shopping trip revealed I have seemingly cured the lost motion, which is great. Unfortunately, in the course of examining the rack, I found the main boot split, so I'll be following Treesurveyor's thread on here and adapting a Saab boot which is on order.
On a bright note, taking the rack off to replace the boot will give me the opportunity to strip and check it, exam the Nylon washer and make a new one if required. What luck I've got a bit of time on my hands !

Stay safe, John.

1999 Plus8