Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Home made steering gaiter

Hi Everyone
I am new to TM so forgive me if I have posted this in the wrong place. I have a 1999 4/4 which is fitted with a Jack Knight steering rack. Less than a year ago the Gaiter split so I ordered a new one it cost £127. I was not impressed when it arrived, the material thickness is about 2.5 mm at one end and O.85 at the other. I queried this with Morgans but they told me that this was about right, so I fitted it. Less than a year later it split so I decided to make my own. I fitted it to the car and so far it seems OK, but the gaiters I have used do get compressed a little more than they are designed for at full lock in either direction. So time will tell, but even if I only get a year they are a whole lot cheaper to replace than the ones from Morgan.

For future reference please check out this TM thread where Saab and Daewoo gaiters have been fitted to Jack Knight racks at a tiny fraction of the price you paid orginally.

Hi Richard
Thanks for your reply. I had already gone down the SAAB/DAEWOO path when the first one failed but could not find anyone that sold them. I had looked at the GoMoG article concerning this, again at the time of the first replacement, I also made sure that the gaiter aligned correctly with the rack internal spacers such that it was not pinched. The latest failure is in the same position as the original failure, see photo, the older gaiter is to the right. On both occasions it is the thick end of the gaiter that has failed. The Morgan one is also very tightly squeezed at full lock so I am guessing that the thick end of the gaiter isn't flexible enough..

By the way did I put this post in the correct place or should I have added it to the previous thread you pointed me to. If so how do I go about finding such a thread on TM

The built in TM search function is not helpful Zach but you can often get a link to an old TM topic using a Google search. This new thread is fine IMHO in the maintenance and service section although you may get links to earlier similar threads, such as mine

Hi Richard

Many thanks.

Wekk done Zac, did both gators split on the left side (as you are looking at the rack from the front) ?

What did you make the centre section out of?

D B

Hi DM
The original gaiter failed on the left hand side as viewed from the front of the car (drivers side UK) and it was the thick end of the gaiter. I fitted the replacement with the thick end on the right hand side (passenger side) and this one failed on the right hand side. So it would seem that the gaiter fails on whichever side the thick end in fitted.

The centre section of my version is made from a piece of plastic pipe. It is not a type of pipe used in home plumbing but is designed for swimming pools and ponds. It has a pressure rating of 9 bar and hence has a wall thickness of around 3mm. The piece of pipe has a section removed and replaced with a piece of 1mm thick aluminium, this forms the flat section that is needed to bolt to the rack, see photos. The bellows on each end are obtainable from Car Builder Solutions and have ends that can be trimmed to the required diameters. One end is trimmed to 40 mm I.D. which fits nicely onto the rack and the other end trimmed to 60 mm which fits nicely on the pipe. I could put together a document with some photos and dimension sketches if you are interested in having a go.

Zach

Looks a nicely crafted solution Zach, well done

Hi Jon

Thanks for your kind comment

I posted it in another thread recently, but why not again. There is a Google function that limits the full search potential of Google Search to a single website.
You write
site: and then the website you want to search
Then you leave a space and you enter the search word. For example:
site:talkmorgan.com steering
It finds all hits in contrast to the website's own search engine.