If you have added spacers to your steering rack....................

[chrisp]

I decided to go in and lube the upper and lower u-joints in my steering column. I had a thump and point of resistence once every revolution of the steering wheel. With all of the good advice that I have gathered off this board I went in to lube the u joints. Although my u-joints did need lube, it was not what was causing the problem. It seems that when the steering rack was spaced with the bump steer spacers it pushed the steering rack up which is normal. This in turn pushes the lower steering column up. The second steering column (the one that's at an angle and is between the two sets of u-joints) was out of line. The steering column was actually rubbing against the sheetmetal of the car because it had been displaced by the lifting of the steering rack. I was able to loosen the lowest u-joint and tap the clamp further down the splines on the lower steering column. All is well.
My shop told me that my steering rack was bad and that's what was causing the thumping. I guess that's the obvious call w/o actually pulling the cover inside the hood and looking at the steering column aligment.
Do any of you have this same condition?

[JohnC]

I had just finished the same job, adjusting my steering column, yesterday after the installation of the rack spacers. My interference was caused by the u joint coming in contact with the end of the input shaft (pinion) on the rack. I simply moved the u joint a tad higher on the splined pinion shaft. Works fine now.

[Jon Green]

A question,

what are the spacer dimensions?
I intend to make up a number of thinner spacers & then shim the rack up until my tie rods are pretty much straight.
I'd like an idea of the max. the rack will go too, so that I don't over do things.

I'll certainly watch for this phenomenon when doing it!

Cheers, Jon

[JohnC]

dimensions? I'd say about slightly less than 3/4" or about 5/8" thick. Diameter, about 1-1/2".

[This message has been edited by JohnC (edited 08-13-2001).]