Steering Rack - Simple Refresh...

A critical component on a DS with power steering - is the power steering rack.  When set up and working correctly, steering is smooth and effortless.

DS, left-hand drive BVH steering rack

However the steering rack can also be the source of many and expensive woes. If set up wrong, steering can be tight or knotty and unsatisfactory. If the internals of racks are worn, they can be a major source of internal LHM leakage and the cause of short pressure regulator cycle times. You can buy seal kits for replacing the seals  in racks, but you need special tools to dismantle them. Even then, replacing the seals will not fix worn metal components. If you do rebuild one - or find someone else to do it - but it's rebuild poorly, the crossover pressure may be set up wrong leaving the inlet port open when in the 'neutral' (straight ahead) position'. There is a video HERE that shows the kind of thing you need to do to check and set the cross-over pressure. 

Several firms offer part-exchange racks. They claim varying degrees of refurbishment from replacing the internal rubber and nylon seals (all should do this), to re-chroming and replacing worn components (I think only Citrotech offer this). 

Citrotech repairs to a DS steering rack 

You can find a short video on their steering rack work HERE. Though you will need to learn Dutch. the only words I caught at the end were 'perfect steering". These services do not come cheap and a replacement steering rack is a major investment.

When I went back to my car in 2014, I noticed some LHM staining on the right hand end cap of the rack. Coming back to the rack now, it had even stained the box that the rack had been stored in for several years.

Signs of a steering rack leak?

This was on the right hand end of the rack. The right hand end already has a small 'weep hole' hidden away on its underside. I'm not sure of the circumstances that would cause anything to leak from this hole but it would appear on the triangle piece under the rack. Here is a photo of someone else's car that shows this.

Steering rack weep from 'secret' hole? (credit: Carl Kirk)

Now. my car didn't have LHM on that triangle or surrounding area, and no obvious weeping from the small hole on the rack, so I wasn't sure of the source of the LHM if found on the end cap. It could simply have dripped from above when the HP pump or centrifugal regulator were tinkered with at some past point, or when they were removed as part of my restoration. that was very possible.

My hydraulic system isn't connected up so I can't easily test the rack for leaks and I can't afford to simply get a replacement without good reason. What I REALLY want is a test rig like this.

Hydraulic test bench (credit: Loris Career)

I decided that - for now - I would do the bare minimum on the steering rack and see how it behaved once the car was on the road. 'Bare minimum' meant a basic service, de-rust and a respray. I wasn't even going to remove the two rubber bellows. The bellows were good (no cracks) and - being old - were probably better quality rubber than modern equivalents. I didn't want to risk splitting them by having to refit them as it's quite a brutal process that involves 'bridging' the central pin - and then forcing the bellows over/ past the bridge -  as this video shows.

'Bridge' for fitting the rubber bellows (credit: Angela Lord)

Instructions for a full strip down, repair and set-up of a rack can be found at Operation D.444-3 in Section 2 of manual 814. The instructions are LONG (almost 20 pages), because it's COMPLICATED and HARD. You need a number of tools to dismantle the rack and, ideally, some special tools just to replace the seals without damaging them. Tools like these: 

Steering rack seal fitting tools - factory and home made (credit: John Titus)

I ducked all of that and just referred to the 'dismantling' and 'reassembly' sections.

Removing the steering levers from the track rod ends was simple enough with a basic ball joint splitter. Make a note of which lever goes on which end of the rack - and which way up it goes (they are slightly 'cranked' in shape).

Note the orientation of the steering levers

I used a small ball joint splitter to remove the steering levers from the track rods.

Steering levers

Removing the two track rods from the middle of the rack was also easy as they are simply bolted onto the yolk in the middle. 

Steering track rods - note one is split/ adjustable

I made a note of the length of the adjustable track rod before I split it. Note that the collar and one part of the split track rod have reverse threads - do not force things together when re-assembling. Measurements for resetting  the length of the rod are in the section of manual 814 mentioned earlier. I was sending other parts off for zinc plating so included the adjusting collar and its clamps.

The nut and 'L' shaped spring are easily removed from the central ball joint. Now. Removing the central yoke itself - well that was a complete bastard. From what others had said, I knew it could be tight on its ball joint  but I had no idea how tight it would prove to be. The yolk is an awkward shape with not much scope to get the legs of a puller under it. I tried using a small puller with thin arms. After many failed attempts and slips, I successfully managed to destroyed it.

Dead puller....

It bent out of shape without the yoke moving at all. I had to employ the 'big guns' in the end - my hydraulic puller - because it had two collars that fit under the piece you are pulling. 

Getting to grips with the yolk.....

Even then I was worried it would either smash the threaded end of the ball joint, or slip on the threads and damage them.

The 'business end' of the puller

Eventually the yoke released with an alarming 'crack!' sound. Phew! With the yoke out of the way, the bellows can be removed (or in my case, be moved - pushed back) and the two half shields around the centre of the rack opened like a seashell. I scooped out the old grease but then wrapped and sealed that exposed area. The two bellows were compressed, taped up and wrapped. I also removed the dust cover and taped up the steering pinion (where the steering column attaches). That left me with a large and heavy rack for cleaning and de-rusting.

I was able to manipulate around my bench-top wire wheel a little. But because of the weight, much of the cleaning was done with a wire wheel on a drill. I made a couple of stands to rest the rack on while I cleaned it - and for painting. The idea was that the rack rested on the splined areas that I planned to leave unpainted.

I carefully masked off areas I didn't want painted - on the yoke bolt holes, the ball joints and rubber bushes of the track rods, the steering pinion and the hydraulic inlets/ outlets on the rack. The Citroen instructions say to assemble the split track rod to the correct length - and THEN to paint it. Which means that the re-plated adjusting collar would eventually be painted green. We shall see.

Adjusting sleeve painted green

After degreasing, all the parts were primed, rubbed down and degreased ready for a top coat. While there were minor signs of LHM dribbling from the points where the hydraulic pipes will be fixed, there were no signs of new LHM around the end cap. I took that as a good sign.

I'd run out of mid brunswick green rattle can paint so had another can made up. Painting went very well but the colour didn't look quite right. I compared the steering rack shield to other parts on the car. In theory these were all painted with the same colour from the same supplier - but were vastly different! Not even remotely the same.

Not the same colour......

.....not the same colour at all

I check my rattle cans - old and new. They seemed to be the same colour code - BS226 - 'mid brunswick green'? As I live close by, I nipped into the supplier's to try to get to the bottom of this. I took new and old cans with me so he could see the labels. Now..... when I bought the rattle can (with the unexpected colour in it), my regular paint guy was on holiday and his mum was looking after the shop for a week. I did raise this in the conversation but was told  the paint mix was not a mixing error. Apparently the BS381C is reference to a particular colour pallet?

Quoting from a paint retail site: "British Standard BS 381c colours are used in identification, coding and other special purposes. This is a key reference for specifying a particular paint colour to use in the refurbishment of buildings – especially at Local Authority level or for major works, such as office blocks, airports, schools and hospitals. 

I'm not sure why that would make a difference. Isn't the 'BS' a clue - a consistent standard colour?? I also pointed out that when I went in for the can, I took a photo of the old can along on my phone (including the  'BS381c' reference) and asked for another the same. His mum jotted down all the details from my phone then made my can up. So why did I get such a different colour back? I was told that the specified colour mix had perhaps changed between buying the two rattle cans, and that it might be something to do with one of the ingredients. Lead or something else toxic may have been mentioned but I was still struggling to process that the hue of mid brunswick green had (been) changed? Wouldn't that affect all the other BS colours? I never did get a straight answer that I could buy in-to but had had enough BS for one day and decided to leave it at that.

Based on the amount of grease I'd removed previously, I added a liberal amount of grease inside the steering housing around the central ball pin. 

Inside the steering housing (photo credit: Citrothello)

The manual says to add it to the side that has the control pinion. I operated the pinion to move the pin along and added grease to both sides. I refitted the shields around the central ball joint and fixed them in place with Ligarex strapping on the bellows.

I fitted a new rubber seal under the yolk. Those seals always look tatty - either tired and cracked or sprayed over with green. Or both. I fitted the 'L' shaped spring on top.

Looking a lot better now.

It was a little tricky tightening the yolk while still making sure the track rods were parallel with the steering rack. Even getting the yolk slightly off line translates to a big difference at the other ends of the track rods, and so risks putting unwanted strain on the anti-vibration rubbers at the yolk end when the track rod balljoints are connected up.

the yolk was lined up......

....and tightened.

The set-up length for the two piece track rod is given at step 15 of Operation D.444-3 in the manual. The two pieces need to be wound onto / into the sleeve by an equal amount. This is the point to remember that one end of the rod and the sleeve have a reverse thread......One assembled and clamped in place, I decided not to over-spray the adjusting collar on the track rod. I wasn't sure that i wouldn't have to make some later adjustment that would bugger up any nice new paint job.

I packed out the ball joints with fresh grease as best I could and wiped off any excess.......

Greasing the track rod ball joints

I cleaned and re-used the original nylon cups but new rubber cups.

Track rod ball joint end

I've seen the other ends of the gaiters fixed to the rack at varying distances/ lengths - including stretched as far as they will go along the rack......

Examples of incorrectly fitted gaiters

Now it might not make a lot of difference, but Citroen do go to the trouble of specifying a length when fitting the bellows - so it's probably worth paying attention to that. The correct adjustment of the bellows is given in the manual - at step 31 of operation D.444-3.

Bellows lengths are defined by distances 'a' and 'b'

Well. With the Ligarex strapping on the bellows, my rack certainly looked a lot better, even if I've actually done very little to it mechanically. And with that, I was ready to fit the rack back in the car. 

Another milestone reached!