To all the experts: as a proud new owner of a 73 Pantera #6269 I noticed massive (vertical) play of the driversside steering rack. I appears to me that the aluminum part (visible in the picture) is already something not stock. Any ideas how to fix that? I know vendors sell a bushing kit for the steering rack.
thanks.............Eugen
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Mike Drew wrote a great article on steering rack rebuilds located here http://www.panteraplace.com/page203.htm. He also rebuilds them for free!
Thanks, very good article! My steering rack looks a bit different though. I found some numbers, it is a TRW 37502 rack. Is this the stock rack? The drivers side looks much shorter on my gearbox than in the mentioned article.
thanks, greetings from Austria............Eugen
Sounds like the rack has been replaced the original is a Cam Gears rack and TRW an aftermarket re-manufacturer. There was a really cheap Chinese rack being sold on eBay that people were having success with, it's also used on a Ferrari 308.
Probably have to take it apart to find the looseness since its aftermarket. The problematic bushing is in the left (longer) end; the rack-gear on the right side is normally located by a steel 'shoe' and spring with a cover plate on the short side in an OEM Cam Gears assembly. Your '73 should also have the factory bump-steer shims between the rack body and the front trunk mounting area, with longer bolts to accommodate the shims. The rebuild procedure and an exploded view is in the blue cover 'Pantera Service Highlights' manual.
You can also get a brand new rack. Here is an example.
Very cool, thanks for all the help here - great forum! And thanks for the info about the bump steer shims and the new rack on Ebay, I will probably try to buy that!
best wishes............Eugen
