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STEERING RACK Housing Separation, LHD/RHD - SR-205A

At 08:10 PM 10/3/2021, Mark Wellard in Austrlia wrote:
"This week's entertainment has been trying to split a steering rack. I have a LHD rack and a pinion knuckle from a RHD rack, so swapping knuckles will get me halfway to a working RHD steering conversion.

The common advice was to cut the three welds and "knock the end off", easier said than done, it seems. The press fit explains why they don't leak at the joins. Being the reverse of a problem that I could solve with my press, I had to improvise. The attached picture shows a turnbuckle, savaged from some house modifications that I shortened. I milled some slots into 6mm plates with appropriate cut-outs to locate the threaded rods and stop them spinning. It assembled as planned. I had to resort to a jemmy bar to get enough leverage, but I succeeded without damaging the parts. Reversing the procedure, as the manual says, can await another day".

"I will need to swap the oiling points for the twin cam and find a pinion, which is easier said than done". -- Mark

The steering rack housing center tube and passenger side end piece are the same for all MGA. LHD and RHD pinion end housings are different parts, mirror imgage from each other. Twin Cam pinion ends are similar, but with grease fittings on the bottom. So there are four different pinion end housings for LHD, RHD, standard and Twin Cam models. There are also four different pinion shafts for LHD, RHD, standard and Twin Cam models. The Twin Cam pinion shafts are one inch longer, since the rack assembly is an inch farther forward in the Twin Cam chassis. The pinion gears also have different angle on the gear teeth due to different approach angle of the pinion shaft.

On 1/1/2024, Mark Wellard in Austrslia wrote:
"The other steering rack issue ... relates to converting a LHD rack by exchanging the pinion 'knuckle'. The attached picture (pushrod rack) shows a small hole aligned with the oiling nipple for the LHD housing. The RHD pinion oil nipple is on the other side, so a new hole needs to be drilled after pressing the two parts together".

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