L300 2WD Power Steering Rack (from Alibaba) into L300 4WD

T

TimB

New Member
My '92 L300 Delica has been off the road for a long time now with a very leaky steering rack. Thanks to Growlerbearnz for his thread on DIY rack repairs, I thought I should attempt the same on mine. But, as in his example, I really wanted to have a back-up rack that I could fit to keep the vehicle movable while repairing the old rack. Well, I couldn't find any decent secondhand units, so I thought I'd try my luck on a reconditioned L300 rack from Alibaba (as highlighted in this thread).

At around £200 delivered it seemed like a gamble worth trying. Today I got around to trying to fit the correct 4WD steering arms to the 'new' L300 rack. I'm a bit concerned at what I found.
The inner ball joints on the 4WD steering arms have threaded stubs which are screwed into the ends of the old rack and secured by a washer. This washer has tabs which locate into a slot in the rack ends while two 'ears' of the washer are bent back onto the flats on the inner ball joint.
The L300 rack from Alibaba doesn't seem to have the slot in the rack ends that those washer tabs would locate into. In fact there is no washer here at all and I can't see anything on the new rack ends that would prevent the steering arm inner ball joint from unscrewing itself from the rack.

Now, I think I could potentially cut a slot in the new rack ends for the washer tabs to locate into. But I'm wondering if something else is securing the inner ball joints on the rack ends besides just the threaded stub? I see there is a small hole drilled through the ball joint body, but I cant see anything in there (such as a roll pin for example). I'm obviously hoping the rack ends are like the 4WD version and they just have a threaded hole that the ball joint stub screws into (so even if there was a roll pin in that small hole I can see, it wouldn't actually do anything to secure the ball joint to the rack).

I'd be really grateful to hear if anyone has any ideas what might be going on here? Could there be something else securing the arms to the rack ends that I'll need to 'undo' first before I can remove them? I'll try to attach images of the old rack end and the new one.

Old end showing washer (knocked back off the ball joint here) and just visible square 'notch' in the rack end with washer tab in it...
oldwithnotch.jpg

New rack end has no notch and no washer to secure ball joint...
newnonotch.jpg

Comparison of Alibaba L300 inner ball joint (top) with 4WD ball joint I'm hoping to fit instead (bottom).
4WDvsL300.jpg

Incidentally, now I have my old rack off I can see that the toothed rack itself has a pitted rust scar around 5-6cm long on the underside. I think this will render it scrap (so not much point using it in a rebuild).
 
I had time today to remove the steering arms from the new rack. It looks like blue threadlock was used on the stub that screws in to the end of the rack. Does this seem like something I could do with the 4WD arms too? Otherwise I could grind notches into the rack ends so the tabbed washers that come with the 4WD arms will have something to locate into - but I'd rather not have to do that.

Photo below showing the new rack and steering arm (left) and the old (note the end has a notch). You can still see traces of the thread lock on the steering arm stub I removed from the new rack. The bottle of threadlock I bought suggests that it does away with the need for 'mechanical locking devices' - should I trust it? :confused:

notchornot.jpg
 
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In the end I decided I would cut new notches in the ends of the rack to take the washer tabs and also used some threadlock (belt and braces :) ). It may be a while 'til I have time to fit it to the Delica but I'll update this thread when I do. I'll report on how the cheap recon. rack works out in case anyone else is thinking of buying one from the same source.
 
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TimB said:
In the end I decided I would cut new notches in the ends of the rack to take the washer tabs and also used some threadlock (belt and braces :) ). It may be a while 'til I have time to fit it to the Delica but I'll update this thread when I do. I'll report on how the cheap recon. rack works out in case anyone else is thinking of buying one from the same source.
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Thanks for this thread. Excited to see how it works out!
 
Following...
I've had a 2WD rack enroute for a month now... I chose slow boat shipping as it was cheaper and I don't actually need it now/yet.

I think I will just use threadlocker if I do end up installing it... it seems to be an either/or kind of thing and I can't see any reason why threadlocker would be insufficient. It's probable that the washer is intended to be easier for more likely/frequent replacement of the tie rods on a 4WD vehicle.
 
sk66 said:
I think I will just use threadlocker if I do end up installing it... it seems to be an either/or kind of thing and I can't see any reason why threadlocker would be insufficient. It's probable that the washer is intended to be easier for more likely/frequent replacement of the tie rods on a 4WD vehicle.
Click to expand...

Yep, I think you're right on this.
 
Quick update. The rack is fitted, steering fluid pipes connected and the power steering fluid added. Front end is still off the ground on axle stands but the rack seems to work and didn't leak while I was turning it lock to lock to bleed it. The battery had died while the van was sat unused so I had to start it using jump leads. I've ordered a new battery and won't be able to test the new rack on the road until I have that fitted.
 
I extricated the Delica from the leafy corner it's been skulking in for well over a year and ran it up and down the drive (which is only about 20ft long) a few times. During the tight manoeuvre to get it out the hedge and the back and forth on the drive the steering seemed to be working exactly as before. Unfortunately I've spotted a bit of welding required on the chassis rail near the rear bump stop, so I'll have to do that and then set about getting it ready for a Ministry of Transport test before I can start using it on the road to see how the rack behaves there.
 
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lukericho said:
Hey Tim, I’m thinking of doing this swap. Was it easy to get the rack out of the van?
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I don't recall it being particularly hard. I wanted to re-bush the anti roll bar at the same time, so I removed that first. It might even be required to allow access, not sure. Well worth re-bushing at the same time if your bushes are old. The rack itself was okay to remove. The hydraulic unions are a bit awkward to reach, but nothing terrible. One thing that would help would be to remove the steering arms from the rack first. I left mine attached and it was quite a squeeze to get the whole thing out from between the chassis rails with the arms still attached. If I have to do it again I would definitely remove them first.
The Alibaba-sourced reconditioned rack is still performing fine so far.

EDIT: Actually, thinking back, the hardest part was actually getting the anti roll bar back on with the new bushes. Took a lot of clamping and squashing the new bushes to get enough thread to locate the nuts.
 
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