Took off the inner tie rod to find that it had been twisted on and bent down
the tabs that are made to hold the end plate to the rack. This plate has to
be separated from the tie rod, held against the rack with the lock tabs
locked, turn the tie rod cover tight into the rack and then pean down the
endplate to the tie rod cover. If you just turn the tie rod into the rack
the tabs will bend down and not secure the tie rod to the rack..It will work
loose and be very dangerous. could work all the way off and loose control.
So if you can jack up the front of you car and move the wheel back and forth
you can check for wear in the tie rod or the plate problem as described.
Wish I had a picture to explain.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dean Crowley <dcdccccckc@worldnet.att.net>
To: <mgs@autox.team.net>; Barney Gaylord <barneymg@ntsource.com>
Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: mga ball joints.
> Had an old rack that I took the inter ball joint out of. Attempted to
> separate the ball cover from the front plate. Not possibly in this case.
Put
> it in a LARGE vise, heated it bright red and put a LARGER pipe wrench on
it
> trying to get it off. This was after making tool out of drill bit stock to
> hold that one flat piece. You guess it. Broke....It would NOT come apart.
> Gave up and am just going to put on different rods from a third
> rack....Mannn.....Is it by any chance a left handed thread? Tried both
ways
> but.....Never seen anything like it. I can always get stuff apart, even if
I
> tear it up doing it. In this case I tore it up and STILL did not get it
> apart. Whipped, Defeated...I move on to the next problem..the hidden oil
> leak. Grin...
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Barney Gaylord <barneymg@ntsource.com>
> To: Dean Crowley <dcdccccckc@worldnet.att.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 1999 12:10 AM
> Subject: Re: mga ball joints.
>
>
> > Dean,
> >
> > At 08:17 PM 8/10/99 -0500, you wrote:
> > >Can you replace the inter tie rod with the rack in the car?
> >
> > Theoretically yes, but only if you can get the @#$%^& inner ball joint
nut
> > to unscrew. On the MGA it wants a couple of special wrenches. One
would
> > be a flat wrench with two parallel pins to engage two holes in the back
> > surface of the inner half of the socket. Other would be a ring wrench
> with
> > two pins extending inwards from opposite sides to engage slots in the
> sides
> > of the acorn nut (outer half lf the socket). I've made both special
> > wrenches, and I've broken both, more than once. I've given up and put
it
> > all back together at least twice, generally in order to drive it again
the
> > next day. Maybe this winter when it can be laid up fow at least a week
> > I'll take the whole assembly out of the car and onto the bench for
better
> > access. Then I may have to use the blue wrench on it to get it apart,
and
> > if I screw anything up I'll have time to procure new parts as necessary.
> >
> > >Any tips on how to shim this up ....
> >
> > The MGA has shims between the two halves of the inner ball joint socket.
> > The idea is to undo a lock tab washer, unscrew the acorn nut,
> remove/adjust
> > shims as necessary to get rid of most of the clearance but not so tight
as
> > to make the ball joint sieze up when you reassemble it. MGA shims are
> > available in .003, .005, and .010 inch thicknesses. Different
> combinations
> > of these can build stacks of 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18,
> > etc, you get the idea. My MGB parts catalog doesn't show shims, so I
> > dunno, never been there, not done that. If no shims, then you might
> > possible grind a few thou off of one surface to reduce the space inside
> the
> > socket. Lots of luck. Lemmeno how you make out.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Barney
> >
>
>
>
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