Bob,
This info may not apply to your intentions on steering..
I inspected about 20 used TR4A-5-6 steering racks looking for a good rack bar
and pinion gear to restore my own..
Most seemed to suffer the same problem. 1 tooth on the pinion, and 2 teeth on
the rack, badly worn - all other teeth great. Surprizing to me, the 3 badly
worn teeth are in the 'straight ahead' position. These racks were rubber
mounted.
The solid 'metal mounts' you are contemplating would cause faster wear on
these 3 teeth because steering stresses wouldn't be damped. The Triumph factory
started out using metal mounts on early TR4s then went to rubber mounts mid-TR4
and all the way through to TR8 - maybe just for driver comfort - but I would
think those 3 center teeth would be alot less stressed with the rubber mounts.
And now the only steering rack 'replacements' seem to be; 1] brand new
fast-ratio rack (if you like fast racks) and 2] used stock rack with low miles
(hard
to find)..
I'd be hesitant to buy a 'rebuilt' rack as replacement parts not available
for years meaning you might just get a tightened down worn rack.
My choice? Dug through a 20+ pile of filthy used racks to find the best 'rack
bar' inside ($80 for whole unit) and bought a new TR6 'pinion gear' out of UK
for $37 (not best machine work - had to file every tooth). And assembled back
to factory specs.
Final opinion; grease your racks, they're hard to restore!.. and if you're
not racing, use rubber mounts to reduce stress to pinion & rack teeth.
Carl
'63 TR4 since '74
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