steering rack

[gforbess at attglobal.net (Gordon Forbess)]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:02:29 -0500, "Dan Bubb" <jdbubb@verizon.net>
wrote:

>My early Scirocco Bentley shows an adjustment for the steering rack. 
>Unfortunately, it's on the firewall side of the rack and getting at it would 
>probably take an act of God. Either that or removal of the rack. ;^)

I put this off for years until the rattle in the rack became too much.
There is an adjustment and it isn't easy, but you can remove the d/s
front wheel and get at it through the opening for the tie rod in the
body.  It's a 17mm lock nut with an 8mm adjustment stud, IIRC.
There's hardly any room to swing the large wrench.  I had to alternate
between two different ones with slightly different offset on the box
end to loosen and tighten the lock nut.

My Bentley shows some trick wrench with an arc in the handle used to
get at the lock nut from the top side.

It is not an easy adjustment to get right without some trial and error
and doing it with the rack removed may not give you the true feel of
it without the steering column/wheel hooked up.  What feels right at
the center will be too tight about 1/10 of a steering wheel turn in
either direction as the rack wears more there.  Good Luck.



Gordon
75 Mk I/Drake 1.9
http://pws.prserv.net/gforbess/scirocco/scirocco.htm