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Has anybody done this steering rack mod yet ?

Steve-V6-D61

New Member
Hi

Just wondering if any body else did this mod it was the best thing I ever did to the car it made much nicer to drive and i did not have to pre-plan my journey it also saved lots of 20 point turns and cost nothing to do, zilch, FOC, [smilie=yay.gif]

Something for nothing is very rare. :rofl:


There’s been to odd post about increasing the steering lock on Phase II car and after driving mine to the MOT station I was amazed by how little lock is available, so I dug out Harry post on what’s need to done.

Don't know if anybody is aware of this, but the Clio V6 has, as Clarkson mentioned a bigger turning circle than an oil tanker.

Well, I've got good news for the RS2 (phase2) drivers.

The RS2 has a wider track on the front, but still the same steering rack of the RS1. This steering rack has also been taken from another standard production car, which one I don't remember.
On the RS1 they needed to limit the steering angle, and did this with two plastic shims.

On the RS2 you can safely take of 4.5 mm of these plastic shims.
This dramatically increases your steering angle, hence more important the drift angle beyond which you are just a passenger in your car.



You might have trouble removing the fastener below the ABS unit, but you can use a pipe which fits over, drill a hole into it, weld a nut on it, and next clamp it with a short bolt. With this you can loosen it from the outside through the wheel arch.

Enjoy the mechanics, it's more than worth the trouble

So today,it was out with the spanners, its VERY easy to do in fact you can do it from inside the front of the car, but its easier fit you take off the wheels as well. You dont need to remove the track rod ends from the hubs.

So after jacking up the car and removing the wheels, cut the tie wraps off the steering gaiters and pull back up the steering rods to expose the inner ball joint. At this point you will see the spacers, on my car offside one was purple and the other black, you need to find a large 32 mm spanner but it must be narrow due the shape of the inner ball joint, I made mine from a old spanner I had, I ground off both sides until it was thin enough to fit over the inner ball joint.
IMG_0816.jpg



The spanner size is 32mm so you will need to source one beforehand or PM and I can lend you mine, you pay the postage both ways, mind !

You can get at both ends OK although it’s a bit fiddly next to the ABS pump.

Didn’t need to make the tool Harry spoke about, the spanner was fine.

Removing the inner ball joint can be a bit stiff due to nut lock on the threads, once off the spacer comes off as well, its 10mm thick, I reduced mine by the 4.5mm recommended by Harry, just used and angle grinder and finished them off with some wet and dry.
IMG_0815.jpg


Then just reinstall them putting some thread lock on the inner balls joint before screwing them in. The worst job is getting the boot rubbers back over the rack, the drivers side was a b***tard, it took 20 minutes to do it. Due to the power steering pipes getting in the way.

IMG_0814.jpg


I would say it took 1.5 hours to do the whole job, it would have been less had it not been for the boot.

Was it worth it well I’ll measure the turning circle and let you know, but anything more is an improvement on the standard lock which is pitiful.


Enjoy the mechanics, it's more than worth the trouble, lets hope so.

Steve
 
James":35kebysb said:
One owner had this done and put it back to standard as the tyres were wearing away the arch liners
He probably took too much off the spacers, or even left them out altogether!
 
Spike

Maybe, I reduced my shims by half, I did have to put a screw in the drivers side liner to pull it back to the shape of the bodywork behind it as the wheel just touched on full lock. The liner did not follow the body shape very well it was at least 15mm away, so just used one very small screw to get it to pull against the steel body work behind it.

The lock is almost normal now, well about 80% of a normal car rather than the original 50% of normal, I still mantain the original lock is dangeriously lacking, if not dangerious its a real pain in the behind.

Still the best i mod i did to the car.

Please note ONLY this mod only applies to Phase 2 cars.
 
If I could do it to my ph1 I would as I have to go all the around a mini round about at the end of my road and doing a 5 point turn is not only embarrassing but a bit dangerous too :(
 
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