Driver's side steering rack bushing will ***not*** fit.

[ktm]

Yes, I search and did not find this problem. I have a 240z with a 240z rack (diamond/hole bushing arrangement). I am in the process of reassembling my front end and hoped to get the rack in today.

The passenger side bushing fit perfectly - a little bit of grease and the bushing just popped into place. However, the driver side bushing refuses to go on. I have determined that the bushing itself is too wide. As I press it into place, the ridges of the bushing are compressed towards each other. Yes, the mounting area is clean. As a matter of fact, I can not get the bushing to stay in place. It keeps popping back out due to it being too wide. Yes, the packaging indicates I have the 240z bushings.

Anyone else have any issues with their recent bushings?

[kenz240z]

Are you using stock rubber bushings or aftermarket urethane bushings? I installed the Energy Suspensions urethane bushings when I re-installed the steering rack in my '73 and they fit perfectly.

I'm a bit confused about how you are attempting to install the bushings. From what I recall, there are two brackets, one on the passenger side and one on the driver's side, that hold the rack against the subframe. These must be removed before replacing the bushings.

Is the engine still in your car? I had the engine out of my Z when I replaced the steering rack bushings, which made it a simple project. If the engine is still in the car I believe that you have to take the bolts out of the motor mounts and jack up the engine in order to have enough clearance to remove the brackets to replace the bushings.

It's been awhile since I did the work on my car, can anyone else elaborate on this?

[ZG240Z]

I replaced my bushings with the motor in the car. What kind of bushings are these? I used Energy Suspension bushings (from the Hyperflex kit) and had no problems at all.

[Sailor Bob]

I don't know if the 77 model is the same, but I did them with engine in and it was a little tricky. I did have the struts removed and took out the steering rack as well. I assume you would have to as there is very little clearance.

The bushings were a tight/perfect fit, but no compression.

I remember reading a thread at the time - someone had to cut the bushing to get it to fit. You could do a search of steering bushings.

Good luck

SB

[ktm]

Whoops, crucial information was left out. I am installing the MSA urethene steering rack bushings. The rack is presently sitting on my workbench, where it has been residing since late July.

The passenger side bushing just popped into place. It was a little tight as you would expect, but I installed it without any issues.

The driver side bushing is another matter. As I try to place the bushing in the diamond shaped mount, the ridges of the bushing move towards each other (compress), thus narrowing the channel in which the clamp will seat. I can get the bottom part of the bushing into place, but when I flip the rack over the channel is so narrow that there is NO way it will seat on the cross-member properly.

[ZG240Z]

If I'm visualizing this correctly, it's as though the bushing is too wide to fit into the mount correctly. Is that right? Have you given any thought to trimming it in order to make it fit? I wouldn't be afraid to modify it, if you feel like that's what it's going to take to make it work.

[ktm]

I ran down to MSA and compared the stock rubber and the urethene driver's side steering rack bushings. The urethene bushing is the correct width and depth. However, as I suspected, the cross-sectional shape of the bushing is incorrect.

The rubber bushing is U-shaped, with the lower left and right corners radiused like a U. The urethene bushing is shaped like a U-channel; that is, while it is also U-shaped, the lower left and right exterior corners form a right-angle like this [ (bushing turned on its side). The exterior corners will need to be ground-down or radiused for the bushing to fit.

[speedyblue]

I had the same thing. The bushing was too wide, so I cut it down until it fit. Ended up very tight and snug = no movement.

[Dublin Z]

Just concluded a fight with the steering bushings on my 260Z.  Issue being that my steering appears to be a 240Z piece of kit.

Posted video on YouTube showing what to look out for.

 

 

[Captain Obvious]

I found that beveling the inside corners of the driver's side bushing allowed it to fit much better. Here's a pic of what I did to mine and there are lots more pics in this thread:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/48621-steering-rack-disassembly-and-refurb/

[zKars]

There are two distinct racks that have different width, left side, (drivers around here) rack mounting ear spacing. Generally, 240 are narrow, 280 are wider. Get a 280 bushing and try to cram it into the narrow 240 rack and you're in for a real fight. Get it the other way wrong, and your rack will shift around under steering loads. 

The shape of the poly bushing is also wrong and needs shaving to fit the shape of the rack like CO indicates.

The Energy suspension part numbers for the 240/280 kits are only different in the unique  rack bushing included for the matching rack.