MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - Getting Oil into TF Steering Rack

Gentlemen,
Recently you'll recall that I had to replace a steering rack boot/seal on the TF. Because there was a pool of heavy oil under the old torn boot, I jacked the car up on the side frame on the same side of the car. At the top of the large end of the rack boot/seal I force fed as much 90 weight oil as I could into the rack at the top of the seal opening where the clamp for the seal goes, but more needs to be inserted, as eventually the oil started coming out the top. The rack is supposed to hold three quarters of a pint, and I never got that much injected. I need to make up an oil injector pump as I've seen in the threads here, but that is some time off. SO ...... according to the exploded view of the steering rack in the Moss catalogue (page 21 of the latest issue), it appears that if I pull the steering rack damper cap (#29 in the diagram) there is a spring and a damper pad(?)(#'s 30 and 31) underneath. Is it possible to put the oil in through this cap opening? Anyone ever tried it?
Gene
Gene Burgess

Gene - That is exactly what I was going to suggest. that is how I put oil into the steering rack of our MGB. It is a slow process though as there is not much room between the sides of the rack where it passes by the hole. I use a pump that is put out by Sta Lube that be used with their 1 quart containers of oil and pump a bit of oil into the opening, then work the wheels back and forth from lock to lock to get teh oil down into the housing. When I reach the point where as much oil comes out as goes in with each excursion of the wheels, I call it good. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Gene, do you have the radiator out? If you don't I don't see you getting to the cap. I put oil in the plug after I rebuilt my rack but nothing was in the way. Very slow.

LaVerne
LED DOWNEY

Gene, if you have a grease gun that takes cartridges you may want to try this. It's messy but should work easily.

Probably a largely forgotten fact in today's world is that these grease guns can be used with both cartridges and bulk grease. In the bulk grease mode they can also pump heavy oil.

To convert to the bulk mode you just have to withdraw and lock the plunger into the end cap, remove the cartridge, unscrew the endcap, fold the rubber plunger forward into the bulk mode, reassemble the plunger into the gun, fill with oil, release the plunger and away you go. Don't leave the oil in the gun when you are finished as it will probably leak all over your garage floor. This simple operation takes less than 10 minutes to do and longer to clean up afterwards.

Actually if you had an empty cartridge handy (unlikely I know) you could easily put the oil into that and pump away.

Good luck,

Paul.
Paul van Gool

Gene - jacking up one side of car as you have done is fine but I always use an 'oilcan with a trigger and a long spout'. Slacken off/remove small clamp on rubber boot and insert spout, squeeze trigger and fill 'til oil starts to come out. Quickly remove spout tighten/attach clamp and either move rack side to side,squeeze boot,or drop car and drive around for a few days !

In my experience the exact amount of oil is not critical. If a lot is put in pressure from the boots will pump it past the joke felt 'seal' inside the pinion shaft housing which isn't worth replacing esp. since rack needs to be removed to do the job. I would suggest putting oil in 'til it finds it's own level eg. - stops coming past the seal ! It drips down past the pinion end cap and owners have been known to spend time sealing the shims etc when the real source is from above !

You can put oil in via damper cap but process is so slow due to limited clearances it's not worth doing. Yes cap will come out with radiator in place - did it to inspect damper a few weeks ago !

Looking at Owners Manual page on grease guns it is clear that 1950's owners were expected to use their 'straight push guns' for both oil and grease. Try it - they work fine if a little messy and as stated by Paul don't leave the oil in the gun ! This way original nipple on rack can be used as intended.

Hope the above is of some interest,

Cheers John.

J.C Mitchell

I have used a neoprene hose attached to the spout of a squeeze bottle of 90 weight, remove the "grease" nipple from the rack and insert the other end of the hose into the hole,,

SPW
Steve Wincze

Has anyone tried molybdenum grease instead of oil?
Regards, Richard.
R Payne

Regardles of how the oil is forced intot he rack, it is a good idea to remove the damper cap (or at least loosen it considerably) to vent the air displaced by the injected oil. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Most midget owners just loosen one of the steering rack boots and pump oil in from there. You can remove the tie-wrap, pull the upper part of the boot back to get a hose in, pump until oil starts coming out, pull the hose & reattach the boot.

The oil will get pumped to the other end of the rack by rack movement when the boots are re-sealed, however you can also pump oil in externally from the other boot too.

Scott
Scott

Gentlemen,
Thanks to all! Boy have I got my alternatives to try out this time!
Gene
Gene Burgess

richard, as long as the boots are perfectly sealed you might be ok with moly grease, but moly grease gets real funky in the presence of water. i'm using marine outboard drive oil. tom
tm peterson

This thread was discussed between 21/06/2006 and 22/06/2006

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.