[V8] Permanent Steering Rack Mount Fix

[Luis CaifanSC]

Sounds like you're making good progress Tom! I'm jelous!

Ahh...sunsets in Lumi island....jelly bean!

On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 12:00 AM, toml99 at todomundo.com <toml99 at todomundo.com
> wrote:

> Hey all, now that the 5-speed runs, realized that the rack mount issue was
> critical and needed to deal with it asap.  Some of you remember that
> bracket I made up to "fix" it, but in reality it may have actually made
> things worse as it wasn't actually attached to anything in my case, as the
> fender metal was missing around the OEM bracket.  I had to drive the car
> about 20 miles to take it to my friend Dave's place on Lummi Island who's
> always up for a challenge/whatnot and is good at all things like this and
> cheerfully got dirty for 1.5 days of hassle.   I realized the strut had to
> come off, so couldn't just bring it to a welder in town, and say "fix it".
> On the highway, I had almost 1/4 turn of the steering wheel slop, so took
> the corners slow, but was still fun to drive it after it sitting.
>
> Started dissasembly, and not wanting to sacrifice that TTY axle bolt,
> removed the inner and left it attached and dropped strut.
> Used a vibrating multi-tool(think Fein) with a new scraper blade, and
> removed the undercoat/paint/galvanizing quickly, that was quite thick by
> the way.  Drilled out the few spot welds that were still holding.  All the
> obvious cracks got welded before the 1/8" plate got cut out and hammered
> into that not even close to flat spot.  Fit like a glove.  That got welded
> thoroughly, then cut 3/4" strips(grinder) that got bent/welded to form the
> basic shape of what's there, but about twice the thickness.  Found a 2"
> chain link post that fit the hole perfect and Dave welded that in for
> structure.  If you look at the original piece, that oval hole/and no
> support on the front side is probably why they all fail in the same way.
> Primed the patch with some Zinc Dichromate primer (Audi bathed the car in
> something similar)I had for painting lower units on outboards(think
> immersion in salt water), then sprayed the undercoating that still hadn't
> dried in 2 hrs.  Feeling like we nailed it, went to install strut, and it
> hit the left(front) side of new thing.  Looked at OEM, and it goes to zero
> (failure area).  Had to cut/grind in place with 1/2 dry asphalt/rubber
> undercoating getting hosed by sparks.  Worst part of whole project, but
> never thought the strut tower was that close to wall, and didn't even
> consider it.  Wanted to leave as much meat there as possible, but guessed,
> and it fit just fine.  Way beefier than stock.  Took a solid day and a
> half.  Would take 1/2 day next time around as most if it was fabrication
> decisions/what's there.  I saved the "ear" off the car, and my aluminum
> plate(that was super handy for lining up bolt holes, so the few of you that
> need to do this also, will benefit from that as I can trace everything out
> on some scrap and you can cut it out.  Hell, we both agreed that we need to
> patent this thing and somehow get a TSB requiring fix....Ha.  Goes down the
> road perfectly straight, and has about 1/32" of slop now....
>
> Ran out the 1/2 tank of treated 3-4yo gas and it still ran rough at idle.
> I had already dealt with the ISV and it was better, but still didn't sound
> like Lago.  Changed fuel filter, and there was about 1/2 shot glass of
> water in filter.  Ran better, but still not there.  Pulled first plug(#5)
> and electrode was burned to at least 2x the gap/fouled.  Pulled the
> rest(mint) and replaced the Autolite 103's with a new set($18), and it ran
> even better, but not perfect.  Today, decided to pull that one plug
> wire(newish but not Bosch) and check it and it was bad......swapped a
> crusty old wire on there, and all is good.   CANT believe that it was
> running on 7 cylinders that well.  Took it out on the highway, and it's
> feeling 100%.  Gonna get new wires/caps/rotors when I have money.  Had some
> punk in a WRX riding my ass, and had to torture him a bit....Ha.
>
> Jason, have no Bose stereo spares, and have a cluster, but I'm reselling
> the black car I sold to a friend's son, and it's got a bad speedo.....His
> has a peel of paint sticking out preventing needle from going over 35.
> Speedogears.com or something like that had the plastic gear that fixed the
> last Saab I had if that's the only issue.  If I can get that paint peel out
> of way, may have one, but not really planning on spending any time fixing
> that as it's getting sold.  May drill a small hole in plastic and remove
> paint peel.....Ha.  Have another cluster, but is sunbaked/no LED
> screen/speedo say's 225K and I'd have to find it.
>
> Been wanting to fix that rack thing since I got the car in 08 so am
> feeling really good right now, and had to share the joy.....Cheers, Tom
>
> http://tinyurl.com/zgdvv5b
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