Steering rack mounts

[Midnight]

With a spectacular demonstration as to how aluminium is preferably corroded over steel during my tear down, I am in search of some steering rack mounts if anyone has any knocking about?

[gideon]

SJ Sportscars list an original replacement at 59 quid plus tax.

https://www.sjsportscars.com/parts-and-accessories/SJ046H0015.htm

Or, if want to upgrade you could consider these, listed at 300 AUD inc tax (which you probably don't have to pay

https://lotusmarques.com/parts/news/1361-lotus-europa-steering-rack-mounting-bracket-x046h0015y

Does anybody have an opinion about the value of upgrading the rack mounts?

[EuropaTC]

Does anybody have an opinion about the value of upgrading the rack mounts?

The first thing that came to mind for me was "why, is there a problem with the OEM ones ?".  Perhaps if you're racing and have big sticky tyres that generate more G than normal it's worthwhile beefing up the steering rack, but I would have thought you'd need not only the clamps but the whole deal - the bolts & chassis where they're bolted on.  For a road car I'm not convinced, there's never been any sign of the rack moving or distorting the clamps that I've noticed on mine. Front alignment stays put from one year to the next, the only time I have to adjust is after I've been doing something up there so I'm not convinced the OEM mounts allow the rack to slide/move.

But the machined ones do look good.  I'd say we're down to personal choice again and as we can see from the variations on this forum, we're all different !

Brian

[Midnight]

There isn't anything wrong design-wise with the OEM mounts, just in my case the car's previous owner(s) had left the car out to rust pretty badly and the aluminium has corroded, managed to even to warp the front T section. Just worth making sure there is some kind of barrier (paint, gasket, etc) between the steel and the ally to avoid this being a problem for anyone else.

[gideon]

The frame on my car at the front was very badly rusted, but for some reason the rack mounts were in good shape.  Though I had a job to get them off without damaging them because of corrosion between the mounts and the bolts.  So some corrosion protection between the mounts and the bolts would be my priority for reassembly.  I used to have a tube of Duralac for that sort of thing, but it's carcinogenic and you can't get it in the USA.

I guess I might have been lucky in having a good layer of paint between the rack mounts and the frame.

[gideon]

I take it back. You can get get Duralac in the USA now.  I couldn't find it last time I looked.  If you handle it carefully it is good stuff for preventing corrosion between dissimilar metals.