The Sprite Forum

1960 Sprite MK l

I removed the steering rack brackets to paint them. There was a 7/32" plate behind one bracket located on the vertical side (#44 in the diagram). The parts book list the bracket as Packing - mounting bracket - rack. and states that 2 are required. They range in size 1/32 3/32 5/32 7/32. My question is, does anyone know of a procedure to determine what bracket packing goes where to achieve the proper adjustment/alignment? I know these had been removed because there was the PO paint under the bracket. I don't know if he lost the other packing or it was never there.

Tim

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1951 MG TD TD12524
1953 MG TD TD26711
2018 Honda Clarity
1960 Bug Eye Sprite
2021 Toyota Tacoma

Hi Tim,

The catalogs and even the factory parts book are incorrect. Only one plate is needed and on every car I've ever seen it goes on the side opposite the steering column. It's needed to correct a slight misalignment between the rack and the hole the design engineers put in the dash for the column. The steering system will bind a little without the plate.

Rick

Take great care on tightening bracket No 40. Its aluminium. Torque load is about 6 to 8lbs! I have only ever seen one plate on opposite side of steering column. No 45 is a paper type gasket. Although you could probably cut it from wax type paper. These steering racks were "upside down" Morris Minor (out of the BMC parts bin). The aluminium brackets were not painted. The rest was painted black.

Tim,

Clean out the bottom of the rack with a tap, lots of swarf down there. Bolts are a special length as normally that bottom hole is closed and they will bottom out and won't get tight enough. I made that mistake once and found the rack wandering around when I turned the wheel. I used a piece of bicycle inner tube glued to the top of rack brackets on one side to help secure things.

Regarding the rack mounts. Again they are aluminum and they will break if over tightened beyond 6-8 ft pound. I know as I broke one when reassembling Bugsy's Rack,.I gave out a very Loud Oh S__! as those brackets are NLA. Fortunately appealing to this list brought me a replacement bracket from someone's Spare Parts stash.Again normally unpainted.

Rack is normally filled with 90 Wt Gear Oil. Either obtain a Zerk Fitting that can go on your Grease Gun and dump some 90W in the rack, or I got a pump type oiler, removed the Zero Fitting, and pumped 90W into the Zerk Fitting Hole. When I installed Bugsy's Rack either something I did wrong in reassembly or through some misalignment, rack started leaking at the Pinion Gear. I think a good portion of the 90W has already ended up on my garage floor over the past few months, My solution, that has been used by others on this list, is a product available at local Tractor Supply, Rural King, or local John Deere Dealer called Corn Head Grease.Comes in a Grease Gun tube. It's a thin grease that works well with our rack and pinion but is not viscous enough to simply leak out. If you can't find locally Amazon will bring you a tube in a few days.

Use a new Metal Locknut not a Nylock for the Steering Rack to Steering Column Bolt. I believe this is a Hardened Bolt. I did go ahead and use an 8 point bolt in this application along with nw lockwasher, metal locknut, and a dab of Lock Tite Blue. If horn push does not work after you put it all together it will be a grounding issue.. New paint is not allowing Column to ground itself. You'll need to add a ground wire to the steering shaft mounting bolts

With all 3 of these responses from myself and other experts. you can get it done, Not Break Something, and have the horn work when you are done.

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Jim Gruber - Apollo Beach, FL
Bugsy IV - '60 Bugeye - 1,275+.040 and a 5-Speed - CA Car - 2nd Owner from new - Driving It Like I Stole It!
A truly rust free, garaged in Los Angeles for 57 years Bugeye
Mr. MAX - '04 Miata MAZDASPEED w Factory Turbo - Zoom Zoom Fun and Fast!

Jim, excellent and informative write up. Thank you.

Tim

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1951 MG TD TD12524
1953 MG TD TD26711
2018 Honda Clarity
1960 Bug Eye Sprite
2021 Toyota Tacoma

Tim, I used a straight edge to check the alignment of the pinion to the shaft. Like others have said this is with one packing plate on the passenger side. Good luck, David.

Davids approach makes sense. I've had trouble getting the steering to not bind on two cars that might have been tweeked a bit from collision. I just left the rack loose for a test of what it should have felt like and then began re-tightening with various temporary shim packs till I got it close enough. Another method would be to leave everything loose where the steering shaft goes through the dash. Stands to reason that if everything isn't aligned perfectly you will have heavy steering.

Kurt

What is the measurement for bolt #46?

Thanks

Nick, the part no. for that machine screw is HZS 0506. The equates to a UNF thread hex machine screw zinc plated 5/16” diameter and 6/8” long.
Peter

Bugeye Guy sells a set of them if you want to getter done. The best way to not make mistakes or guess wrong is to carefully remove the firewall bracket when removing the column and immediately replace the packing, plate and bolts exactly as you found them.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2026-02-23 09:51 PM by earthur44.