Steering Rack Lubrication

I’ve never checked the steering rack since I’ve had the car as the previous owner had a new one fitted. That was over 2 years ago so thought it’s about time. I jacked up the passenger side first so I could get at it and removed the cable tie and pulled back the rubber gaitor. It was very dry inside! ….but I couldn’t see how to add any oil other than putting as much as poss into the gaitor and quickly refitting it.
So I went to the drivers side where on removing the gaitor I could see the rack which was covered in grease!

I found an article on the internet that explained the pro’s and con’s of grease/ oil in the steering rack at

http://www.mossmotoring.com/bonnet-steering-system-lubrication

I thought I would leave the grease as is but also add oil so lubrication would get to all parts of the rack.

The photo shows the elaborate set up to get oil into the rack. The narrow tube fitted in the gap between the rack and casing and restricted the flow enough so it would not spill out of the rack onto the floor.

Eventually i got near enough about half a pint of EP90 oil into the rack and refitted the gaitor.

…… Just hope it stays there!!

Update 2 weeks later:-

Well the oil didn’t stay in even though i had the ties on well and truly tight leaving oil over the garage floor. I guess that if you have a greased rack from a recent replacement rack then leave well alone.

Or …. if you have a rack with oil lubrication then convert to grease as most replacement racks are supplied with grease rather than oil. Pull back the boots at each end and grease the rack. Moss use lithium grease but the grease on mine looked like standard general purpose grease.