Hi,
My Wife's steering rack on her '52 plate Ford Ka has a knocking inner balljoint on the nearside. I have checked it carefully and it is definitely not just the track rod end. Does anyone know if it is possible to buy just the track rod and screw them on or do I need to buy the entire rack?

Also, if I do need to change the entire rack, do you have any tips or gotchas that I should be aware of?

Cheers,
Craig.

This may not be related at all but we had the same thing happen on our Ka - there was a knocking on the offside front wheel. When I looked at it, initially it looked like the steering rack - but further digging showed it to be the anti-roll bar bushes had gone. When I bought new ones the Ford guy said that it was a design flaw and that they often go. It turned out that the steering rack was fine but needed the bolts tightening to secure it.

The fiesta's do that aswell. The knocking sounds like something is going to fall off. Common problem with the anti roll bar bushes.. Theyr only 2 quid each to do..

And mondeos.........starting to see a pattern....

Thanks for the comments guys but given that I've now ordered a new rack, I hope it is the rack itself...

I'm pretty sure it is the inner balljoint on the nearside because the offside is fine with no knocking at all. The nearside on the other hand has perhaps 1/8" worth of movement, none of which appears to be coming from the track rod end. Also, when I'm moving the road wheel, the bellows on the rack are moving and yet the steering wheel is rock steady which to me suggests the inner balljoint.

Funnily enough, when I started my investigation into the knocking noise I though that it was indeed something to do with the anti-roll bar and was pretty horrified to find that it was the rack.

FYI, the prices I got today varied from £215 + vat from Partco, £110 + vat from TMS Motorspares and £107+vat from AB Factors. All of these require an exchange deposit over and above these prices (about £100 extra) but of course you get that back when you take back the old rack.

Oh well, I'll find out whether my diagnosis is correct at the weekend... The fact that two out of three of the above factors had the rack in stock seems to suggest it is not an uncommon problem so fingers crossed!
Cheers,
Craig.

Oh, one other thing...

Has anyone noticed that the upper bush on the macpherson strut has extremely poor location under full suspension droop? If you jack up a front corner and let the suspension hang, the upper bush doesn't locate firmly in the turret allowing the top of the struct to move about quite a bit. It's fine when the car is back on the ground and seems the same on both sides so I am guessing that it is normal but it is strange. I noticed it when pushing and pulling at my wheel to diagnose the knock as I found that the strut was knocking inside the turret.

Anyone seen this?
Cheers again,
Craig.