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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Early rack, inner ball joins - part 2

So I have a bit of play in my nearside inner ball joint. It's off the car and is currently resisting all efforts to disassemble it though I haven't given up yet and still have a few ideas to try.

However, does anyone know if any of the suppliers still sell these? All I can find are some very expensive QH ones on ebay in the US.

Thanks
Jeremy Cogman

Have you tried any Minor specialists, or searching ebay for Minor parts?
Dave O'Neill 2

Good thinking Dave, would that be 1959-1964.
Jeremy Cogman

Have you tried googling the part number (the BMC ones which can be shared with a number of vehicles, e.g. staring with AHA, not the Austin Healey ones).

Click on the part to get the non-Austin Healey part number: http://www.ahspares.co.uk/sprite/Steering/default.aspx

Cheers
Mike

M Wood

I have, it's ACA6018 and nobody seems to have them.
Jeremy Cogman

have you tried Paul at PBW, who used to work at Spridgebits? (on the same site years back)

Paul usually has lots of the obscure stuff in NOS or good second hand, must be worth a try

0121 554 3000

I can't ever get anything from his website though, he says it doesn't like Firefox much


Or is it me.... ?
Bill sdgpM

I did have some NOS, but I sold them at Spridget 50 !
Dave O'Neill 2

Jeremy

There is an interesting thread on the Morris Minor Owners Club Forum on problems with removing the steering rack inner balljoint: http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=35559&hilit=steering+ball+joint&start=30

Thanks for the part number for the complete tie-rod assembly (ACA6018). Have you tried the part numbers for the respective individual components of the tie rod assembly - unlikely to be successful, but worth a try? I.e. tie-rod ACA6015, ball housing - female ACA5304, seat - ball ACA5246, ball housing - male ACA6031 and then the various shims ACA6107, ACA5301, ACA5302 and ACA5303.

Perhaps a recon rack is the way to go? Perhaps from Peter May Engineering, Morris Minor suppliers (e.g. Bull Motif, ESM) as well as the usual Spridget suppliers such as AH Spares, Leacy Classics etc.

Cheers
Mike

M Wood

I was going to suggest a re-con rack.

Kiley Clinton in Birmingham are highly recommended.

http://www.steering-racks.co.uk/
Dave O'Neill 2

Thanks for your input folks, PBW didn't have them, don't want to part with the rack on exchange really, we've done 200k miles together.

Dave's Minor lead has led me to some replacements though so happy ending.

Cheers folks.
Jeremy Cogman

Jeremy

That's good news. Which Morris Minor specialist came up with the goods?

Cheers
Mike
M Wood

A chap near me is listing new MM racks for £114, no idea on quality but I could ask what he thinks of them though as he sells them there likely to be good hopefully. http://www.morrisminorspareparts.com/steering
David Billington

You wouldn't need to exchange your rack - they probably wouldn't have had one in stock anyway.

I had them rebuild the rack on my Sprite racer. They said that the rack bar was showing some wear in the straight ahead position. As that was the point where I would be travelling fastest, I told them to replace it.

Rebuilt rack with new rackbar came in at £80 IIRC, although it was a few years ago.

Glad you got sorted, anyway.
Dave O'Neill 2

Dave, many thanks for that info, I'll tuck KC's details away for future use. Remarkably bearing in mind my mileage I don't seem to have any pinion to rack play but I've always been very good at keeping it topped up with EP90.

The track rods I bought came from http://www.classic-spares.co.uk/ via their ebay account classicspares499.

As it happens I decided the play was marginal so packed the joint with grease (syringe via the holes on the back) and put it back on. Good to know I now have some spares in stock though.
Jeremy Cogman

This thread was discussed between 26/06/2015 and 01/07/2015

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