Help with steering rack packing shims?

[xvivalve]

Dave, I have owned over 70 Dolomites now; every single one has had but a single spacer/locator on the passenger side only...except one car, which had none, because it was missing.

The books are wrong.

[soe8m]

Mine do have these under the drivers side.

Jeroen

[xvivalve]

Interesting. Do they have them under the passenger side also?

[Jon Tilson]

I agree with Alun. There is a locating plate with angled holes under the rack on the passenger side only on rhd cars. It locates on 2 pips on the subframe
and stops the rack moving sideways. There is never a shim under the drivers side.

As Alun says, as more newbies get involved the plate gets lost and cars wander about.

Do it right or suffer the consequences in vague steering.

Jonners

[Edin Dundee]

I work on high capital machines, have done for almost 20 years now, the build quality and cost of these things are staggering.
The documentation is often invaluable, and sometimes wrong. This is where experience and hands-on time comes in.
Over the years many things have been done to the machines due to bodging, quick 'temporary' repairs, improvements, or people simply losing parts and not replacing them.
Sounds familiar, eh?
Never blindly trust a schematic or a parts diagram or a manual, unless you have nothing better to go on.
Always ask others. If several experienced people independently give the same answer, and you don't know better yourself, I've found it's usually safe to go with the most common answer.

[soe8m]

Interesting. Do they have them under the passenger side also?

No, only a shim at the same side as your RHD cars.

Jeroen

[Jon Tilson]

Lets be fair to poor old Dave here....
He did say the parts book says two and it does indeed show two with different part numbers and the crucial
locating one has angled holes and is also on lhd cars too - thanks Jeroen....

Thats the only one we've ever seen.....

This could be a first here....could this be the rarest ever dolomite part....154625

Jonners

[sprint95m]

There are quite a few inaccuracies in the parts books' illustrations, partly in the case of the 1850
perhaps because quite a few changes were made between the intended and actual launch dates, which were approximately 2 years apart.
(I am thinking that the second plate under the rack was deemed unnecessary during this time?)

Also, some of the illustrations weren't updated, eg the post 76 catalogue shows an early 1850 cylinder head rather than the TR7 one that was fitted to the 1850HL.





Ian.

[Toledo Man]

I ended up having a look under my 1850 last night and guess what?

There isn't a plate under the rack on the driver's side bush and U bolt so I think we've completely nailed this one. I don't know why later parts catalogues still show this plate. I can understand it appearing in the early 1850 and Toledo parts catalogues but it appears in my post-76 parts catalogue as well which is a late edition (February 1981 to be exact). I know there were several editions and mine all originalted from the Heritage CD-ROM.

[soe8m]

At every dolomite that extra plate is there but already welded on the subframe.

Jeroen

[Mad Mart]

Of course it is.

Jeroen has just shown-up all us oldies.

[Magenta Auto Sprint]

This solves a question that I have regarding a plate that I have in my box of bits, I had it powder coated and don't know here it goes, but I do now and that also means I have a rack bolted up without a shim

Malc

[soe8m]

A good old Englisch detective. All mysteries solved at the end.

Jeroen

[tony g]

So are we saying the extra plate in the parts diagram is the welded one on the subframe?


Just to sum up for those not following the shim only fits on the PASSENGER side. The very small welded tab that is welded there is to butt up against the Shim plate and this stops sideways movement.


Tony

[Mad Mart]

So are we saying the extra plate in the parts diagram is the welded one on the subframe?

Yes!