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power steering fault

harry3

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with VL power steering, there should be 2 plastic plugs on the rack with a length of plastic tube joining them, this tube can shrink, pulling the tube off one end

this arrangement is to equalise air pressure, but the arrangement has no protection against bushbashing so is often missing, having been knocked off by hitting something. the 2 holes should be covered over, otherwise dirt gets in and eventually damages the rack, leading to expensive problems. the plugs are a push in fit and not available from holden, does anyone else have them?

the design of it seems very much an afterthought and surely it should have been armoured to protect it

the VL isnt a good car for bushbashing or offroad work, the front sticks a long way out from the front wheels, with the bottom of the radiator at risk of being hit
 

Bax

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Enzed or Pirtek will have the fittings for you. Which part are you talking about though, The only rubber hose I remember from my power steering was from the pump to the resevoir. I have a metal hose going from the column to the rack though.
 

Don Sutton

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The pipe he is talking about is the air transfer tube. It's purpose is to transfer the air from one rack boot to the other so that when you turn the wheel one boot will not blow up like a baloon while the other sucks in. If you can't get any fittings then the rack housing can be replaced with the one from the VN which has a pushed in metal tube. The later housing after this used a different sized pinion brg so parts cannot be transfered though you can fit a later intermediate shaft. The input spline was also changed from a part spline to a double "D". The VL housing can be modified to take a steel or copper tube by tapping the holes in the housing, making sure you use grease on the tap to prevent chips going inside, to take standard tube fittings such as Turner or Swagelok.
Plugging the holes off is as suggested above entices water leaks into the gear by creating a vacuum in one of the boots when turned to lock which when driving in rain can be sucked past the boot seal against the housing (this is not machined and is shot peened casting surface).
Incidently the reason they were changed from plastic to steel was the V8's to 98 campaign that saw V8's retained in the VL. The exhaust pipe ran alongside the steering gear and melted the tube. The V8 continued to be a reason for premature seal failure because of the exhaust proximity for several models.
 
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bangers

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Don, you are a prime example of why i like old(er) people. for their knowledge. i'd be suprised if anyone else here knew that. i sure as hell didn't. you should be online more often.
 

harry3

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on my VL the plugs and tube were still in place, but the tube had shrunk over the years, partly pulling it off 1 plug and so letting air in
I wonder why such a stupid design was ever approved as its easlly knocked away when bushbashing
 

vlv8vic

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yup, my plastics were busted off when i got the car. the rack was on the way out so i replaced with a new rack, while it was out of the car i did a little drilling and put some copper tubing in. also welded the smallest little gaurd on the rack to help protect my pipe. fool proof.
 

Don Sutton

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Had it been known that at original design concept that the V8 was going to be used (the VL was not originaly planned to have a V8 as mentioned in my earlier post) then a larger diameter rack would have been used ie 28mm instead of the 25mm. This would have retained sufficient bend strength with gun drilling of the rack for the air transfer tube as was adopted on the VT. The smaller assembly found it wanting in terms of assistance on fully laden VP V8's so with the VR, Holden changed the steering geometry to a zero scrub radius which lowered the efforts required. The plastic tube air transfer was thought to be OK at the time as no one envisaged bush bashing and the TRW predecessor simply had a tube inserted into the rack boot each end which in hindsight could also be easily flicked out if caught by a branch or similar. Another problem which came up in service was the 'Doughnut' craze. A number of gears were returned where people had used cars (mostly rental cars) to do doughnuts in parking lots etc which heated the power steering oil hot enough to melt the plastic rack bush at the left hand end of the rack. It was found in various stages where the jet of oil coming from the turn port blasted the bush similar to holding the garden hose at the ground and eroding the soil. Another very dangerous thing I have seen is the where the gear has been dismantled and the trim pin replaced by a roll pin instead of a dowell in the input shaft. If a roll pin is used, it will open and close with the strain until it splits. If this happens and depending on the pin location radially can escape the coupling resulting in an extremely dangerous situation where the gear could get full boost in any direction. Even if it is broken and cannot fall out it will still be diabolical to drive. A solid correct sized dowel pin must always be used.
 
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