So I just bought a 95 Miata. I found the steering rack is leaking badly. My question is when doing the Flyin Miata method is it necessary to weld up the pinion shaft?
So I just bought a 95 Miata. I found the steering rack is leaking badly. My question is when doing the Flyin Miata method is it necessary to weld up the pinion shaft?
Not necessary but does fix a lot of slop you would have otherwise. Havent welded my depowered rack yet and cant tell the pinion slop from possibly bad tierod ends. If your taking it apart and removing the oring seals might as well weld the pinion too. If not dont worry too much
Is this a hard or specialized welding job or can any decent welder do it?
I have rallycrossed my depowered RX-7 rack - hard - since 2010, maybe 70k miles ago, and the pinion stil lfeels good. The rack bushings themselves are worn and there's about 1/16" of vertical play in the rack, but the pinion is fine. I've broken, bent, or mangled practically everything else in the suspension, but the rack keeps on truckin'.
RX-7 FC rack is identical to Miata rack except for width.
Depowering was super easy - make plugs for the pump ports by cutting them flush with the nut and welding over, then cutting the ram lines off and looping them with a short piece of fuel hose.
Any decent welder should be able to do it.
... or 'plug' the ports by cutting off the hard lines, leaving ~ 3/4" sticking out, bend that remaining line over itself and squish it in a bench vice, then file off sharp corners. Intent is just to keep dirt, etc outside of the rack internals from getting in.
If money is not an issue, there are specific plugs that are made to replace the line fittings. They look nice, but can't see a benefit beyond that.
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