emergency locking tab washers?

I just replaced my steering rack in 1990 miata, and I need the 2 locking tab washers to put it back together.... then I find out you can't just buy them.. you need to order them from a dealer. CRAP. I have autocross tomorrow, and don't know what to do to drive the car.

anyone have a good solution?

I bet I will just have to skip it, but I figured I would check here, first.

I have CAD files for those if you have access to some kind of CNC machine (mill, waterjet, laser cutter, etc). PM me if you want them.

Wish I did.... but all our manufacturing is done out of house.

Go to HF and buy a set of safety wire pliers and a roll of wire. Upgrade to good aircraft wire ASAP.

Edit: Disregard that, thought we were talking about the rack mounting bolts.

Some material like what was used, hack saw, drill w/bit, file. Take the old one, pound it flat, trace it out on the new material, cut it out.

Thin fender washers and hacksaw/angle grinder to cut the excess OD into tabs?

Are the washers for mounting the rack to the subframe? Any reason you couldn't just loctite the bolts?

this is what I need:

right here, click me!

the little tabs on the inside stick in the steering rack, and when you are done tightening you bend the edges of the round but onto the flats of the inner tie rod.

and here is the tie rod, for reference:

I am considering just lockitighting it, until I can get some washers in.. next week. it is 11 miles to the autocross site, and runs are about 1 minute (and we usually get 6 runs.. 12 runs for the car, due to my GF driving also) and then 11 miles home. technically it should not come loose even without a lock washer.... but I fear that idea.

I would just loctite and add the washers later.

Wait, the new tie rods dint include new washers?

Didn't do new rods... they are good. swapped the steering Rack for a depowered one... forgot all about the washers.

Sounds like buying new rods might be the easiest path. Or just loctite them.

I thought about that, Kenny, but at 50 bucks a pop, for a part I can get for 7 bucks (with the same arrival time: next week) it isn't an option.

It makes me feel good that you guys are going through the same thoughts I had.

Not sure if access is good enough to do this on a Miata. If you have any carbide drill bits handy, I suppose you could drill a smallish hole, 1/8", maybe 3/16" tops through the rack and threaded end of the tie rod, and drive a roll pin in it.

You can usually reuse those. Bang 'em flat, bend them upon reinstallation.

I don't know what they look like, but what if you buy an oversize washer and the beat the overhang up against nut flats?

I would go to napa/autozone/whatever and ask for one in stock. I am sure they have one from another car that fits. I can see the picture quite well on my phone, but they look like the e30 inner tie rod lock washers. I would give it a shot.

Hydraulics section at tractor supply????

Re-use them...that's what I did. It's not like they are a highly stressed part.

EvanB wrote: I would just loctite and add the washers later.

Lots of cars don't even have the locking tabs, they just use Loctite. Works just fine.

In reply to Knurled:

I suppose if you think about it, the adjustment point just has a locknut snugged up by a tech in a hurry every 3-50k miles without loctite, and in the salt belt sometimes slathered in grease when a new one goes on, and they don't have much history of coming loose. The rod-rack connection also has a huge surface area on the shoulder. The lock tab washer is a massive redundancy, on a bad day.

While that is true, if the locknut loosens, there are about 15-25 turns of motion before the steering comes apart. You'd notice the massive alignment issue long before that.

If the rack end loosened, however, there are only five or six threads involved, and the pivot is very close, so you can get a lot of rocking motion. So not only is there a less forgiving distance between "loose" and "massively active toe", but the threads can get destroyed from the threads hammering up and down.

I have seen this happen exactly once... on a Ford product that had setscrews! Installation error, the tie-rod end wasn't even threaded down all the way when installed. Failure was just a matter of time. It destroyed the rack by pulling the threads off. That was a fun one to try to booger back together long enough to drive into the shop.