The good news is on my other post about the leaking union seals, I replaced the two seals on the top of the rack today and have no leaks.

The bad news is the steering wheel will only turn a few inches either direction.. I believe I somehow screwed up when putting the knuckles back onto the top of the tower.. they are all in a "line" and I believe they should not be lined up but the middle one should be off to the side??

I am sure someone else has changed/dropped a steering rack and done the same mistake? I would prefer not to drop the rack down again as getting the two bolts back into place on the drivers side is a REAL PITA when doing this job with the car jacked up and alone.

But, the knuckles will not come off without lowering the rack..they will get near the end of the splined end but need another inch or so of room to remove.

Can the steering column be raised up? I read the service manual and it says to take off the top column and then the lower column.. that is a ton of work.

After reading the manual and thinking this out, dropping the rack again is the only logical answer!!!

 

Thanks for this warning, Roger!
I'll be sure to remember this when I change my tower seals.
(';')

 

Lnrb

Here are the part numbers for the two tower seals from Coventry West:

JMW4511 - Seal, P/S Upper Pinon (with metal side that goes downward)
JMW6488 - Seal P/S Rack Pinion (lower seal)

Total cost with shipping to CA $22.00

Yes, make sure you notice the knuckles position.. cannot be in a line, must have offset.
Oh well, at least I know the wrench sizes and the car is still up in the air.

When done it will be nice to not have fluid under the car!

 

Dropped the two bolts in the front of the rack to get the needed clearance for the steering knuckles. There are two ways the knuckles go back on - the hardest way is the correct way.. need to get it started in the end and push the rack up into the splines... then test the steering to make sure. One more bolt to go - top one and all is done.. needed a break. While take a picture from the bottom for future references!

No leaks from tower seals or any other power steering fluids leaks! The floor under the car has no fluids for 36 hours... the pipes and tower are not leaking.. the writing on the engine block was from the original engine dyno run.

The other photo shows the steering knuckle on correctly.. hard to take a good photo...

 

Here are the photos of the two seals in the top of the tower on the steering rack in my '71 Jaguar... I do have a heat shield like the later 80-87 Jaguars. So today I wrapped the LH exhaust head pipe that is close to the tower with high temp insulating tape... should help the seals survive longer.

The seal on the left is the top one and it goes in with the metal washer side down... the other seal is below it and needs to be firmly pressed into place at the same depth it was
when you started...you are looking at the bottom of the seal in the picture with the multiple ledges... just note the distance from the seal to the next ledge on the tower.

Use wide plastic tools or at least no sharp edged tools after lubing and cleaning the space the old seal was in!

NO PS LEAKS AFTER THREE PLUS FULL DAYS AND MULTIPLE TRIPS WITH THE CAR!

 

after all that is done, isn't there a centering hole under the rack used with a tool to center the rack?

 

Yes, there is, I used it (checked it with a punch inserted) but the wheels and steering wheel were in the same spots.. so no change was noted. Did not have to take off the tie rods ends..

Just have to replace the knuckles in the proper of the two possible positions.