My 1990 XJS needed a new rack. It’s was leaking everywhere. Thankfully I found a Mavel rebuilt rack for a reasonable price. When reinstalling I followed the procedure for finding center. Took off the grease fitting cap and inserted a skinny dowel. I noticed at the time, the driver side or side where it engages the column, the bellow was more compressed. At the time I assumed it was because the unit is offset to that side. However, when I went to do a rough alignment, so I can get it to my mechanic for a real one, the tie ride on the drivers side exposes far more thread than the previous rack. There was about 3/4” exposed almost equally on both sides in the old rack before I took it out. I’m not sure if I’m missing something? In hindsight, it seems like when I centered the rack, the bellows should have appeared equally compressed? There was definitely a notch that was felt when I centered it, but I’m new to this vehicle and this particular job. Any insight is appreciated.

 

What make of rack do you have, ZF (later rack) or the earlier Adwest one? If you have the ZF the centering notch is not below the grease nipple, but under a separate covering.
If the rack is off centre, the rack should self centre, engine running front wheels off the ground.

 

It is the Adwest. Well I never thought of it self centering when it’s running. Yes, it was on a lift off the ground when I did the bleed procedure, so I guess in that case it was centered correctly. The wheel alignment was off when I purchased the car, so perhaps that’s the difference I see in tie rod end length. I followed all the steps for centering the wheel and rack, so I couldn’t imagine what I was missing. Thank you