I came across a post mentioning the quill as a potential failure point in a looped power steering rack.
Basically they were saying that the slop in the quill is due to its 2 part design and without power assist it could shear resulting in a loss of steering.
Now that said I have daily driven a 88 with a looped rack for the past 5+ years. Obviously i have not had a major accident resulting in my untimely death.
Im wondering if anyone has actually had this happen or know of someone it has happened to. Looped lines are common around here so if its an issue someone should have experience.
thanks

 

No issues with either of mine

 

I've been rallycrossing the **** out of one for three seasons (2-3 events per month for 8-9 months each season) and put something like 30-40k on it as well and no issues whatsoever.


Before anyone says "OMG FB have boxes not racks"...



(Album of swap, BTW)

The quill DOES move. That's how P/S works, after all, the quill is a torsion spring and torque on the quill changes the opening in a valve and moves fluid to one side of the ram or the other in a negative feedback loop.

However, the quill can't move very much, even if the quill were to break there are interlocks in place, and did I mention that I've been rallycrossing some seriously rutted, bumpy, wheel-torn-from-your-hands courses since the start of 2010? There is still zero - 0 - play in the steering.

Some Miata guys say that if you don't weld the quill that there will be play in the steering. They're also wrong.

 

if Peejay didn't break it, its probably not going to break...

 

pete, what's up with your engine mounts?

 

I break them.

That's a GSL-SE engine, so no place for the passenger side mount. I used a redrilled/modified FC driver's side mount the passenger side.

THIS DOES NOT WORK WELL. I have to reweld all of the cracks/broken areas every month or so.