Roughtrax Steering Rack End Joint

[=jon=]

Hi,

Has anyone had any issues with the replacement steering rack end joints from Roughtrax?

http://www.roughtrax4x4.com/?doc=16&cid=172&vid=1021

I had an MOT advisory for play in this 2 years ago, so replaced it, and the steering was noticeably less wandery. 12 months later, I get another advisory for the same joint, replace it again and put it down to the previous one being a duffer and no good from the start...

Come the last MOT time - guess what advisory I get... Yep - same joint going again - if you take the rubber boot off and wiggle the steering you can feel a bit of play in the joint...

Am I being incredibly unlucky and have had 2 duffers in a row, or are they crap to start with? At £27 I'm not expecting them to last as long as the £175 Toyota original ones, but think they should last longer than 12 months...

Cheers

Jon

[will.b]

MOT testers

Hi Jon,
Some years ago, I had a fail on one of my cars, cannot remember what it was now, but a mechanic mate had given it the ok, and we were both surprised when it failed. When we heard what the problem was, my friend had a look and said that the movement was within the specifications of the guide lines, and should not have failed.
I appealed against the decision, and the MOT was rearranged at the same garage, with an independent assessor appointed by the Department of Transport. The same mechanic demonstrated the movement of the joint in question, using a 3 foot long crowbar. The assessor immediately pointed out that he was using the wrong implement for the job in hand. I was given an MOT certificate, an apology, and the garage mechanic was warned of any future transgressions.
Ask the garage to show you the movement in question, mention that you have had 2 replacement parts, and ask if the appropriate method is being used. Any type of joint has a bit of play in it, and this play is reflected in the MOT Testers manual.
If that does not solve the problem, I would contact Roughtrax with your concerns, especially as they describe the part as "excellent quality" and see what their response is. Certainly the part should last many years under normal driving conditions. Another option would be to carry on using your car, and test your vehicle at another garage next year.

[TonyN]

Any sort of suspension lift or offroading eats suspension parts, is your truck stock, or given much stick offroad?

I've fitted lots over the years and not had any problems, apart from my own truck with mega lift, big heavy tyres and lots of offroading, but even then I've only changed them twice in about 5 years.

As above post, play in any ball joints is hard to quantify, so much dpends on what mood the MOT guy is in, 'some' play is allowed and expected, but from 'some' to 'to much' often depends on what side of the bed he got on, or if you've pee'd him of somehow during the test.

[tonupteabag]

As above it's "testers discretion" on whether he'll fail it just for the work..

[=jon=]

Any sort of suspension lift or offroading eats suspension parts, is your truck stock, or given much stick offroad?

I've fitted lots over the years and not had any problems, apart from my own truck with mega lift, big heavy tyres and lots of offroading, but even then I've only changed them twice in about 5 years.

Truck is pretty much standard as far as I know, and isn't given stick offroad, but it does clock up the miles roadwise (I probably do about 25K miles year). Standard wheels with AT2 265 60R16 tyres. It's bad enough now (and seems to be deteriorating) that you can feel the thing start to wander round as the road surface, so I'm going to have to change it again soon - it's just if I shell out £30 again, or source a genuine one - by the time it's changed, then I have to spend another £30 to get it tracked back up every time you don't have to change them too many times before you'd have been better off buying genuine to start!