Re: Rack & Pinion determination-Grady Reply

["Dave Swingle" <swingle@xxxx>]

Rob has some difficulty getting this to the list and asked me to post 
the reply... Dave S

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----- Original Message -----
From: "PJ Grady Info" <info@xxxx>
To: "Dave Swingle" <swingle@xxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 6:58 PM
Subject: RE: Talks to God


I understand your dilemma. To the best of my knowledge the bearing is 
what is known as a "special". This is commonly done in the auto 
business by factories to keep people from putting generic components 
in their assemblies. There are many reasons for this.
1)The first obviously is greed. They want your future business on the 
components they manufacture.
2) Conversely this also helps the company to stay in business which 
is usually a good thing.
3) This is especially common with steering and suspension components 
because the company has your safety and their reputation as a top 
priority.
4) The quality of bearings and such varies greatly and this helps the 
company to control the safe repair and use of the product.
5) Equally important this helps control who rebuilds the components 
as the controlled distribution of repair parts also prequalifies who 
will rebuild these safety critical items.
Years ago I disassembled a new steering rack and had all of the 
bearings, bushings, preloader springs and shims manufactured from 
scratch. By far the most expensive parts were the bearings so I had 
to make 200 bearing assemblies for it to be cost effective. The high 
grade of steel we used had to be machined, heat treated to c60 
(that's hard!) and then ground to final dimensions. Heat treating to 
this hardness requires precalculation of the shrinkage rate or your 
new parts are now scrap! I spent many thousands of dollars to have 
all these parts manufactured. If you have a worn bearing then I 
assure you your rack will need other parts such as boots, a pinion 
seal and internal bushings. One of the reasons (besides the money I
invested) I haven't sold these parts individually is to protect 
people from poor and incomplete repairs on the most important safety 
item in their car.
I have sold racks to people who had bought them from at least two of 
the other major vendors because these assemblies were of poor 
quality. If you can't get a quality part from these guys what chance 
do you or even your mechanic have of doing a quality repair. PJ 
Grady's is the only vendor who rebuilds their racks in house using 
all new bearings, seals, bushings, preload shims and springs. Someone 
correct me if I'm wrong. Because our racks are forty five dollars 
higher than Houston's we have watched our sales of this part plummet 
in the last year or so. We went through our first 100
racks (200 Bearings) in about 3 years which I felt was sustainable on 
an investment verses return basis. If sales don't pick up I will 
either 
A) Discontinue manufacturing these parts as I use up existing stock 
or 
B) Offer them as a rebuild kit complete with rebuild instructions. 
The problem with
B) goes back to reason number 5. We lose all control of who rebuilds 
the rack and also the quality of the reusable core parts i.e. the 
rack body, pinion and rack bar. We reject about half the cores we 
receive because of pitting of the gears, housing damage etc. Our 
racks are rebuilt by my shop foreman who has many years of 
experience. You can put your life in his hands I guarantee it! Is 
that worth the extra forty five dollars? My ad for this part says it 
all "when your car won't steer, just remember, the good racks are 
here. Since many of you don't apparently think so I have decided to
decrease the price to match Houston's. If that doesn't help I just 
won't bother making them any more. I know the poor economy plays a 
part in this.
I've seen my sales on stainless radiator screens and life time 
guarantee tail light circuit boards drop as well (which no one else 
makes). Would anybody care if I stopped producing these parts? Please 
give me some feedback on this.I need to make some decisions.

Why did "Talks to God" ignore George Caprita's post about his 
experience with a rebuilt rack. I guess he only talks to God. 
Unfortunately George didn't tell him who he purchased his rebuilt 
rack from nor all the problems
he found inside it. Isn't anybody brave on this list? That's ok I 
won't tell either. I have more to lose than an owner does after all I 
have a DeLorean business. Several other people on this list have had 
similar problems with other vendors (are you listening Christian 
etc? - and what about your experiences Knut?) but no one speaks 
up...or it doesn't get past the moderators. I'll have more to say on 
this and other subjects at a later date.

Happy New Year

Rob Grady
______________________________

www.info(AT)pjgrady.com


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--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "TalksToGod" <5n-@xxxx> wrote:
> Hello again all...Those of you who have taken apart your rack & 
pinion
> know there are 2 open bearings-one on top, one on the bottom-of the
> shaft with the worm gear. It seems to me that the STEEL worm gear 
and
> shaft will not wear out so very easily, so-it's the bearings that 
will
> wear before anything else even comes close. I confirmed this on mine
> by checking the wear on the bearings-sure enough only ONE (one 
closest
> to the top) was worn and is causing my rack and pinion to function
> very poorly with much play. The gears are absolutly fine with no 
wear
> what so ever. Now, why am I going to spend almost 400 dollars plus a
> core charge and shipping troubles for JUST ONE lousy bearing? It 
also
> comes to my attention that there are a large amount of people 
willing
> to sell me (regular people, not venders) used rack & pinions BUT 
ALSO
> want my old core-this I thought was very odd. This only tells me 
that
> there has got to be a cross reference for these bearings-there must
> be. Why are we paying so much money just for a bearing replacement? 
I
> refuse to pay this amount of money for 1 worn bearing-does anyone 
know
> anything about these bearings? I am determined to find one that will
> work-out of all the bearings being made in the world there will be 
one
> similar!