I have a small amount of play on the nearside inner steering rack joint, I understand there is a joint under the gaiter and you can buy new ones. (its not the trackrod end). The MOT station said its not enough for an advisory but more than he would expect.
My question is can I remove the gaiter on the rack without getting covered in oil/grease to inspect the joint and how much play should there be in it. Also if the rack is oil filled how and what do I refill it with?
I remember someone mentioning this in a post but can't find it.

Rog Freelander 2
Rangerover L322 4.4 TDV8

Unless you have a leaky seal there should be very little oil/grease behind the gaiter as it is only really there to prevent dirt and debris getting into the rack. You should be able to adjust the inner joint to take away any play at it has a locknut type arrangement that allows for adjustment. The locknut might be staked in place and very difficult to undo and it is very important that it done up tightly and staked again after adjustment. You should just be able to move the rod in any direction with no binding or tight spots when adjusted correctly. There should be no noticeable play or movement in it. Good luck!

an MOt station cannot fail a steering rack on excess play in an inner steering joint ! Its not listed as an MOT item
The correct procedure is to measure free play at the steering wheel , this must be done with the engine running and vehicle on the ground.
If you jack a vehicle up and let the wheels hang and without the engine running there will always be a small amount of free play in the knuckle joints in the steering rack as these are pre-loaded sprung joints. many MOt testers use this method and they are wrong.
many many steering racks have been failed when there is nothing wrong with them and DVSA did address this several years ago but many garage fail to read the manual ( now online ) or update their training sufficiently
Most likely there will be nothing wrong.
When the car is parked get someone to rock the tiny amount of freeplay in the steering with the engine running and if the wheel moves nothing wrong.
With rack and pinion steering and 2 UJs your allowed up to 13mm free play at the steering wheel
Numerous joints 48mm and steering box 75mm Jaguar x-type sport gone
Jaguar x-type 2.2d sport one of my best cars ever sadly gone
Freelander 2 GS auto 2008 most unreliable ever ! gladly gone
Freelander 2 GS manual 2013 only time will tell !

Thanks for the replies, the tester was just noting there was a difference between the two sides so he said worth a look to check nothings wrong.

Roger Freelander 2
Rangerover L322 4.4 TDV8

Not yet got round to looking at this but a quick look under the car seems to indicate I will have problems getting to the lock nuts with the rack in (offside). There was a thread about removing the rack but no one seems to have answered the question if you can remove the rack without dropping the sub frame? Logic say you just have to split track rod ends, remove steering column connection (as column should slide upwards) and remove two nuts holding rack to sub frame. It then might come out through wheel arch?

If I have to drop the sub frame I assume the engine comes with it and hence a large job?

Any advice from anyone who has done this appreciated before I take it all apart.

Roger Freelander 2
Rangerover L322 4.4 TDV8

finally done this, for anyone who wants to do their inner track rod.

Cost of part £14

The issue i had was play in one side of rack when there is no movement in track rod end.

You can get the inner track rod off without the special inner track rod tools in fact i am not sure some of the tools you can buy would fit. mine was the drivers side

Remove wheel and put lock fully over to left, i couldn't release lock nut on track rod end so split taper joint with fork tool,
Removed boot tie at track rod end and steering rack end to expose inner tie rod nut.

You can then get an adjustable spanner on inner tie rod and with a bit of grunt release.

Just unscrew and remove track rod end (after measuring distance to lock nut to ensure the new one is adjusted to same length)

I put new end on inner track rod before refitting (as well as boot)

Then just reassemble and tighten with spanner, also used a little bit of loctite

The hard part was the cable tie at the steering rack end of the boot, as there is no real lip on rack end you have to get it really tight or the boot comes off and there's no room to work. I couldn't get a plastic tie tight enough but luckly had some metal ones which I could.
Job done

The old rod had a lot of play in it, looks like there a nylon insert which wears.

Hopefully of use to anyone who needs to replace theirs, you don't have to remove steering rack

Roger Freelander 2
Rangerover L322 4.4 TDV8

Well done Roger,
and thank you for the write up, sounds like you have
a good MOT tester too.
Dave DAVE.

Hello, Does anyone know the correct torque for the inner steering rack joint? Thanks in advance, Peter.

Just do it tight.
It's a sturdy unit which will take plenty of torque.
Put a dab of thread lock on it too. Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate. The family car.
2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Gone.
2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE. Gone.
Audi A5 convertible, my daily driver.
1972 Hillman Avenger GT, the project.