Anyone restoring an S1 Lotus Esprit should pay close attention to the steering rack mounts. The mounts slide into a groove in the chassis and have two nuts welded in place for the steering rack bolts to secure through. With age and the constant pull of the rack in either direction is enough to put significant stress on the mounts and the hardware. My bolts/nuts were completely stripped and worn down so the entire assembly needed to be re-fabricated.
I picked up the correct width angle bar and cut it to the right length, then purchased the hardware (grade 10.9), and welded the nuts in place. The grooves in the chassis for the mounts allows for a lot of adjustment play so the location of the welded nuts don't have to be perfect.
The new fabricated steering rack mounts use a more stout angle bar than the old
ones and I'm hoping the 10.9 hardware won't end up failing like the originals.
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