Triumph Repair: 1976 triumph spitfire steering rack, extreme fashion, turning radius

Question
I have just rebuilt the steering rack  and found that I could turn the wheels left to right in extreme fashion. I rebuilt, finding a spacer washer had been missing on the plug that holds down the inner column. Again, though it turned left to right at what seemed the proper radius, after applying some pressure it now swings left to right at extremes again. What makes it stop at the proper locations on the turning radius?

Answer
Tom,

The factory didn't have any provision for limiting the steering rack travel, other than the limits of the rack itself (teeth cut into the rack).

That's not to say that you couldn't engineer your own solution.

In 20 years of driving Spitfires I haven't found it to be a problem.



Cheers,

Jim