How to remove the rack – quickly.

Time taken: Two hours.

Tools required:
Metric ring and open ended spanners
5/8 open ended spanner
Hammer
Mallet
Large flat screwdriver
Ball joint splitter
Jack
Axle stands
Socket set with universal joint
Oil drain tray

Method:
First loosen the front wheel nuts and jack the front end as high as you can. I find the front crossmember is good for this. If you can’t quite get the jack under drive the car onto two blocks of wood.

Once the car is jacked up and securely supported on axle stands you can remove the front wheels and place them under the car for additional safety.

The first step is to remove the exhaust ‘Y’ piece to give you access to the rack. You will need to undo the two M6 nuts on the band clamps (circled) and then tap the clamps open with a hammer and flat screwdriver. They may be a little tight if they haven’t been undone for a while and I’d recommend wire brushing the threads if they’re dirty/rusty as the clamps are expensive.

Next you need to remove the two M8 nuts (circled) holding the exhaust clamp in place and remove the bolt (arrowed) which secures the front of the exhaust to the engine.

Liberally spray WD40 around the exhaust joint, it makes removing the Y piece much easier.
Removal is just a case of wriggling it from above until it finally gives in. It takes a lot of wriggling! Once the Y piece is free you can get access to the rack fairly easily as can be seen in the pics below.

Loosen the nuts securing the track rod ends. I tend to measure/count the threads before I remove the lock nuts to get the geometry good enough to drive for alignment when the car is rebuilt.

I use an old fashioned fork splitter to undo the track rods.

When you’re working inside the offside arch loosen and remove the three M8 nuts and bolts that secure the steering UJs to the rack, but don’t try to split them as yet. They’ll just pull apart when you come to remove the rack.

Drain the PAS fluid. You can remove a fair bit from the reservoir with a syringe/turkey baster but some will inevitably need draining from below. Undo the jubilee clip that secures the low pressure pipe to the rack (circled), pull off the pipe and drain into a catch tray from below.

You can loosen and remove the high pressure pipe while it’s draining. Also undo the unions on the two external feed pipes and remove them, this makes getting the rack out much easier. It is possible to remove the rack with them attached but it takes much longer.

The rack is now ready to be unbolted and removed from the car. Undo the four M8 bolts that hold the rack to the chassis and rotate it forward to disengage the lower UJ. Once the rack is free slide it into the near side wheel arch.

With the rack in this position angle the offside track rod upwards and then remove the rack vertically through the chassis rails.

The rack removed:

Finally reassemble the external oil lines and insert bungs to prevent the ingress of dirt and fluid leakage during transit.

A word of warning: unless you specifically ask them not to, most places will paint your lovely aluminium rack black!