The early steering racks was maded by Burman´s from Birmingham also the early pas steering racks too.
The production rights were later sold to Supra when Burman pulled out of the rack and pinion market in the
mid-nineties. There may have been variants and minor changes during the transition to Supra but mostly the
construction and inner parts stay the same by direction and only the housing was changed, Chimaera/Griffith/
Cerbera version to Speed Six. Once only the rack/shaft by the Speed Six version was change to longer.
Both companies no longer exist and there has been NO production of these racks in the past 12 years.
Steering pinion/valve and all inside dimension were equal between the tvr pas steering racks.
But by Supra changed parts and whose the quality. Depend on TVR cost pressure by small serie quantites
Supra was looking for economicalcal spare parts. Mechanical was no possibilities so that only by casting
or sealing Supra saw alternatives.
Supra used about from 1996 oil seal of the producer "Goetze" inside of the pas oil power section
Goetze produced this oil seal in a very massiv and stabil configuration, better as all competitors on the marked
and exactly in the right dimension like Supra was need it. But also in mid-nineties "Federal Mogul" bouth out the
company "Goetze" and sold out the oil seal devision of "Goetze".
Supra and TVR toghter bought up in this time a lot of oil seals of the old "Goetze" production which the new owner
was stopped. These oil seals and many internal parts are available to buy of the old stock of TVR/Supra still now
from some dealers.
But, so we have found it out, Goetze never was produce or specified for these job as high pressure steering oil seal
for about max.140bar ! It was only one ordinary low cost seal
for radial function and
not axial function which
was in quality better as the seals of the competitors.
Also we was used/bought these steering seal kit´s from the island and built this.
Parallel as we started to reconstuct the different TVR steerings housing, pinion & racks and we was glad whose oil seal kit´s
was ready to buy from the island.
This was one mistake by some steerings how we found out later. Because they was leaking after some thousand kilometer.
Quick we analysed the problem and saw the basic fault. Immediatley we was search for one experienced producer of pas
oil seals and let´s produce the smallest quantity = thousend of oil seals in right dimension for TVR Pas steering racks.
Cheerio
Gregor
www.vtautomotive.com"quality first"