205 Rack Seals Blew Out

[Capago 0]

Hi all,

 

Ive got a rack ive rebuilt myself using locally manufactured (australian) seals to rebuilt a 205 Si rack (so non-gti rack which has 2.8ish turns opposed to 3.2) using std spline drive. engine is an rfs gti6 with a 306 cabriolet (n3?) pump

 

its had about 5 hours of use before it blew out the top pinion seal, it was coming out like a fountain, as i was pulling into a carspace, and it had some very hard driving the day before. im yet to dissasemble it to check whats gone wrong, but im after some advice as i suspect I may be correcting a symptom not a cause.

 

My thoughts are ive nicked one of the high pressure seals inside (and the top one that blew out is just a dust seal more than anything, not designed for pressure), or scored the housing, the pump has a faulty pressure release valve or ive just used the wrong fluid. I used a castrol version of dextron III.

 

Advice/thoughts/criticism?

 

Much appreciated.

[petert 586]

I agree that the top is only a low pressure seal. Same as a diff seal, cam seal, etc. Something must have gone wrong underneath.

[Capago 0]

now i have it out and i see the top pinion seal pushed out as well as the washer that should have been peened over it, so it looks like it had considerable force behind it

Sorry about the potato camera quality photos my phone had a smashed screen off getting repair just a cheap one

Edited February 28, 2015 by Capago

[Capago 0]

pulled the pinion out and there was no damage to the seals or housing...can anyone provide an insight??

[welshpug 1,657]

Not likely on here, stuff like this gets binned or returned as a service exchange part, people dont tend to bother taking car hydraulics apart at all really.

[petert 586]

Did you warm them up before installing? Perhaps they stretched?

[Capago 0]

no just soaked in fluid..

[Capago 0]

i would get it exchanged but worried that i will get a standard gti rack back as i went to trouble to find a base model rack 2.7 ish turns