(ET) Steering

[John Rieffel <jrieffel gmail com>]

The steering on my E15 is shot. There are two related problems. The first 
is that the sleeve which connects the rack (fan gear) to the horizontal 
steering bar has a lot of play -- about 90 degrees of steering wheel 
movement without any turning of the horizontal shaft. I suspect I'm not 
using the right hardware to connect the shaft to the horizontal shaft. 

Secondly, the rack and pinion disengage -- under load the teeth of the 
pinion push the rack (fan gear) forward where it then disengages and 
"clicks" rather than actually turning the wheels. Are either of these 
gears the kind of thing that can strip?  Or is there a mechanical trick to 
keeping the rack from being pushed forward by the teeth of the pinion?

Regards, jr