Identify rack?

[ak96ss]

OK, I have a remanufactured ZF rack from my parts car laying on the garage floor - I need to know what the heck it is before I go further with it. The numbers don't come up when I do a part search.

It has the following number cast in to it: 7832 501 200

There is also a tag riveted on to it that has this:

7832 955 163
1 140 833.0

Thoughts?

[ak96ss]

Bump for a crappy pic of the tag:



It looks much better IRL, but apparently my camera is having an off day.

[gearheadE30]

Are you trying to figure out what kind of car it is from? I'm somewhat confused as I was under the impression that there are only 3 e30 racks-M3, normal 4-turn, and 4.4-turn manual.

[ak96ss]

That's actually what I'm trying to figure out - which one is it? It is not the original rack from the 1991 318is it came out of, but I don't know if it is a stock replacement or one of the others.

I reckon the real question is - how do you tell the difference between the steering racks?

[ak96ss]

Bump - anyone?

[gearheadE30]

Do you have pics farther away? The normal e30 rack is smooth. I think the M3 rack has more ribbing on the outside, but I can't remember. I have a spare 4-turn rack that I can compare it to, though.

Also, can't you just turn the input shaft to see what the ratio is (roughly)?