Rack gaiter

[paul 300358]

I replaced one of the gaiters on the rack a couple of months ago with an nitrol rubber one. Then refilled with hypoid 90. The gator now looks like it will need replacing shortly. Is this due to a reaction with the hypoid 90? The old drivers side one still looks ok. Would it be worth changing the oil to lithium grease?

[myoldjalopy]

The Minor steering rack was designed to take Hypoid 90 oil so I would hazard a guess that the gaitor is of poor quality. I seem to recall other posts reporting early failure of these items. Some do use grease instead of the hypoid oil specified in the service manuals, so you could try it, but I suppose hypoid was specified for a reason. Unfortunately, spare parts today are not always the same quality of the originals and this can apply to almost anything - rubbers that perish too soon, chrome that goes rusty too early, control boxes that have early failure, poor quality condesors etc. It seems to be a bit pot luck