Albrecht said:
↑
Well, thank god a real engineer has shown up.
Question: What are your thoughts on the (apparent, to me anyway...) problem of overcoming initial stiction from static when trying to take an accurate reading? Factory manual says pinion rotation torque should be 8 to 20 kg-cm, but I have found that the spring gauge indicates a much higher force to start the pinion moving than it does to keep it moving, if that makes sense? Same when measuring rack preload.
I think it is just stiction (rack and pinion both lubricated before assembly) rather than abnormal wear/mis-assembly.
Edited to add: Once said rack(s) had been installed and tested on the cars (fully assembled, but wheels off the ground) I didn't notice any abnormal free play, heaviness or notchiness.
The reading should be taken whilst the pinion is rotating at a constant speed. As you have mentioned the force required to overcome static friction is generally greater than the force required to maintain constant speed against dynamic friction forces, it is normally these dynamic forces that we are interested in therfore convention is to measure torque at constant speed. Glad I could help.