Steering rack wear compensator

A wear compensator for use in a vehicle rack and pinion steering assembly including a rack in engagement with a pinion shaft gear in a steering gear housing, the wear compensator comprising:

• a rack follower including a main body having shoes extending therefrom configured to slidably engage the rack;
• an adjuster plug having a main body configured to engage and be retained by the steering gear housing and including a plug cam surface;
• a wear cam mounted between the rack follower and the adjuster plug and rotatable relative to the adjuster plug, the wear cam including a wear cam surface operatively engaging the plug cam surface;
• a torsional biaser connected between the adjuster plug and the wear cam whereby the wear cam is rotatably biased relative to the adjuster plug;
• and
• a resilient member mounted between the rack follower and the wear cam.

A method of biasing a rack against a pinion shaft gear in a rack and pinion steering assembly having a steering gear housing, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) rotationally biasing an adjuster plug relative to a wear cam with a wear cam surface operatively engaging a plug cam surface in a minimum height pre-installation position;
• (b) mounting a rack follower in sliding engagement with the rack;
• (c) mounting the adjuster plug in the steering gear housing with the wear cam mounted between the rack follower and the adjuster plug;
• and
• (d) rotating the wear cam relative to the adjuster plug so that the wear cam surface and the plug cam surface move away from the minimum height pre-installation position as wear occurs in the rack and pinion steering assembly.