1/2 way there

Decided to pull the rack today...

The tie rod ends came off the knuckles with one rap of a hammer on the loosened castle nut, not hard enough to damage the threads. Wahoo!

The oil lines came off easy enough, as did the steering shaft universal joint.

The bolts and nuts holding the exhause Y pipe to the heads actually all came off quite easily! 3 nuts came off...3 studs came out with nuts attached. But all with a 3/8" socket wrench with a 14mm deep well socket, not much torque applied. I could not get the pipe off the cat converter, which would have made removal much easier...but I was able to snake the whole thing out after removing one of the outer tie rod ends.

3 of 4 of the rack clamp bolts came out fine and the other snapped. I had to drill it out and tap it to a larger size. A pain but the bolt was soft and drilled easy (hence why it snapped so friggin easy).

I ordered a replacement remanufactured A1-Cardone rack from partsgeek.com. Hopefully it comes in before next saturday and I can put it all back together.

Oh, I looked in the repair manual and replacement of the rack is warranted if there is "free play of rack shaft in radial direction of" .0059 to .0071 inches or more, right and left sides respectively. Oh, I got that and more...much much more. Like .1 inch!

I want my Scooby back together....just so I can do a timing belt change in 5000 miles!


Joe

 

Decided to pull the rack today...

The tie rod ends came off the knuckles with one rap of a hammer on the loosened castle nut, not hard enough to damage the threads. Wahoo!

The oil lines came off easy enough, as did the steering shaft universal joint.

The bolts and nuts holding the exhause Y pipe to the heads actually all came off quite easily! 3 nuts came off...3 studs came out with nuts attached. But all with a 3/8" socket wrench with a 14mm deep well socket, not much torque applied. I could not get the pipe off the cat converter, which would have made removal much easier...but I was able to snake the whole thing out after removing one of the outer tie rod ends.

3 of 4 of the rack clamp bolts came out fine and the other snapped. I had to drill it out and tap it to a larger size. A pain but the bolt was soft and drilled easy (hence why it snapped so friggin easy).

I ordered a replacement remanufactured A1 Cardone rack from partsgeek.com. Hopefully it comes in before next saturday and I can put it all back together.

Oh, I looked in the repair manual and replacement of the rack is warranted if there is "free play of rack shaft in radial direction of" .0059 to .0071 inches or more, right and left sides respectively. Oh, I got that and more...much much more. Like .1 inch!

I want my Scooby back together....just so I can do a timing belt change in 5000 miles!


Joe

Hello there joe, Have you already installed rack that you have ordered? how was it? I also planned to order this one for my steering rack is leaking and most of the stores are selling a1 cardone.

 

Not too bad...

Yes, I installed it and it wasn't too bad. Just make sure you put the car up on ramps and/or jackstands so you have room underneath. The A-1 Cardone parts seem just fine to me. However, the rack comes with a couple hydraulic lines already on it, and one of them was damaged. So I took the one off my rack and replaced it without any problems, and they accepted the core back with no issues.

I will give you a couple tips--I learned the hard way.

1) center the steering wheel/rack/front tires and lock the steering wheel in place!!!! Use bungees or straps between the brake pedal and the steering wheel. Do not depend on the ignition lock to lock the wheel...you actually want the ignition lock unlocked so you have a bit of play to line everything back up again. But you do NOT want to spin the steering wheel after disconnecting the steering shaft. IF you do you will bust the "steering roll connector" and you will lose horn, cruise control, and airbag functions and have to replace the roll connector at the price of about $70 bucks.

2) center the replacement rack before installing it.

You will need an alignment when you are done and be sure to ask them to center the steering wheel. But if you screw up on 1) or 2), then they might not be able to because there might not be enough adjustment in the tie rod ends to do so.

Good luck. I feel fortunate that I was able to do this job myself...it might have proven much more costly otherwise. But it is nothing more than pulling parts off and replacing them. Might want to spray some liquid wrench on the four rack hold down bolts ahead of time to avoid busting them off like I did.

Joe

 

Update

Everything works fine. But, the car follows ruts in the road more now than it used to. It tries to wander to the right or to the left, with the road contours, being the crown of the road or the cracks or ruts. Before, it didn't seem to care as much.

Nobody would notice this except a mechanic who did the work himself. But still...I liked it the way it was before. I guess I would not do the repair the same way. I mean, the oem rack was bad, it had too much looseness on the one side. It was clearly worn out.
But maybe I would have gotten a different brand or something, this one just seems worn out in the way it drives, though it is not loose and doesn't leak.