Steering rack replacement

["ksgrimsr <knut.s.grimsrud@xxxx>" <knut.s.grimsrud@xxxx>]

I had a chance to replace my steering rack over the holidays and I 
thought I would share my experience with you in the event some of you 
are considering the same procedure.

In my case, my steering had gotten a bit sloppy due to excessive 
backlash in the steering rack plus the lower ball joints being shot. 
I'll only talk about the steering rack replacement here and save the 
fun with the lower ball joints for another time. The effect of the 
steering rack being shot was that the car tended to follow ruts in 
the road and there was a little bit of play in the wheel. The overall 
experience was that the steering was not very precise and generally 
seemed sloppy.

I purchased a reconditioned steering rack from DMC (Houston). When it 
arrived, I was surprised at how well the unit was packed. It arrived 
in a sturdy wooden crate with foam inserts keeping the rack snugly in 
place. The reconditioned rack consisted of the rack itself plus new 
tie-rod ends. I was pleased to see that the tie-rod ends included the 
newer style flexible black rubber grease boots -- the older style 
beige plastic grease boots all seem to have brittled such that they 
tend to split as soon as they are tightened to the steering knuckle.

Replacement took a little over an hour plus a trip to the alignment 
shop. 

Details on the process are on the DMCNews website at

http://www.dmcnews.com/Techsection/steeringrack.html

After I was done my car again has the kind of precision steering that 
contributes so much to the overall handling/feeling of the drive.

Happy driving.

Knut