duplicate post woops

 

I just wrapped up putting my car back together (minus the underbody belly pans) and bled the PS fluid with the engine off. looking forward to taking it for a test drive tomorrow but i'm sure my alignment is going to be off by a little bit. unfortunately i still have another project before i can call my car complete.

all i can say is you can do it man! it took me forever and I had to fight my sway bar bolts. be VERY VERY PATIENT with the pressure and return hose lines. . do not cross thread them!! I had a heart attack thinking i cross threaded my low pressure return line till i looked side to side with my OEM one and saw that the after market one i used had quite a few more threads. I also ended up cutting one of my end links with an angle grinder.

see 9:33 on how he removes the steering nut.

BTW are you in the northeast or midwest? that picture of the bolt you showed looks considerably worse than mine. and my car has its share of nasty looking bolts.

 

I'm jealous, I was hoping to do the same. Looks like it will be next weekend before I get to be that lucky. With some luck I can get the steering shaft off one of these evenings during the week and get everything ready to reassemble Saturday.

 

Update: Bolts are here and reassembly will be commencing in the very near future.

 

Keep us up to date. I still have the old steering rack sitting in my garage.

One thing i noticed is that i could have totally re used my outer tie rods from my old rack as they feel like brand new still with a ton of resistance. after 150K miles that seems pretty wild. even the end links didn't have any play, just ripped rubber covers. i ended up replacing both anyways but might keep the old outer tie rods just in case if i can get them off. my sway bar bushings were compressed and had marks, but i would say they were acceptable.

 

It's back together. 3 quart flush and run for about 10 minutes. Not seeing any leaks but some small air bubbles in the reservoir. The rack was a donor from an '09 350 salvage with a bad engine so that was a calculated gamble. I think I'm a spelling or 2 off in the intermediate shaft as the steering wheel is ever so slightly off center. I kept the outer tie rods of the donor rack as they were in better condition. I'll take it out for a short drive in a bit to confirm driveability. Steering so far feels like the huge power assist of my Yukon.

 

Center is off by this much

 

Oh man, the whole rack has to come back out to fix that.


 

I'm hoping the alignment can manage that. Worst case scenario is probably loosen the intermediate shaft from in side and at the bottom of the universal and get it straight.

 

you can probably disconnect the shaft and line it up correctly but you could make things worse. my brand new oem one had a green line so i was able to do mine pretty easily. yours is probably worn and may be harder to do while in place. it could just also be that your alignment is off.

 

Mine had marks too but I didn't use the shaft on the used rack. I used the one in the car. The markings were a bit off location wise so I paint penned the groove on the used rack shaft before I removed it and then lined that up with the markon the intermediate shaft in the car. Steering wheel was strapped down so it wouldn't move. I'm a spline or two off, maybe.

I'm thinking it's largely alignment today. I just used the whole assembly from the donor car as everything was in better shape that what I was removing in terms of tie rod ends, boots everything. I didn't measure lengths/count threads thinking it could translate and not be off much. I took a few measurements this afternoon and it definitely needs toe-in. So I learned my theory was flawed.

Fortunately, I have a good shop for the alignment. If I tell them what I did they will get me set up. The last vehicle I had aligned there took almost half a day because the owners wife is ASE certified too and she won't let a car go out until the steering wheel is straight and doesn't pull! It was the same way when I took it in with a slightly off center wheel. They said it was on the rack two or three times because she insisted on perfect. I'm pretty sure they recentered it too. It'll cost me a little more probably but it's worth it. I'll get an appointment tomorrow and leave the belly pans off until it's aligned.

 

Just dropped mine off for alignment this morning. Drove about 25 miles to the shop because it's near my work, but it drove well and i think i did a pretty damn good job with aligning it by the thread count on each side!

 

Alignment tomorrow morning scheduled. Leaving the belly pans off in case they need to readjust the shaft.

 

...and the saga continues.... One front inner tie rod on the used donor rack is bent per the alignment tech and one of the rear camber bolts is seized. So the alignment is as good as we could get it. So it's toed in in the front and out in the back. NAPA warranty I suppose... but some how $800 parts and labor for tie rods seemed a bit high. Rock Auto here I come...

 

If your car is AWD you can run rear Rockauto toe bolts from a 13-18 RAV4 on the back. I've got those on my car. It's a big job to change them though, you'll have to cut the control arm off most likely as the bolt seizes to the bushing collar

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