Steering Rack or Tie Rods??

Chucklz95LSC

Chucklz95LSC

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So I noticed a lot of play in the steering rack. Found out my inner tie rods are history. The rack isn't leaking at all. Just wondering what everybody else would do in this situation. Replace the inner tie rods or just the entire rack? Car has 116k on it and I already bought a Cardone rack and some Moog outers. I read that quite a few people were displeased with Cardone "after" I bought it. I sent a message to Max, but I'm worried to hear what an OEM rack will cost.
 
Might want to look at your steering knuckle also, may as well be bad. And I would replace the inners and then see what that does in relation to your problem. Better than guessing what to do since you already know the inners are toast. Then go from there, but since I would be replacing the inners, I would go ahead and do the outers, and also be looking at the upper and lower balljoints and UCA and LCA as a whole picture of what is needed. Just me though :D
 
Raped Ape said:
Might want to look at your steering knuckle also, may as well be bad. And I would replace the inners and then see what that does in relation to your problem. Better than guessing what to do since you already know the inners are toast. Then go from there, but since I would be replacing the inners, I would go ahead and do the outers, and also be looking at the upper and lower balljoints and UCA and LCA as a whole picture of what is needed. Just me though :D
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Thanks. Both LCA's and UCA's have been replaced. By the steering knuckle you mean the rag joint? Unfortunately I already planned on replacing the entire rack, so I have it out right now. If it's cheaper and not a difficult job to replace the inners I will just do that. Has anybody else had bad luck with the Cardone racks? I had ordered a closeout Moog rack on RockAuto, but it was the weekend and I guess somebody beat me to the order.
 
NoLimit95 said:
If you end up needing a rack, I have an OEM rebuilt 93 rack. Still in the box.
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I will see what Max can do for me, but if I can figure out a way to get to work all week I might consider.

How much are you looking to get for it and do you know what the shipping would be to AZ? PM me the info.

Thanks
 
Chucklz95LSC said:
I will see what Max can do for me, but if I can figure out a way to get to work all week I might consider.

How much are you looking to get for it and do you know what the shipping would be to AZ? PM me the info.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I'll get it to your door for $130 and it was an OEM rebuild, not something rebuilt by me. It was done right.
 
I just need to know something within a couple of days because I'm after something on here and need to get up the cash and I'm trying to get the money up from sh!t setting around here that I don't need.
 
NoLimit95 said:
I just need to know something within a couple of days because I'm after something on here and need to get up the cash and I'm trying to get the money up from sh!t setting around here that I don't need.
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PM sent.
 
So I need some clarification. Do the two lines going into the steering rack gearbox have teflon seals or not? I know that there are for the lines going into the pump.

I have called two Ford dealerships. First one told me only the return line to the rack gets one and then the other dealership said both lines get the seals. WTF?? so which is it? I have heard from different people that there are no seals at all.

Anybody?:confused:
 
there are Teflon rings on both. i found remnants of rings when i took mine apart.
i also just used teflon tape putting it back together (on my brother's SHO rack as well) after i got tired of the local dealer being totally incompetent on knowing whether they had any rings or if they had ordered any. no leaks. ymmv. idk if that was even a good idea, but it worked.
 
chris2523 said:
there are Teflon rings on both. i found remnants of rings when i took mine apart.
i also just used teflon tape putting it back together (on my brother's SHO rack as well) after i got tired of the local dealer being totally incompetent on knowing whether they had any rings or if they had ordered any. no leaks. ymmv. idk if that was even a good idea, but it worked.
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Good to know. Thanks for the info.
 
This is what he has coming. I never took those caps off and he should be getting the rack tomorrow. Would there be any seals under those caps?

Rack003.gif
 
As long as we're talking about this:
I hate to hijack, but I replaced my rack about a year ago. Seems to be performing fine. I am developing a POP during low speed maneuvering and a high-speed shimmy (75+ mph). Sound like tie rods?
 
altitude_19 said:
As long as we're talking about this:
I hate to hijack, but I replaced my rack about a year ago. Seems to be performing fine. I am developing a POP during low speed maneuvering and a high-speed shimmy (75+ mph). Sound like tie rods?
Click to expand...

Jack the car up and see if you have any play in the rack by grabbing the tire and moving it. Mine had a crap load of play, so the inners were bad. I also got the outers to replace too.
 
So has anybody put a 93 rack into a 94 or 95 Mark? You will notice that the lines are larger and are routed differently on the rack itself. I had to tweak the return line to get it to fit properly. What I don't understand is the fact that the return and pressure line are all the same for 93's and 95's, but yet there is no way to connect the return line because the main rack lines are in the way. Anybody else run into this problem? You can see how the lines are routed on the 93 in the picture from above. So the return line is easily routed between and down on the 95.:confused:

001.JPG
 
I see how they doubled them up on top of each other now. I guess they didn't think about it being an issue when they rebuilt it. I never would have noticed this.

So did you take the one 95 line and swap it over to the rebuilt rack? The last time I swapped a rack was from the wrecked 93 and put it on the 94 that I had that burned up. I didn't run into this at all on that one. Something must have changed in 95 or when it was rebuilt, they just routed the two lines together, not thinking.

Laser, if you see this, did that rack have any clips on the end of the boots?
 
altitude_19 said:
Will do...any easy way to tell if the problem is inner or outer?
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If you knock the tie rods down out of the spindle they will be very loose and just drop straight down as opposed to being more stiff and that would be the inner. At the same time u can mess with the outers and see if the boots are torn and if there's a lot of play in the ball joint. I'm not an expert by any means, but this is what I have discovered. There are plenty of people that can help and check the search for more info.
 
NoLimit95 said:
I see how they doubled them up on top of each other now. I guess they didn't think about it being an issue when they rebuilt it. I never would have noticed this.

So did you take the one 95 line and swap it over to the rebuilt rack? The last time I swapped a rack was from the wrecked 93 and put it on the 94 that I had that burned up. I didn't run into this at all on that one. Something must have changed in 95 or when it was rebuilt, they just routed the two lines together, not thinking.

Laser, if you see this, did that rack have any clips on the end of the boots?
Click to expand...

No, we just tweaked the rack lines just enough and the return line a bit to get the right angle. I will take pics when I get the teflon seals (hopefully tomorrow) and install the lines.

Don't worry about the boot clips. It's strange that they would've forgotten to install those, but I will just use the ones from my POS rack.

BTW the rack for the 93 is correctly built because I saw the drawing and it was the same as what you sent me, that's why I was shocked to find out that the return and pressure hoses were the same part #'s for a 95 even though they don't line up properly.
 
Chucklz95LSC said:
So has anybody put a 93 rack into a 94 or 95 Mark? You will notice that the lines are larger and are routed differently on the rack itself. I had to tweak the return line to get it to fit properly. What I don't understand is the fact that the return and pressure line are all the same for 93's and 95's, but yet there is no way to connect the return line because the main rack lines are in the way. Anybody else run into this problem? You can see how the lines are routed on the 93 in the picture from above. So the return line is easily routed between and down on the 95.:confused:
Click to expand...

i had this problem. just swap the lines over. there is no teflon rings under the lines actually on the rack. more like flared brake line fittings or something. just pull the old ones off and swap em over. easy.
 
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