steering rack - difficulty turning

2

2000sport

Dedicated LVC Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
808
Reaction score
1
Location
Berea, OH
My power steering recently developed 2 dead spots (where it feels like manual steering)...

at roughly 45* to the left and 45* to the right.

When steering thru these 2 points, I can here a clunk in the steering.
 
Impatient!
Seems like it'd have to be a busted rack, unless there's something seriously strange with your suspension.
Get under it and at least look around.
 
Not impatient... Just clicked submit too soon (didnt even ask a question in the original post)

this is just one more thing to add to my steering issues as of late.
 
Well, got the car up in the air last night, and still had those hard spots, even with no load on the rack.

With the car running, when I would go thru those hard spots, the whole rack was jumping up and down off the mounts.

Found a good rack at a local yard for 75 with a 4 month warranty, so that will be going in this weekend.

Hopefully this will end my year and a half long battle with steering/vibration issues as well.
 
2000sport said:
Well, got the car up in the air last night, and still had those hard spots, even with no load on the rack.

With the car running, when I would go thru those hard spots, the whole rack was jumping up and down off the mounts.

Found a good rack at a local yard for 75 with a 4 month warranty, so that will be going in this weekend.

Hopefully this will end my year and a half long battle with steering/vibration issues as well.
Click to expand...

Don't waste your money on that rack. It is the steering linkage. Mine just did that last fall, and it is a failure of the universal joint in the linkage between the firewall and the rack.
 
so that U joint was causing the difficulty in turning the wheel? and not the rack itself?
 
2000sport said:
so that U joint was causing the difficulty in turning the wheel? and not the rack itself?
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly. I had a rack shipped in for replacement, but never purchased it. The intermediate steering shaft (IIRC) did the trick. One U-joint side was frozen up solid. Probably caused, i thought at the time, by turning the car with the engine off to jump start it quietly (5-speed manual). It had around 160K on it at the time of failure. Not sure how hard it was to change, I had the dealership do it and it was $50 labor, inside shop employee rate for one hour. The part was fairly pricey.
 
Got the car back up in the air today and...

The rack is definitely shot. it is leaking fluid.

there is play within the rack, and replacing it should fix the play I have in the steering wheel, although the steering shaft may be the cause of the hard steering, and if it it, the shaft is 150 from Ford.

Im picking up the rack tomorrow, and will be installing it saturday.
 
Well, you were right about the shaft.

lower U joint is locked up.

but I fixed the play in the steering wheel when I replaced the rack.

and no more leak.

going to a JY tomorrow morning to pull a steering shaft that is hopefully not ceased.

thanks for the heads up though!
 
So guess what...Today after leaving my barber my steering started acting up. Two dead spots like the above mentioned. Weird thing is the car was running perfectly fine prior to me arriving @ the shop. When I turn left or right feels like there is no power steering at all. What can I look for to narrow my search on what to replace. If it's my rack or the steering linkage, also how bad of a job is it to install a rack is (DIY) able?
 
Lift up the front end and remove the lower steering shaft from the rack.
check the lower U-joint for smooth movement. It was pretty obvious once I had the shaft off, and it takes less time to remove it then it does to lift the car up.

Most yards will not sell the steering shaft, so expect to call around and negotiate pricing.

Ford told me the part was a week out, and ~150 my pricing, 208 list.

I'd check with Max and see if he can do LVC pricing.

If you drive too long with the bad shaft, you will run the risk of destroying your rack (I know, because I did)
 
Also, the rack is DIY-able... if you have the patience.

My buddy (who is an ASE Master Technician) and I tackled it in about 6 hours, granted, 2 of those were spent eating/drinking beer/screwing around.

The rack is mounted to the subframe with 3 bolts. remove those, unbolt the outer tie rod ends, and remove the inner tie rods from the rack (you will need a tool for this - check autozone, i think it was a $100 deposit to rent it)

Just be careful with all the lines, and be sure to bleed the system once you get the new rack in.
 
It shouldnt - but the rack is pricey... like 350+ a core if I remember correctly.

You're looking at about 75 used. just make sure the seals are good, and you buy one with a decent warranty.
 
Some of the wreckers here are listing the whole rack for 100-150 ish.
 
I paid 75 for the rack and inner tie rod ends with a 6 month swap warranty.

for the shaft, I paid 30 (but also got new strut covers and a new engine cover out of the deal)

but I had to pull it myself, while a (thankfully) tied up German Sheppard tried to eat me for lunch.
 
O wow! lol I had a German mixed with a lab..yeah they get hungry when tied up lol.

I guess I'm lucky. Take a look..

Part Type
Source Vehicle
Stock Number
Cond. Code
VIN
Price Steering Gear/Rack & Pinion
2002 LINCOLN LS
193AU
0
1LNHM86S52Y613455
$100.00 Standard Auto Wreckers

But before I get the part should I check if thats the issue?? I'm the type of guy that has to be 150 percent sure..
 
call them and have them hold it.

check first though, they have nasty (usually 30%) restocking fees if you return it!

it literally takes 30 minutes to check if its the shaft.

and you will know IMMEDIATELY if its the shaft.

good luck, and again, if you have any questions, im sure either me or Mikey will chime in!
 
Yeah called them today. Only thing is it was Gen1 Steering rack..ugh but luckily another wrecker had a Gen2 for 50 bucks more. Have it on hold till Monday as that is when I will probably be replacing it but until then I'm checking today if it is indeed that shaft or the whole rack.
 
After checking it out looks to be that the power steering pump seems to be the culprit. There is a lot of play when I spin it, going to look more into it. Going to be taking to my buddy shop to lift it on the hoist and double check.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 1,385 (members: 0, guests: 1,385)
Back
Top