Steering rack replacement questions

[Kevin C]

True story.... The shaft on the input of the rack has a flat on it so you do not have to index the steering wheel to it. As long as the rack is kind of close to centered and the wheel is straight ahead, your good. I'm going out on a limb here.... You should be able to tell if your off a full turn.

[Cybersombosis]

Definitely have a second set of hands helping you when inserting the rack and guiding it through the tunnel. Also helpful is having them hold the bolts for the banjos fittings from the wheel well as you start them from in the car. IIRC the washers will want to fall off and you will be swearing when they drop. We used a big box end wrench(s) for the banjos through the access hole from the cab.

[krazeedrivr]

Just a thought on the rack replacement, but take it for what its worth. Its a good suggestion to replace the high pressure line when replacing the rack. The reason racks leak is that the fluid becomes contaminated with particulates from deteriorating parts like the rubber inside the lines, swarf from compressors, etc. If your rack is leaking, enough junk has gotten into the seals to destroy them, and just a flush of the system won't resolve a deteriorating high pressure line. If you say the donor car rack looks pristine, and you don't want to buy a new line, you might try to also harvest its high pressure line as well. Did my 1.8T FWD a year ago, and did a new HP line. It really was as frustrating as people are saying, and I have a MaxJax.

[fabric8]

Definitely have a second set of hands helping you when inserting the rack and guiding it through the tunnel. Also helpful is having them hold the bolts for the banjos fittings from the wheel well as you start them from in the car. IIRC the washers will want to fall off and you will be swearing when they drop. We used a big box end wrench(s) for the banjos through the access hole from the cab.

I didn't realize accessing the banjo bolts is done from inside the cabin. I thought it was done from either under the car or the driver's side tunnel opening.

I do have a quick Jack so that helps me get the car up high.

The donor car at the yard is up high on welded steel wheels and I can easily see the 10pt bolts. The wheels are already off and all the control arm bolts, pinch bolts, and strut bolts are rust free so I'm hoping the suspension comes off quickly to give me better access to pulling the rack out.

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[fabric8]

True story.... The shaft on the input of the rack has a flat on it so you do not have to index the steering wheel to it. As long as the rack is kind of close to centered and the wheel is straight ahead, your good. I'm going out on a limb here.... You should be able to tell if your off a full turn.

Good to know! I thought it was splined. But if it has a flat as you say, then you're right and centering it *should* be obvious.

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