removing steering rack questions

[asmith88]

had a look under the car today and dosent look too bad..

once i have removed the bolts on the subframe and the two tie rod ends.. im unsure what to do.. are the pipes in the pic below the only place where i need to disconnect them or am i missing some?

also how does the rack disconnect from the pinion? any tips? and should i do things in any order?

thanks andy

[daimlerman]

Follow those pipes to the flexi pipes.Follow the flexi pipes to the ends where they bolt on or are held with a jubilee clip and remove there.Have a container ready to catch the fluid!
Lift the front of the car and support properly,remove both front wheels.
Pop off the tie rod ends with a ball joint splitter.
Remove the pinch bolt from the steering coupling at the rack end.
Remove the rack retaining bolts,they may just be corroded into the alloy casing but will come out given time,WD40 and a bit of swearing.
Bend the lower tabs down and slide the rack out.
The rack,in effect,is held in a 'U' shaped bracket,the bracket lays on it's side and it's lower arm is thinner to allow it to be bent in this way.The idea is simple,if the bolts drop out in service,the car will still have some steering,the rack will not just drop out!
RE-fitting is the reverse of removal,as Mr Haynes says,tricky bit is getting the rack pinion to slide into the steering coupling,a smear of grease will help.
Do not forget to check the tracking,and you will almost certainly have to re-align the steering wheel.

[aj_mckay]

There are two connections on the passenger side (if my memory serves me right), which unbolt. These are just feed and return pipes to the PAS fluid reservoir, which is pretty much directly above where the pipes connect to the rack.

With regard to the pinion, just undo the 'clamp' (unsure of correct name) as much as you can and I just applied brute force to coax the bugger out! It was a pain due to it having been there for the entirity of my car's life but it went in the end.

With regard to the order you need to do things in, doesn't matter too much, just think logically and take your time - it's not a bad job at all!

[asmith88]

so the bracket that the rack is bolted on to with two bolts will bend to allow me to pull the rack out from the pinion..?

also do the wheels need to be removed? i will be working in a pit?

[aj_mckay]

You'll find it a hell of a lot easier to remove the wheels to separate the track rod ends and yes, the tabs where the rack is mounted to the front subframe will bend down to allow the rack to be removed.

I changed the rack on mine using a pair of axle stands on the driveway - no real need for a pit...

[asmith88]

pinch bolt from the steering coupling at the rack end

are you sure its at the rack end? i thought it was on the steering column side.. is it bolt number 8 on this diagram?

[asmith88]

might get myself some axle stands and have a look, my old ones have ran away

[daimlerman]

Steery coupling attaches the same way at both ends.
You will probably end up undoing both ends anyway to allow the thing to slide back and forth to centralize it.
Be almost impossible(never tried so I cannot be certain!)to do the job with the front wheels on the deck.

[hennabm]

Bolt 8 is the pinch bolt through the column UJ securing it to the rack splines.
I am about to do the same job (change the rack) and will be doing it on axles stands. That then frees off the jack should I need to apply pressure under a track rod end if it starts spinning in its taper end of the steering control arm.
To do so means getting a block of wood and applying pressure under the tre so as the nut can be undone if the taper breaks before the nut is undone. The use of an airgun prevents this happenning (if you have access to one).

Also if you have no joint splitter a good whack with a Manchester screwdriver ( ) on the end of the control arm will loosen the taper once you have undone the nut.

[daimlerman]

Manchester screwdriver ( ) ......

It's called a Birmingham spanner!

[hennabm]

ahhh a regional variation then.

[anisotropy]

It definately helps to stick a large screwdriver in the gap in the uj once you've removed the pinch bolt and give it a few smacks with the hammer to help expand the joint so you can slide the spined bit out. If you want an easy life get a balljoint splitter (a scissor one) much easier than smacking the steering arm with a hammer.

[diamondblacke28]

yes i agree with anisotropy stick a screwdriver in and tap it when the bolt is removed.

i would'nt bend the tabs down thou
undo the bottom nuts on the engine mounts and jack the engine up.
it doesnt matter how thick or strong steel is it always weakens after its been bent and its not worth takin a chance with the steering.
its just a quick to jack the engine up.
it drops back into place ok.

[hennabm]

Just finished replacing my rack
Only took about an hour to come off including one tre that needed the jack unde rit to undo the nut. The other side was visitor to the manchester screwdriver.
Rather than risking the strain on fuel pieps etc I bent the bottom tabs down a little (not a lot).

Putting the new rack on was a little more tricky. First time the mounting bolts went in dead easy. Then I went to couple up the column and found it was too short . Turns out I'd used the wrong top holes on the subframe
Putting the bolts through the right ones proved a little more tricky but we now have a 320 back in one piece.

Short road test proves the steering wheel is off to the left by about half inch but the tracking is yet to be set. (Forrests on Mon), so I will leave it until after that.

Thanks for cecotto479 for the rack