[Cloud9...68]

Hopefully I will have figured this out by the time anybody who can help reads this, but I need a break from banging my head on the concrete floor anyway, so I figured I'd post this to see if anyone has any tips as to where I'm going wrong. I finally got all the seals for my steering rack to replace the ones I had broken during the rack reseal (I figured out a few tricks to lessen the risk of breaking those fragile teflon seals when putting it back together), so I'm reasonably confident I'll have functioning power assist again. But I'm having no luck getting the steering coupler to engage on the splined shaft connected to the steering gear. I have no space to hit it with anything from the top, and I've tried bracing it against the motor mount bracket on the top and smacking it from the bottom (using a small 2 x 4 as a cushion), but no luck. There's just very little space to work, and very little leverage to apply any force to anything. I've only gotten it to engage maybe 2 mm onto the shaft, and there's a good cm or more to go.



The crazy thing is that I did this once already, but I have no recollection of it being especially difficult or needing any special tricks. Anybody have any ideas? Here's a picture of my progress (or lack thereof) so far:



   

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[Lear35A]

It does not take force to get the u-joint to slide onto the spline. First of all make sure the flat on the spline lines up where the bolt will go through the u-joint. You've got to bring the spline to the u-joint, not the other way around. That means the rack (or the cross member, if the rack is solidly attached to it) must be loose enough to position it so the spline can be slid into the u-joint. Not the best design ever, but that's the only way I've ever been able to do it. A definite pita.

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[mbardeen]

Carefully slot a screwdriver into that slit and twist it to separate the halves a little bit. That will give a little more wiggle room and you should be able slide it on it without removing the rack.

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[Cloud9...68]

Lear & Mbardeen,



I've done all the things you guys are suggesting. The rack is barely being held by a few threads of the passenger side bracket (just to make sure it won't fall down), giving me lots of room to maneuver the splines up to meet the coupler, and everything is lined up as well as I can get it, and I've tried wedging a screwdriver into the slit and twisting, but the angle is so awkward that I can't really get a whole lot of torque on it, so I don't think I've had much success separating the halves a whole lot. If I could do this, i think it would really help. You guys didn't remove the AC or the sway bar, did you? I don't see how that would help a whole lot, and I didn't do it last time, anyway, but I'm willing to try anything at this point.



It just baffles me why this thing is fighting me so much more than it did the last time.

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[mbardeen]

I think my sway bar was out when I did mine. I remember I had a bear of a time getting it back in, though. I'm not sure if I maybe had to rotate it a bit to get it to slide on.

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[Cloud9...68]

Success! No special trick, just more of the same strategies. I thought I'd take the rack completely off to get a better angle on the coupler to hopefully have better luck separating the halves more, so I remove completely removed the bolts from the passenger side bracket. This caused the rack to droop down several more inches, so I thought I'd try engaging the splines some more. I got it to go maybe another millimeter. But seeing as I now had a better shot at the coupler, I wedged the screwdriver into the slit, and twisted with everything I had. I think this gave me the few extra microns of space I needed, because I was able to drive it the rest of the way. So, I guess my mistake was to partially bolt the rack to the crossmember, which decreased my maneuvering room just enough to make it too difficult to get the pieces truly aligned.



So, if I ever (heaven forbid) have to do this again, I'd do everything I could to separate the two halves of the coupler before moving the rack in place, and of course not insert any of the crossmemebr mounting bolts until I had the splined shaft secured to the coupler.

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[Cloud9...68]

Argh! I spoke took soon. I was completely unsuccessful at bolting the rack to the crossmember - the top bolt on the drivers side just isn't lining up with the thread in the crossmember. Something is pushing the top of the bracket away from the crossmember, causing the rack to twist enough that I can't get the bolts to line up. I think this may be because I hadn't gotten the coupler far enough down on the splined shaft. I thought I had, because I was able to thread the pinch bolt through without too much difficulty,which I interpreted as meaning the bolt was going through the indent in the splined shaft, which means all is well.



Here's a picture of how far down the spline I managed to drive the coupler:



   



Doesn't look very far down, does it?



But here's an earlier picture from the last time I installed this beast:



   



It doesn't really look a whole lot more engaged.



Does anybody happen to have a picture of theirs, to let me know how much more, if any, I need to try to engage these two pieces? I've tugged, twisted, and grunted for the last hour, but I can't get the coupler any farther down the splines. I'm exhausted. Thanks.

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[Cloud9...68]

To save everybody the trouble of searching for pictures of their steering coupler, I managed to drive mine all the way on (tapping from above on a very long screwdriver). But I STILL can't get the rack to bolt to the crossmember.

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[MB968]

Cloud, I recently had a very similar experience. I decided I would straighten my steering wheel which was off a small amount. I used a pry bar on one of the bolt heads on the steering box to easily pry the u-joint off the male spline. Didn't really seem to take any real effort to get it off. Like you I'd put this back together once before and had no issues. But, after taking it off, and rotating it 2 teeth, I spent over an hour or two trying to get it back in. (I'll never do that again the day before needing the car for an event.) The only way I could pull it back in was as follows: I used a series of tapered pins (mostly punches) that would go into the hole, but would stop part way running up against the side of the flat where it angles up to the spline. I'd start each in the hole, and then gently tap them in until they were stopped by the hole in the u-joint. I eventually found a Phillips screw driver, the shaft of which was almost an exact fit in the hole in the u-joint. After using a few tapered punches, each of which pulled the coupling onto the shaft a little further, I was able to tap the Phillips into the hole and bring it in the rest of the way so the bolt would slide through the u-joint. Whew, makes me sweat just thinking about it. I didn't think I was ever going to get it in.



As I recall, once the coupling is properly back together, there was no flat showing between the coupling and gearbox.



I hope this helps, but I also hope that someone comes up with a better/surefire easy way to reassemble this. I dread having to ever do this again.

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[Cloud9...68]

Well, after a solid five hours of struggle, I finally got the rack back on the car. I have a solid (delrin, I think) bushing on the drivers side, so something gave me the idea to try taking the half of the bushing that goes into the crossmember off, inserting it partially into the crossmember, and then try jamming the rack into place. This seems to have somehow given the a few extra millimeters to play with, allowing me to (barely) get the bottom bolt inserted. Sure I'd cross-thread the bejeezus out of it, I nevertheless started tightening it, and miraculously, I got it threaded correctly, and it pulled the whole assembly into place, allowing me to insert the top bolt.



I still don't understand why the job was so much easier the last time. At least I learned some techniques in case the assist still doesn't work, and I have to take this wretched thing off again.

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[MB968]

Great, now hopefully the ps will function properly.

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[Cloud9...68]

Yes, I'm going to be more nervous about the PS working than I was when I first fired up the engine after the rebuild! The steering rack R & R & reseal has taken about the same number of total hours as the entire engine!

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[banditsc]

So how is the thought of a $185 rack with lifetime warranty from AutoZone sounding after all that rebuilding effort?

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[Cloud9...68]

I looked on Autozone's web site, and didn't see it, so I'm not sure they're still carrying them. I checked with Advance Auto, and the cheapest one they had was $384, but the rep wasn't sure they could actually get them. One from Pelican is close to $1000. Considering the amount of work it is to rebuild one of these things, and the number of things that can go wrong, I can't comprehend how Autozone can sell them so cheap. Also, I've heard several people in the past having bought the Autozone racks, only to return them several times because they kept leaking. Maybe that's why they're no longer shown as being available. With the monumental pita it is to take these things in and out, I'm not sure I would have been a whole lot better off with a rebuilt one, given the odds of them being rebuilt incorrectly. Roughly a wash, I guess.

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[banditsc]

I just checked AutoZone and they are $185. I have one in my car and have been happy with it. There is a chance you will get a bad rebuilt one, sometimes there to worn out to be rebuilt and and get missed. I guess it didn't bother me since I've replaced so many rack that the jobs become second nature.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/D..._350637_0_

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[Cloud9...68]

Well, if mine still doesn't provide power assist (which would be totally illogical, since it worked perfectly before, and I've identified and corrected the cause of the fluid being bypassed), I may go the Autozone route. But that would be admitting defeat, which I'm not very good at, so I would probably tear mine apart yet again. But if I could go back in time, yes, at $184, I wish I had just bought a remanufactured one two years ago.

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[Cloud9...68]

Success!! It's real this time - fired it up, no leaks, topped up the reservoir, plopped into the seat, took a deep breath, and turned the wheel. It works! We have power assist! The rack reseal was one of the first things I did when I started the project well over two years ago, and now it's the last major thing the car has needed.



One glitch, though (isn't there always...?) Try as I might to get everything lined up, I managed to get the steering wheel off center. Not a big surprise, given how much of a struggle it was to get the rack bolted into place. So, I'm assuming I need to removed the steering wheel and line it up. Please don't anybody tell me I need to do the alignment from the rack side, necessitating removing the rack yet again. Even if that's the truth, just lie and tell me all I have to do is remove the wheel, and reinstall it straight. Removing the wheel is something I haven't done (yet). I've heard it's pretty staightforward. Any gotcha's to the job? Thanks.

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[MB968]

I'm interested too. In spite of moving the coupling a couple of teeth, mine is still off. I think the three piece crossmember has the rack in a slightly different position. My wheel is probably 15 degrees off. So, find out how to do it Cloud, I'll be following in your footsteps; I just want to make sure the car won't be laid up for days pulling and replacing the wheel. I know the <acronym title='previous owner'><acronym title='previous owner'>PO</acronym></acronym> pulled one of the common steering wheels used for racing (non-airbag) just before selling it to me. So, I hope that means it is easy to get off the spline (assuming we have one).



Edit: Much congrats on getting the PS working again!!

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[Lear35A]

I had the cross member off my car at least 5 times over the last few years. I have never removed my steering wheel. My experience, and my experience only, was this.

When I mated the splined shaft in the steering rack and the u-joint, I was very careful to have the front tires lined up straight as best I could. I made sure the steering wheel was centered. Surprisingly enough when I did this, the flat on the spline lined up with the locking bolt.

You'll still need an alignment because the odds of getting the cross member and the rear castor blocks in the same place they were before disassembly are exactly zero. This means the car will track left or right with the steering wheel centered. For me this was never more than 10 degrees. The alignment corrects this.

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[MB968]

When I did all my work, I found I didn't need to remove the rear castor blocks. Takes a little effort, but I was able to get the a-arms out of the castor blocks by angling them over while pulling and rotating them at the same time. To get the a-arm bolt reinserted, I put a snug fitting hollow bar in the castor blocks from the rear, and angled them over enough that I could get the bolt on the rear of the a-arm back fairly far into the metal collar. Again with a little pushing while twisting, I got them all the way back in again (twice now) with this technique.

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