[Cloud9...68]

Thanks. As with so many things like this, once I learned how to do it, it went from "impossible" to "almost trivial" in a blink of an eye. Amazing.



Anyway, I wanted to show a picture of the inside of the tower casting where I finally removed the troublesome seal. I know, it looks really bad, as a result of my earlier attempts to drive my straight pick between the seal and the casing wall to attempt to pry it off. However, I've lined up the gear drive assembly inside the casting, and it appears that the only function the ledge that I've damaged serves is to act as a base for the seal to sit on. It doesn't come in contact with any moving parts in the casting, nor does it appear to serve any type of sealing function whatsoever. Am I interpreting this correctly? Thanks.

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[Cloud9...68]

I have another question, regarding the last of the wiper seals in the rack. It's the one that sits inside the steering sleeve, behind the white plastic spacer, and the plastic guide ring. I found another set of instructions for the re-seal job (from Clarksgarage.com), and I believe it is the best of the three (the other two being Arnworx and Rennbay). Anyway, the Clark's Garage instructions stae very emphatically that the groove of the wiper seal in the steering sleeve needs to face towards the control tower, on the drivers side. It repeats this over and over in the verbiage, and includes a picture explaining the direction the seal should face.



But when my seal came out, it was facing in the opposite direction, as shown in the picture below:



The picture shows the direction the seal came out of my sleeve; the groove in the seal is facing away from the control tower (you can see the threaded collar which attaches the sleeve to the control tower in the picture, so the control tower will be to the left of the sleeve in the picture, with the back of the seal, not the groove, facing the control tower (aka tower casting)). Monstrous, could you please take a look at one of your racks and tell me which direction this seal is supposed to face, because either mine was installed backwards, it flipped during its descent out of the sleeve, the description in Clark's Garage is wrong, or sleep deprivation is finally setting in... Thanks, as always.

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[flash]

i'm not saying it is, because i have no clue on this, but it wouldn't be the first time that clarks was wrong

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[Cloud9...68]

Yeah, that's why I want to be sure before putting the new seal in. The writer sure was emphatic about the direction the seal needs to go, and repeated it over and over, and unless mine did a back-flip on the way out, it was backwards relative to the description.



Good thing I have some "slack time" in my project as I'm waiting for the head to come back from the machine shop, and for the rods to arrive from RS Barn (after which there will probably be another long wait for another machine shop to balance the crank/rods/pistons), otherwise this steering rack re-seal would have put a real dent in my timeline.

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[Monstrous4Banger]

I was reading through the clarks-garage write up, when I got deja vu, it hit me. Ive read this. I had forgot about it. its one of the ones I used in 07'. I did everything as per clarks garage, and arnnworx back then. I dont think renn-bay even had a tutorial yet then. Im honestly more worried about the cylinder. Looks pretty badly nicked up. I can still crack this one open, and verify. I just need a friend of mine to get home, and use his vise. Im pretty darn sure clarks garage has it right. I want to say i distinctly remember the same thing happening, but its been a long time.

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[Cloud9...68]

Yeah, since the Clark's Garage write-up was so specific about the orientation of the seal inside the sleeve, I've going to assume that mine did a flip on the way out, and I'll go with the direction Clark's says. Any tips as to how to get that seal back inside that long sleeve?



As far as the nicks I put into the tower casting, I'm not worried about it. The legde I nicked up is underneath the new seal, and in an of itself doesn't appear to perform any sealing function. So, I think it's going to be OK. Getting that seal back in, by the way, was also a bit of a challenge. I tried tapping it in using a socek that's the same diameter as the seal, but that didn't work well. It got the seal in crooked, and the socket just bounced of the seal as I was hammering it. I had to fabricate a seal driver of sorts, by taking a 1/2" bolt, and cinching a washer that's the same diameter as the seal, and using this to press the seal into place using a large C-clamp. So, several hours on just that one step. I think I'm a good sixteen hours into this job. Oh, well, I have nothing better to do, right?



By the way, any idea if it's possible to pressure test the rack off the car? It would sure be nice to know if I put it back together correctly, and everything is sealing properly, before I re-install it. Thanks

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[Monstrous4Banger]

Yeah first time through is time consuming figuring it out. Once you see how it all goes together, and get your techniques down, you can do one pretty quickly. As far as pressure testing the rack....yeah you can, technically. No idea how you would do it in your garage though. Shops that specialize in hydraulics have pressure testing equipment, and could probably rig up the right fittings to test yours. Other than that...good luck. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[banditsc]

Just saw a post on a 928 forum. He brought his 928 rack into ADCO in Houston and they charged him $250 with a lifetime warranty and it only took them 4 hours to do the rebuild. Close in name to the people who do AutoZone, Atsco, but different place.

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[Cloud9...68]

"Just saw a post on a 928 forum. He brought his 928 rack into ADCO in Houston and they charged him $250 with a lifetime warranty and it only took them 4 hours to do the rebuild. Close in name to the people who do AutoZone, Atsco, but different place."





I could have gone all day without hearing that ; took me a solid week of evenings and parts of two weekends. But now that I know the trick, I bet I could do it in a few hours. Maybe not four, but probably less than eight. Not that I'll ever have the occasion again...

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[bombfactory]

I hope all your hard work and frustration pays off with excellent steering response once you get your car back together. I'll let you know if I run into any troubles swapping in my AutoZone rack. Going to try to get to it sometime in April. I also want to remove my front struts and have them rebuilt at the same time, so only one alignment is necessary. Lots of time on my back on the garage floor coming soon...



-Austin

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[kwikt]

Great feedback on the rebuild. One question though. Just resealed my rack with the Rennbay kit and have 1 semi large o ring left over plus the 2 very small ones which I believe aren't needed. Anyone have the same? Btw I'm rebuilding my original rack and returning the Autozone POS rack which is leaking worse than a sprinkler hopefully to get a full refund. It's only 7 months old!!!!! Think twice before the Autozone rack.

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[Cloud9...68]

I also had the exact same o-rings left over, so I think you're OK.



So, another brave soul who took on this task. While I don't wish problems on anybody, I take a certain sense of perverse pleasure from hearing about a bad Autozone re-sealed rack, because it almost makes me feel like all the agony I went through on this thing was worth it. I think it comes down to the condition of the shaft - it could take a lot of expensive machine work to correct a bad one, so I wonder if the companies that re-seal them always take the time to do that. Mine was in flawless, as-new condition, so I'm hopeful my rack will be leak-free for a very long time. Hopefully your will be as well.

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[kwikt]

Thanks for the quik reply. Xtra seal it is. Yep, I kept my original rack when purchasing the Autozone one just for this reason. Well hopefully I can get a full refund when returning theirs.

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[Monstrous4Banger]

Yeah thats how I ended up doing the first one. 20th street auto sold me one, with a 90 day warranty. Bought it a few weeks before I installed it Once I did install it, it leaked all over my garage floor. So had to pull it out again, and return it. Well my 951 was my only car at the time, and of course my daily driver. Long story short I didnt have a ride to the other side of the valley to return it. I ended up rebuilding my original, and taking my time returning it. The car was totaled like 100 miles later, after I finished the work of course. At that point the the rack was the least of my concerns, and warranty ran out. So yeah, Ive had bad experiences with outsourced rebuilds too. Im glad I can just do it myself.

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[Cloud9...68]

Monstrous,



Ah, I was wondering how you ended up with so many steering racks.



Kwikt,



Just curious, how did you get that tough seal at the bottom of the tower casting out? Did you use the seal remover from Harbor Freight, or did yours come out with picks? Loading mine into a vice, and then applying just a couple of quick raps with my palm to the Harbor Freight tool, and it just popped out, after may hours of struggling with picks.

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[tamathumper]

Ah, glad to hear that HF tool worked out! They're usually a good source for tools that are made of no more than one piece of metal.



Screwdriver = yes.

Box Wrench = yes.

Adjustable wrench = maybe.

Cordless Drill = no.

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[kwikt]

I used a long thin screwdriver and jammed it between the housing and the seal then twisted it to get it started. Then used a larger screwdriver and did the same till the seal almost collapsed. In all it took about 5 minutes for removal. BTW I called Travis at Rennbay and he said that the semi large seal can be used in the bottom of the rack hollow tube but not needed. Mine did not have one.

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[Cloud9...68]

Tamathumper,



Of the tools you list from Harbor Freight, the only one I have is a cordless drill . Has worked fine so far, though. But the tool you recommended to pull that seal was a lifesaver; I couldn't get it to budge a nanometer with anything else.



Kwikt,



You're very lucky. My seal was so tough that even after mangling it literally beyond recognition, I could't get it to bend in any direction. But on the flip side, my clutch fork shaft, which causes so much agony for so many people, slipped out with barely any resistance.

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[kwikt]

You lucked out on the shift fork. Most of us need the hand of God to pull it out of the housing.

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