Hello, so as the title states I had to install a new rack. Mine was leaking, so I added stop leak to make it last a couple more months. As always, it worked for a month or so, and came back with a vengeance. I went from 1 bottle of fluid a month before the stop leak, to 1 a week. Eventually I couldn't drive to and from work without adding a bottle of steering fluid. Time for a new rack.
I order the rack from NAPA. Everything is looking good. I buy a couple tools I'm missing for the steering lines, etc. I can't get the old rack out due to passenger side bushing at the bottom. I take a sawzall and cut it and it comes out. Same issue going in with the new one, except I messed around with it until I could get it past that point. I could have removed the inner tie rods, but I didn't want to deal with that.
Time to connect all the steering lines back up. I pre-connected the top hose as I had a replacement one I had bought previously, so why not. I attempted to put the pressure line in after tightening the rack enough that it wouldn't move while doing so. The line starts to go in sideways, I stop, try again. It kept wanting to go in sideways. I decided it was time to see if a shop could finish this for me. Come to find out, the threads are aluminum and are trash now. The rack has to be replaced.
Well $1,000.00 later I have a new rack, steering aligned, and a defeated feeling running through me. It could have been the 6 tacos I just ate at Taco Bell, but I wasn't sure. Live and learn. I wouldn't of been able to pop the rack through the cross member if it had both lines on it. I think it might of just been that old and destroyed easily.
I order the rack from NAPA. Everything is looking good. I buy a couple tools I'm missing for the steering lines, etc. I can't get the old rack out due to passenger side bushing at the bottom. I take a sawzall and cut it and it comes out. Same issue going in with the new one, except I messed around with it until I could get it past that point. I could have removed the inner tie rods, but I didn't want to deal with that.
Time to connect all the steering lines back up. I pre-connected the top hose as I had a replacement one I had bought previously, so why not. I attempted to put the pressure line in after tightening the rack enough that it wouldn't move while doing so. The line starts to go in sideways, I stop, try again. It kept wanting to go in sideways. I decided it was time to see if a shop could finish this for me. Come to find out, the threads are aluminum and are trash now. The rack has to be replaced.
Well $1,000.00 later I have a new rack, steering aligned, and a defeated feeling running through me. It could have been the 6 tacos I just ate at Taco Bell, but I wasn't sure. Live and learn. I wouldn't of been able to pop the rack through the cross member if it had both lines on it. I think it might of just been that old and destroyed easily.
