Rack & Pinion How To Illustration & Nut Sizes?

Wondering if there's a good rack and pinion"how to" floating around out there? Ordered a new rack today for my 98' Ex. XLT. Old one is leaking, and since I'm replacing lbjs and controls arms might as well. Looks like it could be a little less than encouraging to get out! Anyways, my first question, along w/a poss. "how to link", is what size are the primary 2 top & 2 bottom nuts on the main unit? Appears to be a 19mm top, and couple sizes bigger on bottom? As always, thank you everyone. Your direction & input has helped me along tremendously! Thus making this quite an enjoyable (usually) learning experience!

MadBrown, and still the steering is down. So he retreats back to his old stomping grounds, regroup and lounge...

Pics no longer work but the text is still there:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150850

I never wrote it up, but I did take several pics from when I replaced my steering rack.

FWIW, there are only 2 bolts that bolt the rack to the frame.

the upper part of the stud holds the power steering cooler.

although I can't remember what sizes the nuts were; the nuts that go into the x-member, I want to say, were around 7/8" or so? I know I used a 1/2" drive deep socket.

upper nuts were smaller, but can't remember if they were SAE or metric.

oh, and you will also need to loosen atleast the engine mounts, since you will need to lift the engine up slightly to get the rack out.

it took me... ~8hrs or so.

The Rack and Pinion took me several hours (not like the Fox Mustang, which can be done in an hour).
Just make sure you take off the inner Tie Rod Ends, before trying to install the Rack and Pinion, on the 5.0 model. I used a big pipe wrench to remove the tie rod ends.
Probably the hardest part of the whole job is getting to the bolt that holds the steering shaft to the Rack & Pinion. I managed to get to it, once the power steering cooler was removed, and a couple fluild lines connected to the Rack & Pinion where moved out of the way, the nut was then removed.
I would recommend a quality Rack a Pinion, you don't want to have to do this more then once. A quality unit is probably only $50.00 to $100.00 more, but well worth it. I picked up a unit at Napa Auto for around $160.00, and it bolted right in with no problem. It also came with the inner tie rod ends (some rebuilds don't).

some jobs are such a pain that it is better to get the dealer or a shop to do them,,


lol,
that is what i did,, dropped it off , than went and picked it up,

but , if you are going to do it, take off the inner tie rods , which will make it easier to move around and get it into position without lifting the engine , that is what my dealer told me after they did mine,,
they said they just cut the old in 1/2 with a sawzall taking it out, that made it real easy,,
but don't do that when putting it back in, ,

FWIW, even with the inner tie-rods removed, I could not remove the rack without lifting the engine.
where the lower steering shaft is bolted to the rack would get caught, until I got enough clearance by lifting the engine up ~1-2"

Thanks for all the input. I did notice the top 2 bolts are to the cooler, but I was hoping I didn't need to removed. However, I can see it might make more room to get to the steering shaft. As well as taking out the inner tie rods so I don't need to lift engine. I've got a rack on its way, but what is the norm for a shop to install?

the cooler will be in the way of even getting the rack out.

as for a shop.. I'd have to check my AllData at home to see what the book-time says.

But if I were to guess, at what, $85/hr normal shop rate? guesstimate 4hrs. That's $340.

Gotcha

Yeah I've seen the thread mentioned above, but was hoping for something w/pics as I'm not familiar with half the parts mentioned in the how to.

madbrown said:

Yeah I've seen the thread mentioned above, but was hoping for something w/pics as I'm not familiar with half the parts mentioned in the how to.

Click to expand...

I have all the pictures I took loaded up to photobucket, but I can't access it from work.
I can post 'em up some time tonight.

That would be sweet!!

Here's the rack; you can see the nuts that hold the cooler up.



Cooler removed and inner tie-rods removed (note, I do not recommend doing it this way; I spent a good hour, per side, getting the inner tie-rods threaded into the new rack. It is very difficult to rotate them to get them threaded).



This is a look from underneath the vehicle on the passenger's side. I had to loosen this motor mount.



This is a look from inside the driver's side wheel-well. I had to loosen these two nuts.



Better view of those two nuts.



lifting the engine and removed the rack (pardon the haze, musta been my smoke break)



the new and old rack



hard lines off the old rack, and check ball sitting on top next to the port it goes in.



new rack with lower steering shaft and lines attached.



sliding the rack in place. You need to get the rack as far as you can towards the dri side so that you have room to get the pass side in.



rack in place





inner tie rods on and rack bolted in place.



got my skid plate back on




**Note, this is from a 97 V8

Mucho gracias! I'll post my progress.

gavin said:

sliding the rack in place. You need to get the rack as far as you can towards the dri side so that you have room to get the pass side in.

Click to expand...

let me correct myself here...

I believe I actually had to get the passenger's side in first, sliding it as far through as possible, to then make enough clearance to get the driver's side in.

Had to do the same thing, basically, to remove it also.

I cannot remember for sure which side I had to slide the rack to.

410Fortune had a post or two in one of his build-up threads that I used for reference.

Through this out there again for anybody that might now the size of the 2 bottom nuts on the rack. Appear to be 7/8, but trying to make certain as I'm running to town today to get supplies. Also anyone have tips or tricks to getting to the pinch nut on the steering rod. Looks to be a PITA. Thanks.

I'd check for ya, but my skid plate is in the way.

for getting the lower steering shaft off; I believe when I removed mine, I just disconnected it from the upper (intermediate?) steering shaft, rather than disconnecting it from the rack. iirc. I know I had the lower shaft already bolted on to the new rack when I got the new rack installed.

I know that when I replaced my lower steering shaft, I got to the bolt through the front of the truck. The bolt is a 3/8", iirc.

Do I need to make certain that my steering is locked straight when taking out?

it would be best, yes.
otherwise you could end up with it 180* off.

I got it as straight as possible and made the steering wheel locked.

sounds easy enough. just read on another thread about turning the wheel in each direction till it locked and dividing by 2 to find center. wasn't certain this was necessary