1998 RHD Steering Rack Removal

[nickburt]

Can anyone help with how to remove a steering rack from a right hand drive 4.0 please.

I can see how the book explains to get it out of a LHD car, by turning the top of the rack towrds the front of the vehicle and then slide it to the side to get one end of the rack out from the front cross member, and the slide the rack out from the cross member, but on a RHD, the rack won't rotate far enough to slide it to one side because of the front of the engine getting in the way.

I've tried releasing the engine mounts and lifting the engine as far as it will go, but there's still not enough room. Do I need to start taking the engine out, to get it furthe up out the way?

 

[nickburt]

OK, so we eventually got the rack out.

You need to move the power steering cooler out the way. Drop the front diff off it's mounting bolts and let it rest low out the way.

The rack can then be turned towards the rear (i.e. towards the engine) and wriggled across to the left hand side of the truck. This is quite a fiddly thing to do, but, eventually, you can get the rack so far acroos the to the left that the top part of the rack can then be rotated towards the front of the truck and then angled out of the cross member. The rack will then slide across the the right side of the truck and come out of the cross member.

This job would be a whole lot easier on a LHD truck.

 

[rb142]

Actually, that is pretty much exactly what you have to do on a LHD truck too. It's just that everything is reversed left to right. The steering cooler has to come out, and there is still trouble rotating the rack enough.

Glad you got it worked out.

 

[Mr. Alligator]

Removal

And did you have to remove an inner tie rod?