Re-Assembling the Steering Rack Into the Car

[wrxnofx]

Okay, I've got the whole rack cleaned, greased, assembled, and ready to go back into the car. The black plastic accordian bellows thing is slid down on the shaft, the black rubber bushing with greased needle bearing is pushed back onto the shaft and partially into the top of the black plastic bellows thing, and I've got the rack under the car sitting on jack stands with the shaft pushed up into the smugglers box. The rack itself is "poised" and ready to be pushed home into the u-joint.

Now I'm stuck.

1. How the F do you push the rack up and back so that the shaft spline slides into the u-joint spline, all the while making sure the black plastic bellows doesn't slide partially off and the rubber grommet and bearing stay where they are supposed to be on the shaft and yet go to their little cradle? At the same time the u-joint is flopping all over the place.

2. Even more impossible, how do you make sure that the flopping u-joint stays oriented properly to ensure that the steering wheel is straight if/when I actually get the shaft spline to engage the u-joint spline? Seems damn near impossible. Do I seriously just get the shaft into the u-joint, tighten everything up, and then pull the steering wheel and put it back on so that it's straight? Seems way too bush league to me, but what the hell do I know? I've never done this before...


I have/had anti-seize smeared all over the end of the shaft and in the u-joint, but that didn't help at all. Do I have to pry the u-joint end open more?

[rnln]

How hard did you have to pull the rack/shaft down when you took it off? If it was hard, then I would pry the u-join out a little. This is what I did when I took it off.

If I remember right, from several months ago, I aligned the shaft to the middle of the rack, and steering wheel is center. Then tuned the steering wheel so that the u-join bolt is upward for easy align. On the rack/shaft, I also turned it the same direction to line up with the u-join. (*) From under the car, I slid the shaft/rack up into the u-join. It took several tries, but not the hardest part. The hardest part is when you get up to the trunk area, trying to pull the shaft upward and tighten the u-join bolt. I was up and down multiple times.

(*) hint:
place/push the shaft up very close/touch to the u-join. Get up to align, and pull it up a little if you can. Get down and push it up into the u-join.

[steely]

+1 what rnln said - open the u jernt and keep trying. I walked away from it a couple of times, and when I worked on it again suddenly and unexplainably the shaft slid up into the joint right like it was supposed to. I was also up and down fiddling with the cross member on a small lift (up and down on that as well). I hope you did your fuel lines btw. :-)

edit:
pls check out my notes in post#2 -
Reinstalling Steering Rack issues

[bugstrider]

Reading intently.........

Will be dropping the rack out, rebuilding then reinstalling. Living vicariously through you in this thread. So I guess I too will be feeling your pain real soon.

[wrxnofx]

Okay, I got the rack back in. Fundamentally, I think the problem is that the u-joint was too tight, and I needed to pry it open a bit more (easier said than done). To get it to fully seat I ended up tapping it from the bottom using a dead blow hammer. I got it 75% of the way there yesterday, and returned to it today. It seemed that having the shaft in there overnight opened it up a bit more, so a couple more taps with the deadblow from underneath took it home.

A few notes/tips on removal and re-installation...

Removal:
1. The biggest issue for me was getting the lower hex bolt off the bottom of the collar that holds the rubber bushing in place in the smuggler's box. Having all AC stuff still in there, what worked for me was to use a 5mm allen driver. I put that into the 1/4" drive socket holder, put a 1/4" ratchet on there, and stuck a cheater bar on the end. There was just enough room. No dremel needed, no cutting, torching, anything like that.

2. I had removed the cross member from under the car, although I suppose you could leave it connected to the rack itself. If you go this route, just remember to remove the bolt connecting the fuel pump bracket to the cross member. It's easy to forget.

3. I had a bit of a time getting the rack out from the u-joint. I found I could stick a flat screwdriver in the edge of the shaft channel (that the u-joint tightening bolt passes through) and pry against the end of the u-joint to work the shaft out of the u-joint.

4. I took a picture of the shaft in the u-joint to keep track of how far it went in. That way I knew how far it needed to go in on re-assembly. Here is the before on the left and the after on the right:


Installation:
1. When I re-assembled the rack I put everything back so that it was equal on both sides (i.e. you're driving down the road straight). This put the channel cut into the shaft about straight up. I then put the steering wheel straight in the cabin and used some bungee cords to put downward pressure on the wheel. This made is so that the wheel always wanted to stay straight.



2. I initially had put the rubber grommet and needle bearing onto the steering shaft, but found it kept sliding all over the shaft itself when I was trying to get everything back together. So I ended up taking it off the shaft and "re-assembling" it to the car. That is, I set it in its place in the smugglers box, put the c shaped collar back, and half tightened it down to hold the grommet in place. This seemed to help steady everything.

3. Since I was by myself, I used jack stands to hold the rack under the car. It acted like an extra half set of hands.


4. I am dense, so it wasn't until re-assembly that I realized the slot in the u-joint lines up directly perpendicular to the flat spot at the bottom of the channel on the shaft that the bolt passes through.

[wrxnofx]

I put the cross-member back on the car and bolted the rack back to it, torquing the bolts to spec.

In moving the wheel (tie rods are just hanging, not connected to the struts), it spins back and forth freely, although I can hear the u-joint making some gentle "clunking" as I spin the wheel. I assume this is normal?

EDIT: The "clunking" was due to the end of that fiberboard cover thing breaking off and hanging under down against the u-joint. In fact, you can even see it missing in the first pic above. On the left pic some of the u-joint is covered up, but on the right it's totally exposed. Once I removed that piece it's all silent now.