Steering Rack Boots?

[MPDano]

Who's done them on an OB? Is it just remove Nut holding Ball joint, then unscrewing from the Tie Rod (keeping rotation count)?

My boots are fired and was wondering if this is easy or a PITA.

Thanks All!

[Landseer]

I know on the 84 I can lube them and pull them over the whole tie rod.

You want the tierod and whole rack shaft clean, though.

[Mrmerlin]

to fit new boots this is one way.
loosen the locknut on the tierod ,mark tierod to the outer connection at the knuckle then unscrew it from the outer tierod connection remove the old boot then clan the rack if you see red fluid then the rack is leaking so keep an eye on the leaking.

So turn the steering wheel all the way to the opposite side then slide the new boot over the outer sealing rubber then with a spray of WD40 on the rack housing slide the new boot into position the rack is kind of ramped to facilitate this.
refit the rod into the outer section and retighten it

[stepson]

Originally Posted by Landseer

I know on the 84 I can lube them and pull them over the whole tie rod.

You want the tierod and whole rack shaft clean, though.

This is the way I do it.

[tlsmith1999]

It has been awhile since I replaced my boots, and I replaced the tie-rods at the same time, so I didn't have your exact issue.

I thought the joint that connects the rod to the rack has flat spots to put a wrench on as does the bar coming out of the rack. Why can't you unscrew these two without loosening the outer tie-rod joint? I would think this would prevent the alignment from changing. Then just slide the new boot onto the tie-rode, reconnect, then slide the boot back in place.


On a side note: On my '78 there are rack stops (two metal washers with rubber between them) that slide onto the steering rack rod. Both of mine were shot. They were pretty cheap ($10-12) to replace. On my S4 these stops were solid metal, so they were fine.

added: steering rack stop parts# 928 347 329 00

[Fritter]

Did mine by disconnecting tie rod from strut and then pulled over the whole mess. My steering rack was out of the car though. It was a tad tricky getting the ends where they were supposed to go, but it's pretty thick rubber so I just pried with a dull flathead screwdriver.

[morriss]

Oh man, those were a b**** to get on. Even with the tie rods off it was hard to get them over the humps and into place. I ended up using plastic bicycle tire / tube replacement tools to stretch the narrow boot openings enough to slide into place.