manual rack question-internal
 

I have a very stiff rack, I took apart and the right end bushing around the rack is very tight. I'm not sure if it moved, swelled or what. Rack is straight.

One thing I notice is that is is fairly far into the end of the tube (~1") and under a crimped area on the tube. I'm not sure if the crimp is supposed to retain it or if it is supposed to be up against the crimp. If it got pushed in and under the crimp, maybe it has been shrunk a bit (it is plastic) and that is the reason for the tightness.

Can this part be bought? Easy to make out of delrin/nylatron, etc or whatever is good with the grease.

Thanks for any help.

I have the same problem, if you find out please post it here. My steering was very good, then I replaced the tie rod ends and before I took it to get alignment, I took it to the store and made a hard full lock left hand turn. I think it must have bent or somehow distorted the bushing you are talking about because from that point forward it has steered stiff. Kind of like when you have adjusted the slack adjuster too tight on a regular type steering box. I have lubed the rack very well and replaced the steering shaft, but it is still stiff. I have not had the time to explore this but will shortly. On another note, as I drive it more and more, it hase gotten looser.

I had done some searching and found other posts (you?) that described this. It does appear that a hard left turn would force the rack 'bearing' into the tube. I'm not sure if there is some rubber bump stop that has been lost that allows this to happen. I knocked the bushing to toward the end of the rack and it seemed to fall into a preferred position, I did not keep going to remove it, I just left it there and slid the rack in and it seems fine now. I am going to make a travel limiter before I put the tie rod back on that end.

I want to look at my PET cd and see if there is a p/n for the plastic bearing/bushing that is in there. I used CV joint grease on everthing during reassembly.

Is their a breakdown that shows the manual rack in a exploded view? I had just put new tie rods on it and had not yet had the front end aligned at that point and I wonder if I screwed the tie rod in too far and it hit the end bearings when I turned the wheel to full lock.

I guess my PET is MIA, so don't know if they have it broken down.