Look here for help first!
It is from an '86 2WD and was supposed to have 88K miles on it. It came with the (2) mounting rubber parts and one of the clamps. Also shown are new rubber parts and a couple of inner tie rod end washers.
Doesn't look like it has ever been apart. Can find no looseness in any part EXCEPT some slight slop on the same end (passenger side) rack bushing...but this is very slight probably under .001". Think I've been able to put a .003" feeler gauge in the pass side bushing on my current rack....and the right side wheel will jump around if I hit a big bump at 65 mph or so.
Since the rack has no odometer on it...can't say for sure how many miles it has.
Cost $80 shipped...from the land of the Car Guys...MA. Now I'm sure you dudes up in the northwest are laughing your butts off about what I paid...but here in Tibet...parts are hard to find.
Looks like a straight take it out...put the other one in....or so I always tell myself....
** Turns out I've gotten myself into a dilemma. The new(?) '86 rack has a plastic bushing on the pass side and I can get a .004" feeler in it....vs the metal bushing in my current rack that when I checked it last fall had ~ .002" looseness after clamping it. My current rack with the metal bushing will put out a noise much like a loose inner tie rod on rough ground driving slowly...while the new(?) rack wouldn't likely make a noise even with .004" looseness.
Butler wanted $24 for a new metal bushing for my current rack.
I have put a muffler clamp on the rack end over the metal bushing which at least forces the slop to be vertical...rather than front to back...reducing any steering issues...might have actually snugged it up some.
UPDATE and conclusion....
I finally did what I expected to do with my original rack '83...used a 1 1/2" muffler clamp to "swage" the end of the rack tube down some by rotating it 120* 3Xs and snugging it up real good. This tube is not the mild steel that exhaust tubing is made of...but I got the bushing slop down to around .002" to zero slop....and will just use it this way. Also left a clamp on the end of the tube clamping front to back with a metal shim under it to distribute the clamping force more evenly...needed to allow some room to clamp the boot on though.
New used '86 rack is supposed to have had 83K on it and I think the plastic bushing for the '86 rack is less than $10 vs $24 for the '83 metal one.
Will eventually sell the '86 rack along with rubber mounting parts and 2 inner tie rod end washers...will need a new plastic bushing I'd guess. All other joints/bushings are solid...no slop. Got a $25 refund due to the bushing issue.
The moral of this story?
* looks like the pass side bushing is one of the first parts to loosen up with a manual rack
* the '83 rack has a metal bushing vs plastic for the later ones. The metal bushing needs to be pulled or driven out...whereas the plastic bushing is split and has 3 locator "nubs" that fit in holes in the tube to keep it in place. Need to pull the rack out of the tube to work on the bushing.
* if you try to "swage" the end of the tube down some...well....it ain't easy, but can be done...and you might find it more difficult to replace the bushing in a rack end that has been swaged? Vertical slop is LESS of a problem than front to back slop..so a clamp used front to can help?
* looks like looseness of over ~ .002" in any direction might cause issues espec with the metal bushing...the plastic bushing won't make any noise...but the slop could still cause steering issues?
