Steering Rack Replacement Needed

Post by **Mattel** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 6:41 am

Hi All,

I've allways had a looseness in the front end of this Terc. Even after getting the ball joints replaced.

I've noticed the rubbers in the sway bar are looking pretty crap already, but was wondering what else it could be..

I had a little time of the other day and had a suspension expert look at it. Plus I wanted a quote on the 2" extra lift Lovells brand heavy duty springs that they sell. He showed me play in the steering (arms) that comes out of the steering Rack it was about 1-2" of play on the LH side and told me that I would need a reconditioned steering rack.

The Quote is:(aus$) the aussie dollar is about 80cents US

Reconditioned Rack... $400.00
SW/bar/link/up/bush.. $21.58
SW/bar/link/up/bush.. $13.84 (duplicate?)
Toyota-Panhard ROD.. $21.74
Toyota-Panhard ROD Bush.. $17.75 (bottom axel mount)
Tercel 4x4 Front sway... $25.15
Toyota rear trailing arm bush.. $91.97
Toyota Tercel FR LWR 1.. $31.84
Labour Charge $280.00 (apparantly about 4 hours work)

so all up this is $903.87 AU which is $710.713 US

My questions are..
A is this an obscene amount? All the bushings are high grade polyurethane not rubber and the labour charge seems OK and the steering Rack has to do a 100km round trip.

B without a torque wrench, jack Stands or special tools can I do much of this myself? The FSM doesn't really show how to get the bushings on and off
this link helps..
viewtopic.php?p=20504#20504

I have no press and only a hand drill and no mates with mechanical sense.

if things go wrong and I have to farm it out to someone (by cycling with my parts around) .. I guess it might end up costing more than what they are quoting for labour.

C It seems better to get the Rack recconditioned rather than install a secondhand one as I guess that all the wrecked ones will be getting old by now?

D Replace with Power Steering set up? is this too complicated, as I think I will need an extra pulley wheel that comes off the crankshaft and extra plumbing.. I will have to hunt one down. But I really like the speed variable power steering on my previous Terc. it was way ahead of it's time. Is this a major job? The Crankshaft will be a bugger to replace can anyone varify if this can be done even?

Thanks Guys

Matt

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:04 am

Why replace the crankshaft? The P/S pulley bolts onto the front of the harmonic balancer.
Here, the Manual racks are $260 with $11 core. The Power's are $194 with an $84 core. USD by the way. I believe NAPAOnline includes cores with their original quote, then you see final price by slashing the core off of it. I could be wrong though. Anyway.. The pump, sans reservoir, is $134 with a $4.50 core.
Then you look at plumbing. You'd need the return hard-lines off of a salvage car, at least to get new lines bent if you don't want to risk using used ones. As for pressure... Advance Auto Parts through PartsAmerica.com wants $64 for both halves. Or, you can get them off of a dead car and have a reputable tubes and hoses shop bend and crimp you up a set. Remember, our pumps can kick out minimum 782PSI, upwards of 1000PSI at times. The crimps from metal to rubber MUST be good.
You'll need to remember to plumb the hard lines how they are in factory setup. All those windy lengthy hard lines are there for a reason. They suck heat out of the compressed (pressure side) and used (return side) fluid. Keep the fluid from overheating, destroying itself along with rack and pump seals. Hell, you could even add an extra cooler to the return side for good measure if you wanted.

Also, you'd need the bracketry off of a donor car.

So long as you have all the parts it shouldn't be terribly difficult. It might end up costing you more than just fixing up your manual, but it could be done.

Now my question for those who have several Tercs, one with Manual, one with power.... Are the steering hubs different? Often times they utilize different geometries in order to aid manual steering. Along with a different hub, a more negative caster is used, which if you go to power, must be kicked the wayside and turned positive (I didn't get those mixed up did I?) due to the fact that the one used with manual liked to get a little directionally unstable up at higher speed.

Other than that... If you don't have a press, jack stands, or a torque wrench, you might want to let them do it. Though, if you let them do it and you want to convert to power, expect that quote to hop above a grand. Well above in all likeliness.
The swaybar needs a torque wrench for the sake of the control-arm-to-sway mount. The sway-to-body not so much though. Not to mention how much of a godforsaken royal bugger it is to get back on. ESPECIALLY with new bushings.

Post by **Petros** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:56 pm

The rack price is high I think, everything else appears about right including labor charge. How did you damage the panhard rod and bush? I have never see that before short of a wreck. I think both the rack and the panhard rod would be good bets from wrecking yard. Buy new bushings.

I would not attemp to change over from manual to power steering. I have owned both, the power is better at low speeds, otherwise not even noticable. I think the cross member has different size mounts, the power rack is larger. The steering arms are the same, but you will need all the mounting hardware, the cross member, hoses, pump, pully etc. I would just live with what you got, not worth the effort I think to only improve parking lot steering effort.

Most of this can be done with simple hand tools, the most difficult would be revoving the tie-rod ends (tapered pin tough to loosen without puller).

I will ckeck my two tonight and get back with you if there is anything else differnt.

good luck.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 6:22 pm

rear trailing arm bushings are press items I believe, as are Panhard bushings. Body-control arm bushings in the front are press items. In fact, any torsional bushing will be.
As for sway.. Grief to the max to do it yourself, but it can be done. I personally am not a fan of lying on my back cussing my car out for 2 hours working on the last 2 sway bush mounts, but I may either be doing it wrong, or just stupid. Who knows.
Rack. Haven't done one yet, but it looks like an engine-pull item. If you don't have a cherry-picker or know someone who has one, you're kind of SOL. Correct me if I'm wrong anyone who's changed one. Most reman units from a place like NAPA will come with inner tie rods and the boots already mounted. Outer rods are just threaded on then tightened to prevent moving. Getting your alignment right here is a real bugger at home, though you can get it close enough to get it to a pro shop. You know, you could always do as much as you're comfortable with at home and then bring it in for the rest. If you can do an hours worth of work, thats a quarter the shop charge dropped. Assuming 4 hours.
Though, if you are not comfortable doing the work and you are ok paying someone, go ahead. You might ask them if they can just get an already reconditioned rack for less and use yours as the core charge.

Post by **Mattel** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 8:32 pm

thanks Typrus and Petros for your replys.

The workshop checked and their were no reconditioned units around for the Tercel. So they have to take it out then recondition it overnight and reinstall. I've tried a couple of the wrecking yards around for the Power steering units but neither had them unfortunatly. and yes I forgot about the subframe mounts etc. good pointer. So it looks like I may hand it all over to them.. Most mechanics ask for $90* an hour around here so getting the work done for $70* isn't so bad.

I also checked with Pedders.com.au (goto the catalogue section) (they actually have an outlet in Colorado Typrus) and they have raised springs for the rear of our cars... might be worth checking with them for prices for you guys stateside.

Also while at the wreckers, they wanted $55* for a clear corner side lights. So I don't reckon it's worth it fellers. also the wiring will be all over the shop.

I checked also with the suspension place.. they are not replacing the whole Panhard rod.. just the bushings for top and bottom (not itemised to well).. the new one's will probably outlast the engine.. if not the car itself.

Thanks again.. Matt

*all prices in $au

takza · Post by **takza** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:37 am

I have a manual rack with 230K miles on it and the only thing wrong with it is the end bushing on the right side having a few thousands looseness to it.

I have replaced the lower steering column universal...both inner tie rod joints and an outer one. The end sway bar bushings and sway bar also.

Might have $150 in parts in it.

If you haven't been doing your own work...the steering stuff probably isn't where you'd want to start?

Ed · Post by Ed » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:58 pm

I'm pretty sure you can get any rack off an 83-86 tercel, and any 83-88 wagon. I just replaced mine the other day and the cost was about $25 plus tax from a wrecker.

I'd never done any wrenching with steering before so removing it from the 86 terc HB at the wrecking yard was my first experience, and then i did the same for my car and installed the "new" one. It probably took 5 hours total because i'd never done anything like it before and some of those bolts are pretty tough to wrench off. I needed to jack up the car, otherwise it'd be very tight and it'd take way longer.

The steering is fine now, less slop, but I've still got the death wobble - at least i've isolated the problem to the wheel bearing.

Good luck

Jts · Post by **Jts** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:06 pm

i've taken apart mr2 manual racks and theres literally nothing to them. A rack, pinion and some plastic bushings. If its the bushings that are bad, they are a fairly easy fix and cheap. I know on mr2's, the part is like 10 bucks and maybe 2-3 hours of your time. You should really consider getting another quote or do it yourself.

Post by **Mattel** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:52 am

Hi Ed and JTS, we only got the 4wd wagon in OZ. Although there's some Terc's in the wreckers. I'm not sure if I want to do this more than once though if the replacement is the same. I might go for a little search up to the wreckers though, it doesn't look to hard I'll just sit myself down in the garage space with the new Tom Waits albumn and some beer and spanners and hope the landlord don't come around. actually looks easier than replacing some of those bushings on the suspension.

jamiec · Post by **jamiec** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:28 am

Hey Mattel i have just replaced the left hand side
plastic bush in the rack with a new inner control arm
as my rack had movment in the left side.every tercel i have owned
had noisy racks becouse of worn inner bush it wont fail
just very annoying.bush was about $9 from mr toyota
inner control arm about $40 from burson dont get inner control
arm from toyota if u need one about 3 x the price of bursons.
never done rack before but very easy realy.fit new rack
boots when you are doing it.its like new now

dont bother with secondhand racks wast of time there all
worn out.

Post by **Mattel** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 7:01 am

Thanks all,

I might try that Bursons and Toyota and do what you did Jamie, if it doesn't work and the steering hasn't improved. Then I'll get the whole rack recconditioned as I don't fancy taking it apart.

Jamie. are the bit's in Green on the link below what you refer to as the inner control arm? or the purple bits? If its the green one's Then I guess it's the tie rod ends? and I won't need to take the rack out.. just access those parts from above and below?

Thanks Typrus and Petros.. I'll be getting those suspension bushings put on by the experts.. and they can check my work on the rack and do an alignment.. might as well make it safe

Ed did you have to jack up the engine to get at the rack? how much extra do you need to remove to get at it?

Thanks again!

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Ed · Post by Ed » Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:35 am

[quote="Mattel"]
Ed did you have to jack up the engine to get at the rack? how much extra do you need to remove to get at it?[quote]

No, I just lifted the entire front by the frame. I didn't need to remove anything extra but the wheels i guess. It is tight tho, and awkward at times because its tough to muscle the bolts off at the hard to reach areas, but you can either try from above or benieth the car. I used a little pipe for leverage at times. Once you have all (7) bolts off you should be able to pull the entire rack out from one side.

Ed · Post by Ed » Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:36 am

No, I just lifted the entire front by the frame. I didn't need to remove anything extra but the wheels i guess. It is tight tho, and awkward at times because its tough to muscle the bolts off at the hard to reach areas, but you can either try from above or benieth the car. I used a little pipe for leverage at times. Once you have all (7) bolts off you should be able to pull the entire rack out from one side.

jamiec · Post by **jamiec** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 4:38 am

Mattel the purpel one i had to replace.
the inner bush is the one called rack bushing.
its only plastic no wonder the all get wornout.

shogun · Post by **shogun** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 7:45 am

i have replaced my rack, one time, it was a simple thing, i bought a used one and replaced the bushing with a stronger plastic, tightend everything to spec and all is ok, the bad part is that around here the subber parts that secure the rack are not available so i put in a couple at would fit, but since its not a fully snug fit the rack has a little play