De-Powering the power steering rack

[TitaniumTT]

Now, starting here, remove in the following order



1) Large Lock nut (not shown)
2) Yoke Plug (center)
3) Spring
4) Rack Support

These are the pieces as they come out of the rack. Left to right following the order above



Moving onto the bottom of the rack remove the Pinion Plug and the locknut. The plug is on the bench and the locknut is still in there under that nasty 20something y.o. grease



Then head over to the top of the rack and start by gently prying loose the dust cap



To expose a lock-ring



A gentle tap at the bottom where the threads are will reveal this engineering masterpiece.



Left to right we have a pair of seals, a bunch of seals, a bearing and again.... a seal...

I hate seals. They are the enemy to all who seek smooth de-powered powersteering racks. They were my enemy. They all fell before me.

[TitaniumTT]

Moving over to the passenger side we'll find the Rack Stopper. This is neat the way they have this retained. I used a piece of 1/8" aluminum stock I had kicking around to rotate the stopper to reveal the catch pin



With a pick you can angle it up ever so slightly and continue to rotate



Until the whole thing comes out like so



Then the stopper will basically fall out when the rack is pushed out.

[TitaniumTT]

Basically every thing that we have removed so far exposing all the enemy seals save one that is still buried in the rack.



This is the real seal that we are after. The other two are bonuses.



With this seal out of the way, and all the fluid removed and replaced with some synthetic grease, there will be virtually no back-pressure, no binding, no sloshing etc etc. It will basically be a fast ratio Manual rack which is exactely what I'm after.

[TitaniumTT]

Now onto the "quill" or the control valve assembly. You can see in this picture that we need to get that myriad of seals off starting with the bearing. I suppose you could just bust out the cutoff wheel and throw bits of fiber and metal into the bearing, but I have a different approach. Seeing as how many of us don't have presses and bearing seperators at our disposal, I found that with that same 1/8 aluminum stock you can place it where the arrow is pointing



Grab onto the oil seals real tight and give the end a few taps to move the bearing slightly towards the rear displaying a REAL PITA lock spring. By moving this spring out of the groove and allowing it to follow the bearing, you can now press the valve/seal assembly to the bearing like so



A few more taps and the bearing along with the lock ring and the valve/seal assembly just falls out. You can see the arrow is pointing to the stupid little lock spring



And finally all the pieces removed. The red arrows are pointing to the lock spring and the grove on the control valve assembly where the f'er rode.

[TitaniumTT]

Now it's time for some welding. The control valve assembly will disengage & rotate slightly to allow fluid to flow. This of course translate to the steering wheel as a few degrees (I've been told ~5*) of pure SLOP. Meaning that you have to rotate the steering wheel 5* for the quill to open and get to it's mechanical limit before the rack will begin to move in or out. I hate slop in racks as much as I hate seals. Time to fix. This pic shows where the break is



So lets weld it up. Even if the weld breaks which I don't think it will, the piece itself will just revert back to its original design. A little ole' MIG welding and viola. Some people will say to TIG it but I don't think it's necessary.



Since I had the MIG out and some copper piping laying around I decided to cut off the connections & plug the holes on the rack since they won't be used again. I know, I'm an OCD ass and this step is totally optional but I kinda like it. PLUS I was planning on painting the damn thing anyway. Either way, you need to plug the lines so that dirt and debris can't get in, and your grease can't get out.



This may be overboard.... nah.... but I can't use the, "Since I had the MIG out excuse," I'll just admit to going overboard, I busted out the TIG and welded up the other holes on the rack,



than sanded everything smooth and painted.



Leave me alone, I'm OCD and I don't have a problem

[TitaniumTT]

So, remember this picture? Now it's time to go after the main seal.



I took the cut off wheel and cut in two places 180* opposite each other and whacked it with a hammer.

DONE

That was main thing to be done.... Yes, that is the big difference between my dfe-powered racks and looping the lines, or plugging them. That seal makes all the difference in the world.

Now with everything ready to be re-assembled, lets look at a few things. On the rack bushing (bottom left 2 blue circles) there are two seals. The one o-ring seal that is visible and an oil seal that is not. Since we are no longer trying to contain all the pressure of a power steering system and only trying to keep some grease in the rack, I took that seal out and removed the spring to allow the rack to slide easier.*

The O-ring you should leave as it will keep the bushing in place. When re-assembling it though, be sure to press the Rack stopper in VERY hard as the end of the rack has two steps and the o-ring needs to compress.

The center blue circles show the other oil seal and the bushing. Same as above I popped the seal out and removed the spring relieveing some of the friction.* The circle on the rack shows where those two seals are located. I used a socket and a bunch of extensions to seal it in place. Worked aight



* I assembled the entire rack and thought that it was a little too stiff to turn. The grease will not lube the shaft as well as the PS fluid. I disassembled and removed the springs inside of the seals. I was really surprised at how mush easier it was to rotate without those springs in the seals. The seals need to stay, but not the springs.

[TitaniumTT]

Lube up your shaft real well



Grease up the quill



Meh, maybe a little much



Put the keeper in place



& after that my hands got REALLY greasy and decided not to touch the camera again. The rest is really the reverse of removal, check the FSM for torque specs and so on.... and enjoy.

-Brian