Reply to "Who to Rebuild a Steering Rack?"

Great post. I was where you are, same questions almost exactly.

First, I'm no master tech. Of that, I can assure you.

When contacting Quella about the 'swap' idea, he mentioned that all rebuilds are not the same, so you may inherit a rebuilt rack that was fully redone at that level of time and cost, only to send him one that required half the work. Something to keep in mind. I ended up of course just sending him mine and waiting, which was not that long, and I had plenty to keep me busy.

Second, the removal fears are largely unfounded. Once high on jackstands with wheels off and a good light, you're looking at:

4 bolts that secure the rack
2 pinch bolts that secure the steering shaft
2 tie rod ends. You can remove these in a couple places.

PanteraPlace.com has - as usual - a fantastic write up and pictoral on the subject.

Then you just box the thing up and send it off.

Take pics along the way as you must. Mine should be back shortly and I forsee no reassembly head-scratching.

However, if my next post shows my wheels folded inward and my left turning resulting in a hard right, I won't be quite as cocky sounding.

One pointer - my BIGGEST hassle by far was not realizing the pinch bolts needed to be completely removed, not just loosened. Had I done this initially, would've saved 30 minutes at least. Whole job was 90 minutes. My cleaning up (which I am prone to do) took far longer, but I enjoy that part.