What did you do today to your 3/S?

[bridge]

Installed SCE oil pan..... One of the last pieces to the puzzle.

Wait what? You got in touch with Phil I gathering and used that brain of yours to deal with some of the "issues"

[MDoe8]

oh damn you're right! I never noticed how it points up! crap

[sergechronos]

So, starting the steering rack depower today. Already have my vice packed up somewhere, didn't want to tear through boxes to find it so I rigged up a workable solution. Couple clamps and some lumber, and we were in business.



Some shots of the tie rods. They will be getting replaced. The rust color may just be old grease or something, but not worth dealing with IMO.






How filthy is this rack? Very. Signs of some debris on the inside of the rack, this would not have been acceptable (to me) for reusing as a powered rack.



With the rack as torn down as it will be.


Here you can see the needle bearing and ball bearings inside the rack housing. I will not be removing them as there is no point. They are not replaced. The rack itself is going to be cleaned very thoroughly and those bearings will be getting copious amounts of grease.



Taking a break for lunch now, will post more later.

[MDoe8]

Wow that's a bunch of shiite to break that down! Any particular reason for doing so?

[sergechronos]

Wow that's a bunch of shiite to break that down! Any particular reason for doing so?

Well, as the steering rack had torn boots (although no leaks yet) and a lot of mileage on it, I decided I wanted to try depowering the rack and removing the PS system. In the event I didn't like it, I could get another rack reasonably cheap, and PS stuff isn't impossible to reinstall with the engine in the car. While some have adapted manual steering racks from other platforms, having 4 turns lock to lock is a bit much for me. In truth, had I had my vice still out and set up, it would've been much quicker. Even more so if I hadn't had an oil all over the engine bay and underside of my car problem (or a big parts washer.)

Short version of rebuilding the rack:
1) Loosen/remove tie rod ends (easier to do before pulling from car)
2) Pull the steering rack assembly from the car and put in a vice
3) Unbend the tabs on the washers by the tie rods.
4) Use a large adjustable wrench to undo the tie rods, do both sides before removing one.
5) Use 12mm socket to loosen the valve housing bolts, and a larger socket for the nut on the other end of the assembly (I think I used around an 11/16" as I didn't have a thin walled enough socket that was large enough.)
6) Loosen the end plug/ steering rack support cover. You need either a large nut, or a hexed pipe of some kind, either way needs to be big enough to grab it with pliers to loosen the cover piece.
7) Pull the valve housing and pinion off the rack, you can press the pinion out of the housing pretty easily with a large socket and a hammer.
8) Remove the circlip on the rack. Use needle nose or snap ring pliers to rotate the rack stopper on the end clockwise and the end of hte circlip pops out of the slot. Then turn the rack stopped counter clockwise to remove the circlip. You can now pull the rack itself out, as well as the rack stopped and rack bushing.
9) Remove the various o-rings and seals from the components, clean everything very very very thoroughly.

At this point, you can either rebuild with an appropriate kit and follow the service manual (or theres a wiki about it) or you can get dangerous..I like dangerous, but am going to have to contract out some TIG welding

[MDoe8]

haha yeah i hear ya, My rack is 4 turns lock to lock but they make the same on about 2.75 lock to lock so if it's to much i'll sawp it out.

Anxious to hear how you like it!

[sergechronos]

haha yeah i hear ya, My rack is 4 turns lock to lock but they make the same on about 2.75 lock to lock so if it's to much i'll sawp it out.

Anxious to hear how you like it!

Probably be a while before I can run it with the rest of the work that needs done to the car (and parts replaced) but I will likely end up letting someone else use it to get feedback. I've got high hopes, and if nothing else it drops a lot of weight off the front and makes engine installs even easier (since no more PS pump or brackets for it.) Given the rack would've been useless anyhow, I don't think I'll be missing out on much aside from low speed parking moves and parallel parking (which is a nightmare in these cars anyhow IMO)

[MDoe8]

Yeah i'm curious how the lower ratio will effect steering difficulty. I'm sure going more than 10mph will be fine but if low speed is punishing then it may not be worth it.

[sergechronos]

Yeah i'm curious how the lower ratio will effect steering difficulty. I'm sure going more than 10mph will be fine but if low speed is punishing then it may not be worth it.

Depends. Based on my experience with power steering removed on previous vehicles, trying to turn at a dead stop is difficult (made harder by wider tires) but rolling even just a bit makes it manageable with two arms. You're certainly not one handing it. By 5-10mph, it was reasonably easy with two hands. And by 20mph it wasn't really noticeable. Important caveat though: Those experiences were RWD or 4WD, nothing that was full time AWD.



The deed is done, didn't take any pictures during the reassembly process because you know..grease on freaking everything (especially my hands.) Didn't fancy trying to clean it off of my phone. It's fairly straight forward. I will be giving the exterior of the rack some TLC with acetone and brake cleaner to get all the grease off of it before I sand and repaint it. Few notes:
1) Unlike the DSM or the Miata, we do not seem to have a torsion bar or anything to weld together to eliminate slippage. I'm not experienced enough in how a power steering rack works to know if we could modify the pinion/valve body to eliminate the dead zone, although from what I've read on the subject, depowering should improve the feel of the steering regardless (unless you want GT style reduced road feedback.)
2) The circlip on the pinion is a bitch and a half to get off for me, may have been that my snap ring pliers were too big for it or something, don't know. Took forever to get off.
3) The ports on the rack can be plugged up in a variety of ways. I intend to reuse the stock fittings, and just weld/epoxy them closed (pending what they're made of.)

Now, onto the pictures!

Two busted seals, likely the cause of the rust and marks on the rack.




The previously mentioned marks and rust.





Pinion and valve body. Looks as though the pin could be removed somehow (didn't want to try it since this is my only rack atm) and that the "top" may be pressed into the bottom. Can't be sure. Doesn't look like it would or could move much anyhow, but if someone knows more on the system and has a hypothesis, that'd be nice. I am picking up a spare rack that is busted as well for the point of trying to see what I can find that might explain the large dead zone on the center of the rack.

[green-lantern]

I am in no way bashing the product

Agreed, I know plenty of people that have been really happy with it. It's not the first one I've seen mounted like that anyway.