Steering rack

[joe newsom]

Starting to tear into my front end and was searching internet for new tie rods, and came across remanufactured steering racks as well. So now I have a couple questions .

 

First if there are any recommendations for new tie rods?

 

Second, do the steering racks go bad? I have no idea the conditions of mine. The boots are trash but I was just going to replace.

 

Is it worth buying a remanufactured one?

 

 

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[kully 560]

I bought a new not rebuilt steering rack at the beginning of 2017 from car steering on ebay this year for $272.00  for my early 260z . my rack was bad had a little play in it so I install this new rack and now the car drives perfect. I see now they sell rebuilt but you can check with them if they have any new racks. not much can go wrong with these racks that can not be rebuilt but I was lucky to find a new one ,as far as the tie rods I used moog brand. also the rack came with a new inner tie rod which I think is about $90.00

Edited October 27, 2017 by kully 560

[Namerow]

6 hours ago, joe newsom said:

 

Starting to tear into my front end and was searching internet for new tie rods, and came across remanufactured steering racks as well. So now I have a couple questions .

 

First if there are any recommendations for new tie rods?

 

Second, do the steering racks go bad? I have no idea the conditions of mine. The boots are trash but I was just going to replace.

 

Is it worth buying a remanufactured one?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

 

Joe:

There are some excellent write-ups already on this site regarding complete tear-down of the steering rack, tie-rod end issues, substitute dust boots, etc. etc.  I'm not going to find them for you (maybe someone else is feeling more energetic), but I encourage you to use the search function (select 'Topics').

[Mike W]

One of the best write ups on this topic was started by @Captain Obvious.  You can find the start of the thread here:

Just do a search on "steering rack rebuild" and you will get a lot of info on this topic. 

I have also rebuilt the two different style racks and contributed to the thread above as well as others.  The rebuilds are not terribly difficult but do require a couple of special tools and a lot of patience.  The hardest part is finding some of the replacement parts, particularly the rack housing end bushings, which I ended up having to have machined locally due to their odd ball size.

I was also wondering about the new racks that were being sold by car steering on ebay ( I think they are still available) and how good of a product they were.  Good to hear from @kully 560 that it worked well for him.  Frankly for $272, going through a complete rebuild would probably cost more and certainly a lot more time (and headaches getting parts).  Having said that I did enjoy actually doing the work and getting a better understanding of their operation and the differences between the 2 racks that were used on the S30's.

Hope that help.

Mike.

 

[joe newsom]

seems none of the pics load up for captain obvious threads

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah, Photobucket SUCKS!! I reloaded the pics at the (current) end of the thread. Take a look at page 4.

http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/48621-steering-rack-disassembly-and-refurb/?page=4&tab=comments#comment-531913

 

[joe newsom]

CO did you replace the inner tie rods.


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[Captain Obvious]

No Joe, I did not. I took mine off and put them back on, but they seemed in good enough condition that I reused my originals.

Other owners like @Mike W have though. I think there are some pics on the earlier pages of my rebuild thread from Mike.