Started 348 steering rack rebuild

Started process of rack rebuild and ball joint replacement. I cracked the tie rod ends loose and they rotate fine. I removed the rod nut, I put nut on loosely and used a punch to try and pop it off from underneath by smacking the punch, no dice. I tried a pickle fork even though its not tapered I am replacing the tie rod end anyhow. No dice. It is on there. This is the part I was dreading most in the whole job.

When you apply heat do you cool it quick or just smack it while hot? I assume the rubber boot will melt do you all cut it off first?

I'll post pics as I go I will be making 10 or so inner bushings from Oilon for anyone else who needs them.

 

I don't like torches as it anneals the metal, thought about it and went to Pepboys and got Pitman arm puller.
2 turns of the bolt and it popped off. Cost $17.00 but I assume I will have use for it somewhere down the line.


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pic 1) It going to be tight in a 1 car garage.
pic 2) Disconnect the sway bar bracket 2 bolts each.
pic 3) Unbolt the sway bar end link, I am replacing all the bushings so I am removing it there is 4 bushings per side to replace.
pic 4) Unbolt the bottom end link nut and pull the bolt out freeing the end link from the loser control arm.

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Still working will post more pics, currently trying to twist the rack out, 1 person is REALLY hard to do.

 

No need to remove the center tunnel cover, unhook and drain water or AC lines or anything else. I'll explain it below.
1) Remove the steering column pinion bolt and retract the joint
2) Pull back the corner of the carpet, do the side first then the bulkhead will pull back. You'll see when you try it that way. I used a bottle of Amsoil to hold the carpet, you can see it in the picture.
3) Remove the plug to access the rack bolts, remove them.
4) I removed the oval pinion cover bolts for clearance. Oil drips out so watch the eyes.
5) Pull the rack out.
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1) Push the sway bar forward in the access area toward the headlight as far as it will go.
2) When laying under the car as shown below put your hands up into the steering rack area. Imagine what I am saying from THAT position.
3) When you look under the car and look at the rack, the splined shaft from the steering column "appears" as if it rotates down toward you
4) Do the opposite...
5) Grab the mounting rack blocks and with your hands palms away from your body (like a pull up)
6) Push the rack up and roll the rack forward, the moment when holding the rack is the same as twisting the rack like your doing a wrist curl.
7) So the splined shaft will NOT be rotating down toward your face (which is what it looks like it needs to do) , it will rotate up and forward away from your face as you look at it.
8) While you do that have someone on the driver side pull the tie rod end and it will slide past the recess fro the splined shaft.

I spent 4 hours looking twisting, prying and other wise frustrating myself. Once I decided there is no way anyone removed the rack with the sway bar in there I decided to try rotating the other way. It took 10 minutes to remove. If I started that way I would have saved hours. For this reason I am trying to be real specific about how to do this.

It is actually very very easy, the issue if figure out how do do it.

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I'll be rebuilding it and will post pics and make bushings etc.

On a side note, since I am replacing ball joints too, to remove cotter pins:
1) Straighten the ends with long nose pliers
2) Use a wrench as a fulcrum and using needle nose, clamp the ends and pry to push the pin back though just a bit. If you do any more than that you can bend and weaken the pin and snap it.
3) Once the looped end is exposed drive an ice pick/all through it. That will pull it out just a tad and it will also split the looped end.
4) Grab ONE of the pin legs and twist it like a sardine can opening.
5) With this method you can pull the pins out one leg at a time from either end. Once one it out the other will come out easily.

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OK new territory for me, anyone know how to remove the inner< there are no wrench flats.
I assume it is threaded on, are they standard tightening threads, stick it in a vise and use a pipe wrench?

You can see bits of the inner bushing that disintegrated.

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The rack does have actual oil in it btw. That tells me there is additionally seals internally.
General bushing diameter is 30.5mm OD and 23 ID and 29mm long.

2 issues I see
1) The inner tie rod housing in peened on, that would need to be drilled out. After that you need to affix it back. Spot weld maybe but the housing is chromed and the end is who knows what metal, some steel I assume but it almost feels cast. Not sure I would trust a spot weld they tend to crack off with vibration and the different metals (the tube is quite thin) and the chrome needs to be removed in an area.

2) The bushing goes in where the pick is pointing. Without the bushing the car wanders, fails to respond, responds lazily, then over steers generally crappy handling, clunks over pot holes.

3) Made a test fit busing from Delrin (target material is Oilon) but the shaft diameter varies slightly, it is probably best to make it under sized then lap it with a flapper wheel to fit. I don't see a way to mount it, yes press fit but if it gives then the busing would move in and out and were right back to where I am now. I suspect the oem bushing had ears that fit through those oval holes you see but then you would need something to compress the round busing to get it in without shearing it. I suspect he best way is a 6061 bushing to fit then drill a hole and put 2 set screws with thread lock on securing the bushing to the housing. From a hardness perspective 6061 is about the same as brass. A slick material like Nylon or Oilon cant be secured easily, at least not in some way where I won't obsess about it constantly. I know some have done it with no issues but I can't do it.

I was expecting something better for securing a bushing in place like a collar or something there, nope jsut right here. btw if the bushing fails or slides out grease will escape, my boot was filled with grease meaning the teeth were not as lubed as they were supposed to be. That coupled with internal oil and seals that should be done while out, I may just send it out and have it done by a shop that specializes in it.
ugh..

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1) I popped out the busing to inspect them used a puller and pressed them out, use a small socket to push on the sleeve, mine were essentially glued in, they popped when they broke free. Flip it over and push the other side out with a larger socket. You can use a mallet on that one.

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2) Here is what the bushing looks like in CAD. As mentioned the general bushing diameter is:

• 30.5 mm OD
  
• 23 mm ID
  
• 29mm long.

Lot's of ways to do this, this is just one way...
The original bushing was a hard rubber actually so it had some flex and give. Thus one bushing worked for everyone. I did not want to use nylon or plastics as I could not assure myself it wont slide out so I made it from aluminum as I wanted to secure it with a set screw. The bushing needs to be fitted really, the shaft has varying diameter it is actually a few thousandths thicker at the inner tie rod end, not sure that's true for all racks. I get why it does not come like that it has to be fitted as opposed to stretchy hard rubber. I can't make a ready batch that everyone can use as shaving .001's from the ID or OD is tough to do evenly. Bushing had to be test fitted and adjusted several times, aluminum has no give, so too tight won't fit and too loose means in the bin it goes and start over. This is dead nuts tight but I can still pull and push the end s and move the rack back and forth. A permanent high performance fix.

It is worth noting some shops may use aluminum and a set screw also but when I called a few and asked they could not tell me for some reason. I found one place that said they used Delrin. If I had to do it again I would just call around and find a place that does rebuilds with Metallic spacers. I suspect those places "may" cost a bit more but not sure. What I did here may be unnecessary but I only know now waht I know after doing it, but I know its done right.


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For 6061 aluminum on the Brinnel hardness scale it is 95 where Brass is 80 but Delrin is 110 and Nylon in 90. All things considered 6061 works well, can be fastened with a set screw and is substantially softer than the rack to the rack wont wear where the rack is somewhere north of 250 on the hardness scale. Here it is with a set screw pit in with blue thread lock. So the bushing is pressed in and pinned. Aluminum should work really well.
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The new end peened. I will be penning it more. What I did was send my rack out to be rebuilt after I fitted the spacer and had them use my spacer. The have spared to use ends to peen instead of weld and they have the correct internal seals and O-Rings. Since the rack indeed contains an oil that looks and feels like 3-1 oil, I did not want to take it apart and service it without the correct seals rings. A leaky rack in 30 days would just plain suck. A rack rebuild is pretty cheap. btw my rack was weeping leaking oil, the bottom cover bolts were wet and crusted black. I'll be pulling the covers, cleaning and adding slight rtv layer and bolting cover back on, not sure thy did that when rebuilding. Double check.
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Few links of some places the do rebuild work. Midwest, East and West coasts. Just a few spots I gathered from FChat, no affiliation just providing some possibilities for you is all, feel free to do more homework as well:
http://www.rotexla.com/
https://www.jorgenauto.com
https://www.reyesalternators.com/
http://speedyrack.com/

In the event you want to know what a failed rack looks like, aside from the handling felling very strange and imprecise, it looks like this video. Not my video but I found this out here when I was trying to figure out my steering issues, my rack did the exact same thing. No wonder the car wandered, responded oddly to slight inputs.

 

Yep I would be on the highway at 75 mph and the highway would curve sharply and I would turn the wheel slightly to follow the road and the car would not turn so I would turn more then it delayed and finally turned then it really turned would have to over correct.

I was like wtf I thought these cars had the best steering ever, I knew something was up. It was awful. At lower speeds around the neighborhood it was OK, at faster speeds it was downright unsafe. Found that video out here, jacked my car up and sure enough same damn thing.

The bushing disintegrates with time, they just crumble. I suspect almost all of them have a bushing in some sort of deteriorated state.
But once I get the shiny new rack in with premium bushing and all new ball joints and tie rod ends and control arm bushings it should feel original.

 

Sorry wrong image you need channels for air on the OD or the booot will want to balloon and collapse.
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After slipping the rack back in (it is harder to get in the out i found), when reinstalling the sway bar I used new bushings and all new nuts. Actually every nut or bolt that came out got replaced here available. The captive nuts below were not available. They can easily get knocked out or they will spin when tightening. Both happened to me. One got knocked out and the other 3 slipped when tightening so I had to pull 3 of them out and reform them since they were NLA and I did not feel like hunting. If it happens to you and your not familiar don't panic its and easy fix, had to do this more times than I can count on aircraft in my military youth.

1) You can find when tightening the nuts down on the sway bar bracket the the bolts will spin. It is because the captive nut is out of shape or one end is pushed in or what not. If that happened to you the nut is down tight so put a thin flat head screwdriver underneath the mount clamp to pin the nut ear and then spin the nut off. Put the nut back on the bolt finger tight and then wiggle them back it out. The nut helps catch it in the event you accidently push it into the frame.
2) You can see the lip of the nut is bent over the nut narrowing the base of the captive nut, this allows ite to spin if it is not mounted flush and square with both ears suspending it.
3) Put it in a vise and expand the sides back out with a flat head.
4) Rotate it in the vise and squish and reform the sides and pull the ears back out making it as 90 degrees as possible.
5) Should look more the one shown towards the bottom when done. Slip it back in the slot and then proceed to reinstall the sway brackets and tighten up.
6) New tie rod ends have a slightly thicker bolt for the nut so I had to expand the hole 1 mm or so with a tapered bit. The taper is the same length and width but the bolt shank is larger.

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348 Ball joint replacement.

When popping the top ball joint you'll want to tie the hub so it does not wobble on the lower ball joint shank. I used string and tied it to the shock before popping the upper ball joint. Bungees will worl also. On the second one I just used my knee to support it while I remove the top hat and put the nuts on and hand tight while I wait for new bolts for the top hat that mounts the upper ball joint to the control arm.

1) Bought this ball joint tool from Harbor freight for $8.
2) Remove cotter pins shown above, the remove the nut and put it on backwards. Reason is the jaws don't fin enough to get the bottom of the bolt shank. You can put the lower jaw on the nut, thread the nut in a bit so the jaws can clamp to that. If you don't reverse the nut, the castle battlements can get peeled back. There is no clearance to use the previous pitman arm puller from underneath that I used to remove the tie rod ends.
3) Once the joint pop, when you remove the nut the bolt shank may spin since it is a ball and socket. Use a pickle and pry to add tension then remove the nut.
4) Then unscrew the top hat and put the new pone in ( I am waiting for new bolts to do that actually.)
5) As it turns out I can't remove the top wishbone without removing the brake line so I will do that when I add SS linens. I want to complete 1 things at a time so that will wait.
6) Old bushings and new bolts and nuts.

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Will post bottom BallJoints once I get the uppers mounted with new bolts.

 

You can do the lower ball joints with 1 person.
1) Put a jack under the lower control arm and give it a tad of tension is all.
2) Pop ball joint loose
3) Zip tie the spacers to keep track of them. I pointed the zip ties out so I know which was which if they get mixed up
4) When you put it back together put a bolt on the hole that is NOT the shock with the spacers in place and tighten down. This way you have 1 piece to contend with not ball joint and 8 spacers.
5) Push down on the lower control arm and put a 1/4 extension through the shock body hole and through the shock 2/3 wt though to align it. Put a bolt in the other side and push the extension out. Wiggle and finagle to get it back in place.
6) Swing the ball joint up, remove the outer bolt, then align the holes and put the bolt through the control arm and ball joint.
7) tighten down and cotter pin. Be sure you check the cotter pin hols and twist the stud so you can access the cotterpin hole when back together to save your self the hassle of popping the ball joint to twist it in place.
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1) Pull the hub off, I did not have to bend any brake lines you can back out bolts, remove 4 of the 6 completly and the last 2 then move the backing plate out then back out the bolt more, repeat. Once the bolt is out you can angle it and slide it out of the backing plate. Easy peazy.
2) Clean the brake and these little shims that WILL fall out. When putting the brake on, put the caliper on, then slide the shims in place and slip the bolt back in. If the brake and shims and caliper mount are clean I (I used brake cleaner and rags) it all just slips together without much force or effort. The shims are used between the caliper and the mount to center the brake in the caliper.
3) My grease was still good not hard and caked. I wiped it off then used a grease needle and royal purple synthetic grease and squirted it between the bearings and races. Also cake the hub race then out it back on. Picture if before greasing, after it was oozing purple grease.
4) when putting hub back on, use 2 bolt to hold it in place (no backing plate needed) , then install the caliper, then remove the holding bolt, slide the plat back in place and reverse the bolts back in like you took them out. Getting them back in a a bit trickery than taking out, expect that. Again 1 man job took no time at all.
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The front end is nice and TIGHT and when you crank the rotors to turn the wheels, you hear a nice clean zip like a small nylon zipper from the rack. No slop, no play, no give. Can't wait to align and drive it now. Hubs spin like a bike wheel and no brake drag as well.