Tie rod bushings for dummies

Cost prohibitive! Get another car!

 

Peter-
Which car? I assume a 308?

Also- which bushings are you asking about?

The one inside the steering rack?

The outer tie rods? Inner tie rods? Rack mounting bushings?

I've just finished replacing a 308 steering rack with a rebuilt unit. For $400, I figured it would be easier than rebuilding my original rack.

 

Are the bushings rubber or are they polurethane? I'm just curious...

 

1/4" of play anywhere is not good. But, when you say "lateral play", do you mean you can grab both sides of the tire and pull it towards you (perpendicular to direction of travel of the car) and it moves 1/4"? I'm not sure how that could be. The wheel hub would keep it from moving that much, even with the steering detached.

Or, do you mean you can twist the tires/wheels (like you were steering the car) and they move 1/4" until the steering wheel lock stops it?

I'm sorry if I'm making this more confusing than it is.

But the bottom line, I would rather replace the rack with a rebuilt unit than try and rebuild the old one. Even if you replace the internal bushing, the inner tie rods might still be worn out. A rebuilt unit comes with new inner tie rods. Just pop your outer tie rod ends off the steering arms and then you can really check how the rack feels where the inner rods connect with a ball joint, and check the lateral play of the rack to confirm the inner bushing by grabbing the passenger side of the rack and checking for movement up and down as opposed to the in/out movement of the rack while steering.

This photo might help.
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I just pulled the rack off my 308 today. I am planning a rebuilt install but killing time and pulling the old rack apart now. I had the same play in the passenger side wheel as you discribe - and have heard this from other owners. I bought the inner bushing which I was told was the typical failure on these cars. It is a nylon or poly sleeve about 2.5 cm long and fits over the shaft and inside the housing. The bushing in my unit was turned to dust and spilled out with the gear oil in tiny bits. As I have the bushing ($40 from T rutlands) and the inners and outers all are in good shape, I am giving it a try. My issue is removing the inner tie rod so I can get the bushing on the shaft. The tie rod in threaded on the shaft and held in place with a shear pin - or so it looks. Not sure best way to undo this assembly.

Open to suggesions....

 

That's a pretty common setup for tie rod inner ends.

it's a small steel roll pin that holds the inner end in place. You have to drive the pin out before you can unscrew the inner tie rod end. If you try to unscrew it w/o getting the pin out, you ruin the threads(don't ask)...

 

Take a look at my thread "Dino Saga 051113". I replaced the right hand steering bushing without even taking the rack out of the car or taking the tie-rods off the rack. You have to make your own bushing but it is trivial. Left bushing appears to be OK. I suppose that the pinion supports that end very well. 2 years and 5000 miles later it still feels good. The Nylon should last almost forever with lubricant and a polished shaft. We will see.

Good Luck,

John

 

Steering rack seems to be the pastime of choice when watching the Daytona 500. Lots of posts today. The split bushing may be the answer but I will take another shot at punching out the roll pin. Had a few good whacks at it with no effect. I began to think it was not a through hole pin, although there seems to be access holes on both sides of the shaft. I'll go with one more round of punch as I have the rack on the bench. If not, I'll give Johns method a try.

Thanks all for the advice!

 

On mine- this pin did not go through the connection- so how do you drive it out? I looked at it and it looked like a shear pin than would need drilling.
So, once it's drilled out, how do you install a new pin? Just use a bigger one, I assume?

Mine had what looked like a slot for a flathead screwdriver- I wonder if it was threaded? I put a screwdriver on one of them and it did nothing. Maybe a little more force or an impact screwdriver would have been needed.

Verell- if you have any spare time (doubtful!!) take a look at the rack I left at your house and see what you think.
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Just looked at one.

That's not a roll pin fer sure. Could be either a pin or set screw. Looks like it was inserted then it's the end & edges of the hole were x-struck with a small flat bladed punch, chisel, or screwdriver blade to keep it in there.

Doubt that it's a shear pin. If the cross-striking damage that's swaged the edge of the hole can be machined off, then it might come out/unscrew. Most likely it'll have to be partially drilled out. If it's a pin, then need to be very careful getting the old one out or you won't be able to get a new one in tightly enough to do it's job.

I'd try contacting Malcolm West at Ferrari.uk to see if he could help. Also, search the archives, there have been several steering rack rebuild threads. May have to PM the guys who posted to them. A call to the guy who rebulds them might be helpful, worth a try.

John, did you notice what was used in your rebulit one?

 

I never removed the dust boot of the rebuilt unit. Sorry.

 

I agree the X looks like tool marks from whatever drove in the pin. There is a detent on the other side but the pin does not go all the way through. Will try to get to the fellow (dave I think ?) who posted the detail on the rebuild in late 03. The photos are no longer on the post as they have expired so cannot see the "apart" pics. Not sure I want to try to drill out the pin for the reasons you outlined. If the worst comes, $350 to the steering rack buys a rebuild with only $12 to ship the core back.

I had bought a bushing before starting and will consider the splitting method outlined on a previous post. Not sure of the material and weather it will bend enough to fit over the shaft without breaking. Perhaps with a bit of heat before trying.

 

I was not successful finding anyone with a rebuilt rack. Also found our that the typical quote of $300-$400 to rebuild your existing rack did not include tie rod ends. As I had already bought a inner bushing, I decided to clean up the rack and install the bushing myself. The tie rods were all in great shape and the boots also showed no cracking and were soft and flexible.

FWIW - my summary of a DIY for this repair -

In removing the rack, I did not want to use a fork and possibly tear the outer tie rod boots. I was able to get the outer joints out of the steering knuckle by heating the outside of the joint backing off the retaining nut and tapping out the stud. With the rack on the bench I was able to see the inner bushing had turned to crumbs and poured out with the gear oil.
Next trick was getting off one the inner tie rod end to install the new bushing. It was not too difficult to drill out the locking pin. The pin was not a roll type and was much softer than the tie rod so it tended to be self guiding. With the pin out, I resorted to a pair of vice grips and leather strips to protect the surfaces. It looks like there are holes for a special tool to remove the ends, but not in my inventory. The tie rod is split at the interference pin. With a vice grip on the inside collar and one on the outer part of the inner tie rod end, it came off easily.
Next was removing the metal jacket which surrounded the old rubber bushing. First had to remove the small Phillips screw in the side of the rack over the busing. Then pull out the jacket through the passenger side of the rack, This was a bit tricky in that I did not have anything long enough to tap it out from the drivers side . I resorted to bending it inwards using a screwdriver wedged into the 3 oil via’s . Took a bit of doing and one broken screwdriver but it eventually fell out.
After cleaning all parts and bearings to remove the remains of the original bushing, reassembled with new nylon bushing and replaced the outer tie rod to the same position , which aligned with the interference hole. I took a bit of trial and error to get the end and the collar to line up with the hole. The technique I used was to line the collar up with the hole and inserted a small nail which allowed my to turn the outer joint end and see that the collar was still aligned. The nail has to be thin enough to allow the outer joint to turn while the nail remains in the half-hole of the collar. (half-hole….sounds funny) once the end was tight and aligned, I cut a replacement pin from a section of steel rod, tapped in and center punched it a few times to assure a snug fit.
With everything cleaned and back in place I filled with gear oil and starting installation. First issue was centering the rack. I ran it end to end which was 3 ¼ turns. So I backed it off 1 5/8 turns and installed it with the steering wheel centered. It was also tricky to get the pinion collar back over the pinion spline, but there is enough flexibility in the steering shaft to push the collar back into the passenger compartment about 3/8 inch which provides just enough room to mate the rack. This step is the only step which requires assistance of someone to hold the rack from under the car while you re-mate the spline. Finished up by installing all bolts and washers (remember the thin washers between the rubber mounts and the frame). As the outer tie rods did not come off and the inner tie rod had to go back to the same spot , the finished assembly tracked very well. I will still go for alignment to correct any small issues, but with the new bushing in place the wheel is centered, there is no pull while driving or under breaking, and the entire feel is tight and responsive.

Start to finish was about 3 hours work (and 2 hours of pondering) including about 30 min of cleaning out bits of bushing from inside the ribs in the boots. Not as difficult as I thought. Sorry for no pics, but I have bad luck with posting large files to this site.