Rack and Pinion removal

pmac

Registered User
Hello everyone. I'm new to this forum so I don't have bells and whistles attached to my post yet. I have owned a 90 35th edition for about 5 years now and finally have the time and money to start fixing it up. Any way I was trying to replace the steering rack last night. The shop manuals (X2) say that you need to disconnect the High pressure and Return lines. I spent an hour trying to figure out how the heck to do that. Is there any way to get to them with a wrench??? Do I need to remove the power steering pump and IC tubes? Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Nice Rack

It may be possible to do it without removing the Ps pump bracket and Ic tubes. I just replaced mine while the heads and everything else was off and I thought it was a pia then.

Disconect the steering shaft and remove the two large bolts holding the rack to the k-member. Then give it a little jiggle and it should come down far enough to give you access to those two fittings from underneath. Its not going to be fun or easy.
I remember imagining if I could do it without Ps bracket and tubes off and it wasn't looking too good.

Do a search and you may get some alternatives though.
Definetely plan on getting 1/2 gallon of Ps fluid to flush the whole system out till its clear when you are done! This last step is the easiest and very worth while.

Cheers
MB
 
Removing the IC will just free up some room for you to work, but it is not really neccesary to remove it.

I'm getting ready to do the same thing on my '92 SC in the next week or so. I've been doing a little home work into it. If you are under your car, (head at the front, feet towards the back) look at the rack and pinion. On the right hand side at the top of the rack, you will see a portion that goes up and attaches to the steering column. On that portion of the rack you will see a couple lines (about 1/4" metal tubes) that are attached to the rack. Those are your power steering lines. I'm not 100% sure how they attach as I'd have to look at my shop manual when I get home. But those are the lines that you need to disconnect.

I'd recommend replacing the outer tie rod ends if you hadn't planned on it already. I'm replacing all the front suspension, the rack and pinion and power steering pump on mine. So I'm going to feel you pain in the very near future. Hope this helps. I can provide more detail later if you'd like.
 
Thanks for the info guys. I tried the removal of the 2 large bolts and that still didn't seem to give me any more room. I think I will try a couple ideas I had and update you if they work. I might not get to this till the weekend.
 
Getter done...

Well last nigt I finally got the new rack back in. What a pain in the rear. I ended up removing the oil filter which let the high pressure line swing down. This allowed the rack to slide down and forward far enough to get an eighteen mm wrench on the fittings. After the removal I spent an hour or two cleaning all the grease off of the P.S. lines and K-member. Can anybody tell me why ford thought it was a good idea to locate the oil filter so that when ever you change it, it spills oil all over the frame???

Installation was even harder. Trying to get the lines reconnected turned out to be a knuckle bleeder. First I cleaned up the pressure and return line connectors with WD-40 so that the rotated freely. Next I used a connical shaped wire nut to stretch out the teflon washers so that they could fit over the end of the connectors. After that I used my band saw to cut off my pinky finger, so I could reach over the top of the K-member to fasten the connectors finger tight without cross threading them.

I hope there won't be any leaks. Later this week I'm going to put on the new outer tie rods and refill the power steering fluid.
 
pmac said:
. After that I used my band saw to cut off my pinky finger, so I could reach over the top of the K-member to fasten the connectors finger tight without cross threading them.

LMAO :p :p :D

I'll be doing mine in the next few weeks, but my engine will be out of the car when I do it. Na-na! ;)
 
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