Power steering rack replacement

Heya everyone, I signed on to your forum to help out a buddy with a 90 SC. His power steering rack is leaking like a seive, and he is reluctant to have a shop do it for him. We replaced the rack in my Porsche last weekend, and I was wondering if anyone could give us some insight into the procedure. Alternatively, I was lucky to find step by step instructions for mine on a Porsche forum, if anyone knows where I could find those I would be ever so grateful.


Ragards,
Micah

can be a real pain in the a$$...mine was ..but is just like any other rack ...
getting the 2 mounting bolts and nuts off ..that go through front sub frame
was really the hardest part...power tools may have made it easier...but I had to use a johnson bar and a jack ... using the weight of the car for torque..to break the nuts loose ...also undoing the streering colume joint at the rack ..is fun not alot of room there ...1/4 turns with a wrench ...and the bolt has to come right out ..for it to release off the rack...dave

Thanks for the tip... I don't think there is such a thing as an easy rack replacement. It's good to know that there aren't any "special" surprises on the SC. I appciate your time.


Regards,
Micah

I did mine recently and found some good tips in this thread.

http://sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43197

I did it all from underneath the car and the lines were very hard to get started back in the rack. The two lines you need to remove cannot even be really seen until you drop the rack down. You need to move it around in a couple of directions at once to get the hard lines to line back up with the holes in the rack.

Don't forget the little nylon washers to go back on the fittings. A good Ford parts guy will know which ones you need. They need to be stretched to get them over the threads on the line fittings. There is a little relief in the fittings where they should sit up next to the hex part. I had a big brass punch that was tapered and worked out really well to stretch those things to fit.

Also, count the number of turns it takes to get off the outer tie rod ends and then reinstall them with the same number of turns. That will keep your steering wheel straight and will have the toe close enough to get it to an alignment shop.