Made some good progress this weekend, although very slow moving. Removed the steering rack on Thursday night to get a jump on it on Friday. Greasy and nasty…the rack would leak out of the billows a bit, but really, being original and high-miles, it was holding up pretty well. Most of the oil and dirt is from leaks in the old and older engine.
Got it cleaned up and ready to disassemble!
Sunday, in between family activities, I got the rack disassembled….yes…that’s all I was able to get done. As I expected….I discovered a reason why most people just buy a rebuilt rack now…. The inner oil seal is near impossible to get out! Ford has a special tool of course, but even with the right tool it seems like this would be a pain to get out, since you can’t push it out and getting underneath of it is very tough. My dad sacrificed a long flathead screw driver after the blind hole bearing/seal puller from Autozone failed too. He put some heat to the tip of the screwdriver, bent about 3/8” of the tip to a 90°, then I sharpened it as thin as possible. With this and some prying help, I was able to work the tip of the modified screwdriver underneath the seal, then pry straight upward to get the seal out. This seal blew about 4 hours of work altogether….
Can’t have any more of that non-sense or the car will not be ready for the Shootout!!
Cleaned all the steering rack parts very well last night, removed all of the o-rings, so it’s all clean and ready to assemble tonight!