Help with steering rack

I am going to replace my steering rack and wondered if enyone would be so kind to scan and email me the directions from the service manual (1995 aurora) Email [email protected].

I am changing it because the dealer said that is what I need in-order to align the front end and they want $1200 for parts and labor. The way it is now no-one can align it and it is chewing up new tires at a rate of 1 every 10,000 miles. Any help would be appriciated.

Thanks
Dave A.

I Have Had To Replace The Rear Engine Mount On My 95 Before. A Little While Ago I Had A Lot Of Rattlin And Moving Back There. About A Month Ago I Put My Girl Up On Jacks To Take Care Of The Problem Because I Was Getting Movement Up Front. The Rack Was Only Sitting, And The Bolts I Pulled Out By Hand With No Effort. So I Put It All Back Together And Had No Probs Until Last Week When The Same Thing Started.

What Had Happened Is That I Overtightened The Bolts And Broke One Which Broke The Other One. I Had To Pull The Mount And Easy-out The Bolts

Point Of Story..

The Rack Looks Easy To Remove As Far As Racks Go. The Lines Might Be A B*** To Remove, But Get A Tie Rod Puller And I Think You Have What You Need. To Get To The Bolts, Which Shouldnt Come Out So Easy, You Should Have Someone Help Fish 2 Feet Of Extentions And A 13mm Socket -i Think- To The Bolts. You Will Notice That They Are Angled To Recieve A Socket From A Specific Direction, Which Is Where Your Guy Should Be. You Can Do It Yourself Like I Had To, But If Its Snowing And Your Outside On The Rocks Its A Good Idea To Have A Helper. Pull The Mount Outa The Way And The Sway Bar. The Sway Bar Links Probably Need To Be Cut If You Haven't Done Them In A While. I Have Taken Mine Apart Many Times And Its Always A Pain W/ The Rust. Replace If You Can. The Front Engine Mount And The Rear Engine Mount Can Also Be Done Easily Here And Cheap. An Anchor Mount From Autozone -forget The #- Fits Pretty Well.

I Will Try To Scan The Pages For You Tonight. I Am No Mechanic. The Last Two Years I Have Had This Car, I Have Had To Do Some Major Work And Cheap. Dealers And Even Backyarders Dont Know Sh** About The Aurora. The Engineering Behind The Car Is Scary To Someone Not Willing To Sit Down With The Manuals And Just Get Dirty.

Im At Work And Its Dead So I Thought I'd Write A Little Bit For You, Sorry About The Length But I Figured My Boss Would Have Been Around By Now.

Thanks for the reply Baron,

I know that my rear transmision mount is shot but the stealer wants $600 for that little piece of hardware. I have come up with an alternative that I will impliment when I change the rack. I exspect it is going to take the better part of a weekend to get it done too.
I found a rebuilt rack from a guy on the internet for $160. That price just sounds a little good to be true seeing as the auto parts stores want around $500 for one. I am a little scared to but from this guy. I will dig up his email and send a link to his ebay sight.

Thanks
Dave A.

Dave,
I Think The Mount 'rubber' Was $8 At Autozone. The Rubber Fit The Front Mount Perfect And Looked Like It Would Fit The Rear With The Exception Of A Small Indentation That Is In The Iron Mount. The Indentation Makes It So That The Otherwise Square Hole Is Just A Little Imperfect. The Mounts On The 95' Have Been Changed Because They Were Prone For Failure. The 95' Tranny Also Had A Lot Of Changes In Parts That Were Known To Fail Such As Torque Sensors And The Filter Basket. Any Dealer, Or Tranny Shop Will Charge Like 3000 To Do Anything To The Tranny Because It Is A Horizontal Setup And To Get To Anything You Have To Drop It From The Car Along With The Engine Cradle / Subframe. Although I Did See A Forum Post Where Someone Walked Thru How To Tip The Tranny And Get To The Most Important Stuff. It Looked Easier Than I Expected. Easier Than 3000.

A Used Rack Would Be Reasonable At 160. I Only Say That Because I Have Seen A Few On Ebay For About That. I Wouldnt Be Too Cautious, After All Not Everyone Knows How Bad You Need It. I Also Have Problems With My Rack And Would Be Glad To Get One For $160. I Need To Readjust My Sway Bar Tonight. I Am Getting A 'crunching Rubber' Noise From The Front After I Put Everything Together. It Worked For A Week But I Had A Blown Sway Link That I Should Have Replaced And Didnt (gone Thru A Set This Last Year). I'll Get The Scanned Pages And Mount #. I Actually Have An Extra Because They Wer So Cheap.

Baron,
You mention the torque sensor: my tranny feels like it is mashed potatoes. When you go to accelerate, the tach goes up about 2000 rpm before the car even thinks about going anywhere, the tranny just feels really mushy. If you run it through the gears manually it is much more responsive. I have heard that running it in second will disengage the torque management system or something like that. You can start in second and floor it, and it shifts very firm from first to second (spins the front tires in fact) Is this a sign the torque sensor is going or gone, or is this just the way the transmissions are?

scuba,
My wife got hit by an F150 that cut us off last night. It messed up my front end a little so ive been busy.

The tranny should not shift like that at all. In my experience a blown torque sensor makes it shift really hard, like nuetral dropping and such.

I think that if you ride the car in second it causes the transmission to aviod 'torque lock' where the torque convertor kinda locks down and gives you direct drive to the wheels, usually only at speeds over 45 or more. This is where you get that nice 27 mpg with a v8.

I had a problem once where i replaced my TPS sensor on the thrttle body with one i got from ebay. the tps was defective, but I also did a whole bunch of other stuff like cleaning the egr so i couldnt narrow it down easily. Also the tps was new so i didnt question it.

Well it seemed fine, lots more power and response, untill the car didnt seem to want to go into overdrive. It stuck to a 1st, 2nd, passing gear, pattern. My wife picked me up from work but had the car overheat beforehand because of the high RPMS. Well, the manuals kept telling me that the EGR valve can stop you from going into the higher gears if it is defective (sends a bad code to the pcm). My engine light has never worked since i got the car, and a 95' OBD I costs a lot to scan, so I had to do some guessing.

The point.. again with the ranting... is, the EGR was fine but the faulty TPS was shutting off the EGR which F""" up my shift pattern. This taught me just how linked the tranny and the engine are.

Now a 'squishy' transmision is a different story. I would not be fearfull of the dreaded torque sensor just yet because i am not sure that it would do anything but shift hard.

Do you have any other problems with the tranny other than the squishy shift? How long has it been doing this? If its been a long time and nothing else seems to be messed up, it may be an external sensor, even something with the engine. If you have any other year than a 95' an autozone will scan it for free.

Now i've had a lot of cars that had tranny probs. I flushed four tranny's that weren't shifting right and three of them got better.The other just kept shifting like it was until I sold it.

When it comes to flushing a tranny Iwould say yes. The matter has been the basis for many heated discussions. I find that people either swear by it or against it. If you do a search on the forum you will bring up a wealth of info on it.

The reason I mention flushing is that if it is 'smoochy' and not related to any sensors then there may be an issue with the fluid passages in the transmission. Flushing the tranny would probably fix this one.

Basically, warm the car up while driving it around and check the tranny fluid. Ideally it would be reddish and smell 'non offensive'. Junk fluid would smell burnt. If you want too, drop the pan and change the one filter that you an get too. There are two but one is buried in the tranny so it kinda sux to change. On the bottom of the pan is a magnet that is designed to collect a fair amount of the clutch material that ends up in the tranny, clean this off. The magnet should have some metal on it which is normal, but too much is a bad sign.

I would say that if you find that you have burnt fluid than a $70-$100 flush is good insurance against too many future probs and may actually solve the slumping between gears.

My understanding with 'squishy' probs can be that the torque conver clutch has some metal material that is causing friction which slows down the shift. I am really reaching on this explaination, but i Had two 94' mercury grand marquis that had this problem and was fixed when i flushed the metal out. This problem however is dominant in those transmissions.

The engine mount that is cheap is anchor #2493. There are two that looked like they fit, 2493 was the bigger of the two and fit the front fairly well.
The other one was a little two small and may fit the rear a little better but I brought that one back. Autozone should be able to find the other one if you want to play with it.

Once again good luck. This car was very well engineered. Every time i have a problem there seems absolutley no hope of doing myself, I find that there is always an easy way.

Now I have to pull my front end apart. I junked my mercury for less damage. But.. the Aurora is designed with fully removable fenders that only take four screws too remove. Once I get it apraised 'hopepfully totalled' I'll slap it together quick before I see snow here in MA.