2001 grand prix gtp rack and pinion help

[Joed1983]

I need to replace my rack and pinion and we got everything done to take the old one off except the sleeve that has the "pinch bolt" in it won't move I really need this car bad as it is my transportation to and from work :-( any help would be greatly GREATLY appreciated. Thx a lot

[zepol]

Joed1983, I put together a very detailed write up on replacing the rack and pinion here http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul....php?t=1016996

I was stuck on that plastic cowl too. I know it feels as if it won't budge BUT it does. If I remember correctly you just have to muscle it up and out of the way. I do remember it was a PITA!

[Joed1983]

Yeah but here's the thing I work out all day and so does my cousin were pretty strong guys on top of being construction workers and it would not budge for either of us. Should we try some wd-40? Or is there something u used to loosen it up?

[zepol]

Believe me. I know what you mean. That plastic cowl was a pain but there isn't anything securing it in place. Maybe I might have used a screw driver to get something in between the cowl and lift it but I remember pushing it with my fingers and I also remeber thinking that there was no way I was going to be able to push it up far enough to get to undo the linkage in there. I'm pretty sure someone on here told me you just have to push it up and it eventually did go up. Other than that I don't have any other tips. I

[zepol]

Believe me. I know what you mean. That plastic cowl was a pain but there isn't anything securing it in place. Maybe I might have used a screw driver to get something in between the cowl and lift it but I remember pushing it with my fingers and I also remeber thinking that there was no way I was going to be able to push it up far enough to get to undo the linkage in there. I'm pretty sure someone on here told me you just have to push it up and it eventually did go up. Other than that I don't have any other tips. I did the job by myself so believe when I say I know how difficult the job is/was.

[zepol]

Let us know how it went. Did you ever get that cowl up and out of the way?

[LMP]

Originally Posted by zepol

Joed1983, I put together a very detailed write up on replacing the rack and pinion here http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul....php?t=1016996!

Excellent..I'm just about to go for my son's 2000GP. I did that twice on my '93 Transport and it is rather similar. 1st time I found it was PITA...2nd time was easy.

[jml755]

zepol,
gonna replace the R&P on my 01 GTP this weekend. Last weekend was a wheel bearing (abs/trac lite issue-broken speed sensor wire). Your writeup is great and will help with the scratching of the head when the inevitable obstacles arise. Unforunately, many of the pix came up as "not found". I've got my basin wrench out of the basement (lol). Question: What R & P brand did you use? I'm thinking Cardone reman instead of a Fenco from Advance Auto (i've replaced 1 Fenco p/s pump on the GTP w/in 30 days of installation) and also thinking about replacing the tie rod ends with Moogs. Any reason you just reused the OEM ones? I'm thinking that if I put the new ones on the rack and match the bolt ends to the old, I could forego the alignment since the distances would be EXACT.

[zepol]

Originally Posted by jml755

zepol,
gonna replace the R&P on my 01 GTP this weekend. Last weekend was a wheel bearing (abs/trac lite issue-broken speed sensor wire). Your writeup is great and will help with the scratching of the head when the inevitable obstacles arise. Unforunately, many of the pix came up as "not found". I've got my basin wrench out of the basement (lol). Question: What R & P brand did you use? I'm thinking Cardone reman instead of a Fenco from Advance Auto (i've replaced 1 Fenco p/s pump on the GTP w/in 30 days of installation) and also thinking about replacing the tie rod ends with Moogs. Any reason you just reused the OEM ones? I'm thinking that if I put the new ones on the rack and match the bolt ends to the old, I could forego the alignment since the distances would be EXACT.

JML,

Thanks for the compliment on the write up. It's weird...the pix show up as all there and working for me. If you need me to email them to you or something just let me know.

The rack and pinion I used was a remanufactured OEM rack that I got off fo ebay. Moog tie rod ends worked well for me on my Honda Accord so I don't think you can go wrong there.

The only reason I re-used the OEM ones is because I was unemployed at the time and didn't have the money for buying new ones. If I would have have had the money I probably would not have tried to re-use them.

Regarding the alignment mine was soooooo off when I was done that my steering wheel was literally sideways when I was done LOL. I was worried that maybe I had done something really wrong. You might get away with not needing one but my gut tells me that you probably will need to get one done.

Good luck man and let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

[jml755]

zepol,
Thanks for the offer on the pix, but with your writeup I think I'll be okay. The one part where I think my sphincter might tighten up is lowering the sub-frame. Don't know if I'll use your technique or if I'll put a floor jack under the back of it and lower it that way. It's always dicey to try and control lowering something with a floor jack rather than raising it, so I can see how your idea may work better. Also, it's nice to know ahead of time that the plastic cap removal and i/shaft replacement will be a PITA. It will forestall and premature cussing. I've printed out your writeup. Should print 2 so when the first one gets all greasy, I've got a 2nd copy for the wife to read to me. LOL.

Also, I've got it in the back of my mind about the stabilizer bar removal, if I run into any clearance issues. I did a Chevy truck clutch last year and had the service manual and followed it to a "T". Clearances looked "real tight" for the trans to drop down with the exhaust x-over in place but the foot-thick manuals said nothing about removal of the x-over. Figured it might just work to wriggle it down. Tried to drop the trans and it was impossible. Took off the exhaust and it dropped right down. Someone told me that was "obvious". The factory service manuals assume nothing, in my experience. I'll post on how it goes.

[jml755]

Did the R& P replacement on my '01 GTP this past weekend. Thanks to zepol for the writeup in another thread. Got a reman Cardone R&P (with Magnasteer) for $201 locally. New Moog tie rod ends were $49 ea.

Spent about 3 hrs on Saturday setting up the car in the garage, pulling the wheels and dropping the sub-frame. About an hour of that was spent deciding on where to put the jack stands. Usually when I work on it, I put the stands under the sub-frame, but this time, I needed the sub-frame to "float" free. Ended up putting them on the side rails, just behind the wheel wells. I considered putting them under the radiator support but decided against it, just didn't look sturdy enough. Has anyone used that spot?

Spent a while just scoping out the job from underneath the car, trying to anticipate hurdles before I got to them and looking at the issues raised in zepol's writeup. I put a 3 ton jack under the rear of the sub-frame, removed the 2 bolts and dropped it just about 4". The plastic cowl over the steering shaft was indeed a mild PITA. I could raise it slightly from the driver's side but couldn't get it up enough to stay there when I released it. Here's a tip that worked for me: I took a 4' piece of threaded pipe and came in from the top passenger side of the engine compartment and caught the edge of the threads on the bottom of the plastic cowl and leveraged it against a rear engine bracket and pried it up. Worked perfect to get the passenger side of the cowl off the gear. Like zepol, removing the pinch bolt was just a matter of socket extensions from the driver's side wheel well and the ISS u-joint slid right up and off the steering gear shaft. Because of the plastic cowl everything was nice and clean there.

I think car engineers must go through standard available tool sets and see what wrenches are missing when they design cars, just to confound shade-tree mechanics. My open end metric set DOESN'T include an 18mm combo wrench. I've got several 18mm sockets but nada on the open ends so I made a trip to Sears after I cleaned up. I also got an offset 18mm box wrench in case I needed it for the R&P mounting bolts (which I didn't)

Sunday AM.
Was able to get a 1/2" drive breaker bar and 18mm socket on the driver's side R&P mounting nut with the bar coming in horizontal from the driver's side. It was tight and I needed to angle the socket to get it on the nut. Didn't need the basin wrench. A long 18mm socket was slightly off center on the bolt head due to the sway bar, so I didn't want to risk damaging it and used my new 18mm open end to hold the bolt while I broke the nut loose with the breaker bar. Then I used my ratchet with the long socket on the bolt head to spin it free while the breaker bar held the nut. Had no trouble removing the bolt as others did. The head did contact the sway bar as it came out but I just angled it up and came right out. This part took all of about 10 minutes, so I was happy it didn't go on for hours like zepol's experience. Passenger side was a piece of cake with plenty of access for a socket on the nut.

Tie rod ends were pretty tight so I just heated the nuts up with a torch and used an 8mm socket to hold the bottom hex end of the stud and the nut came off easily. Almost melted the driver's side speed sensor harness! (Yikes, did that last weekend to the passenger side when I had to heat up the pass side wheel bearing bolts).

Finally had to crawl completely under the car to get at the fluid line connections. Up till now, could pretty much get at everything from the wheel wells. Sears didn't have the 18mm flare in stock, so I just used my 18mm open end to break the lines free from the steering gear. Minor fluid drippage into the pan from the lines over the whole course of the job.

A little persuasion to pop the R&P out of the 2 brackets (pass side was tight) and the gear slid right out the drivers side wheel well. No way it's coming out without dropping the sub-frame 4" or so.

I measured the old R&P gear stud-to-stud (57 1/4") in my case)and set the new tie-rod ends to the same dimension. I made sure the shaft on the new gear was turned to the same spot as the old gear and the mounting bolt holes lined up. To verify, I just laid the new one next to the old and everything lined up. I didn't tighten the jam nuts, just spun them close to the tie-rod end (mistake as we'll see).

Slid the new gear in through the driver's wheel well with wife helping on the pass side. When we got it in with a lot of wiggling, etc. I noticed the pass side tie rod was turned over 90 deg. I asked my wife how much she had turned it. She didn't know. Not wanting to take a chance that she had gone more than a rev, we pulled the gear and remeasured. It was ok, but this time I tightened the jam nuts so the ends stayed put.

With the gear back in position, the passenger side rubber bushings kept it from dropping right into the bracket. (Driver's side dropped right in and I stuck the bolt in.) Even lubed the bushings and pulled it down but couldn't get it in. Not much room for a clamp or anything. Was able to get it down enough to see a bit of the rack hole in the frame bracket hole and a sequential use of small to larger drifts and it pulled down enough to get the bolt started in. I had to gently bang it through with a dead-blow hammer. This took longer than it should have and more than I expected. I installed the mounting bolt nuts but just snugged them up in case I needed to remove them later.

Ok, pretty happy so far. Crawled under the car, put new o-rings (came with the R&P gear) on the steel lines and started the pressure line fitting into the new gear.Would get it hand started as much as it would go but as soon as I put my 18mm open end wrench on it and turned it a little, it popped right out. Every time I tried it, the fitting would start in and then the steel line would jump as the wrench turned, fitting started to grab and the fitting popped out. Played with this fitting for over an hour. Tried it with the old o-ring, took the o-ring off (as a test), wriggled the steel line, used a mirror to inspect the gear threads, scratched my head, cussed at it, made sure it was the right one (you're right zepol, the return and pressure lines are different sizes so you can't mess it up).Finally, I noticed that the threads on the fitting were not completely clean. So I used my air hose to blow them clean (again, I had done this after the old gear was out) and voila, the fitting hand started a little easier and the wrench pulled it right in. Was amazed that little amount of crud, that probably came from the fitting contacting some grimy part of the frame, could prevent it from going in. Probably a good thing, otherwise I may not have gotten a good tight seal. But, as I said, an unnecessary hour or so spent on a simple task. (Guess that makes up for the easy mounting bolt removal, LOL)

The return line popped right in (yes, I blew it clean again although it looked pretty good from just hanging down in mid-air). Didn't need an 18mm flare wrench, open end worked fine, just make sure you do the pressure line first. Kind of obvious, but doesn't hurt to say it.

Tightened the mounting bolts. Couldn't get a torque wrench on the driver's side, but got the passenger side to about 60 ft-lbs (spec is 59) and I just tried to approximate the same feel of the breaker bar on the driver's side nut.

Last tricky part was the ISS shaft attachment, I had my wife work the jack under the sub-frame to raise it close enough to engage the two while I jiggled the ISS u-joint. Everything lined up but it just wouldn't drop in. So she got in the car and jiggled the steering wheel while I positioned the joint over the R&P shaft. Slipped right on (Thanks, zepol, for the wifey tip). Pinch bolt in and I pulled the plastic cowl down as far as I could.

Raised the sub frame, bolted it into place. Tie rod ends dropped right into the knuckles, tightened the castle nuts. The Moog tie rod ends have no hex on the end of the stud like the OEM ones but they didn't spin when I tightened them down. Must be a different internal design.

Filled the reservoir some, bled the system (turn-to-turn bunch of times with the engine cranking), added a little more fluid.(pretty foamy in the reservoir from all the air).

Oh yeah, spliced in a NEW speed sensor harness on the passenger side from last weekend's bearing replacement where I melted the connector removing the old bearing bolts.

Wheels back on, test drive, a little noisy on the first few turns but it settled right out. I'll check the fluid later today.

Probably spent about 5-6 hrs on Sunday, 3 hrs on Saturday, but I didn't rush and there WERE some things that took longer than they should have in hindsight. All in all, the job IS kind of a PITA when you do it the 1st time but there's a lot of satisfaction in doing it yourself (if you forget all the back-twisting, knuckle busting, cussing that went into it,LOL) And it is certainly something that someone with the average complement of tools and patience can do. No special tools, adjustments, etc. required. It was pretty straightforward.

All total, I did the job for $320 (not counting the $13 for the 18mm open end wrench which I consider a good tool investment). Along with zepol's writeup, hope this helps someone down the line.

BTW, since everything lined up perfectly, I'm going to forego a wheel alignment for now. I'm going to need tires in a little while so I'll monitor the tire wear on this set and decide when I get new tires whether to get the w/a at that point.