96 LHS rack & pinion

[gbrrrd]

Hello,
I am a newbie to this forum and to LHS. Mtyson was just informed our LHS "rack & pinion" assembly (96 3.5 L) is shot and the motor needs to be pulled to RnR it. The is steering really sloppy and we pulled it from the road.

I have not dealt with front wheel drive car repair before but am willing ot tackle it. After a quick peek, it looks like the guy was right- pretty tight fit.

1.) Should the motor be pulled from the top or from underneath?
2.) Other than pcik up a good manual any other pointers??

Thanks for any responses in advance.

[jpb53]

Just saw yur post. Eng does not have to come out. Buy yourself a manual.

[AWP9521]

Like he said, get a manual, but i will share with you 4 things you can look at to determine a course of action before ripping and tearing into your car or having someone else do it. There is a few points to check regarding steering slop in these cars.

Open the hood and with the key in the on position (or enough to unlock the steering column but the engine not running) have someone turn the steering wheel in both directions (just to the point where the steering wheel gets hard to turn each way) and observe the rack (you may need to remove the intake plumbing from the back of the engine at the throttle bodies to get a better look, also have a flashlight handy, kinda dark in there), look at the tie rod ends where they fasten to the center of the rack (I'll call it the "slider" since that center section slides side to side to steer the car) and see if:

1. The slider DOES NOT respond (slide left and right) with the wheel movement. (First, slide up the rubber bellow covering the steering shaft at the rack to expose the coupler and observe the steering shaft to see if it is turning the rack input shaft with no slop, if there is slop there may be a problem with the coupler or the steering column itself (bad universal joint) and that will need attention. If there is no slop, the rack indeed needs to be replaced, that is unless condition #4 is met so don't fret just yet)

2: The tie rod ends DO NOT move with the slider when the wheel is turned. (This is actually the most common problem with steering slop, you may need to either, replace the rubber bushings in the tie rod ends with new ones {They are not that expensive and if you can, get the urethane set for better steering response}, or possibly the large bolts fastening the tie rods to the slider sometimes work loose and cause slop and just need retightened.)

3: The tie rod ends DO move with the slider when the wheel is turned with no slop. (One or both of your outer tie rod ends may be worn out and causing the slop, replace if they are worn.)

4: The rack itself slides side to side but the slider doesn't move at all or very slightly. (You may notice this immediately when checking out condition #1, that means the rack, outer tie rod ends, inner tie rod bushings, and bolt tightness are fine, the rack bushings holding the rack to the crossmember are worn out and need to be replaced.)

Hopefully it's #2 since that is the more common problem or #3 which would be next in line with #4 a distant 3rd.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[gbrrrd]

to: jpb53 and AWP9521,

Thanks for your follow-up replies, I appreciate both. I'll take a look and follow-up.