Is my steering rack dying?

[yunis]

Ive had the car tracked up, fitted new track rod ends yet again, in 3 months. when im driving the car i can rock the wheel about 3/4 of an inch to 1inch before i get any sensation of it actually changing direction. after that inch of so of lightness in the wheel i can feel the pws pump kicking in.

I know some ppl have had theirs changed, any tips or advice ? where the best place to get one?

[Stupink]

yunis, get a mate to help you and lightly rock the steering while they nose in the engine bay, it *might* be moving and the slack could be elsewhere.. there are quite a few bushes/joints between the steering colum and the wheels, many have play, even the rack could be loose and moving.. its WELL worth investigating before you swap it out, it really isnt a pleasant job, to make it easy you should really remove the regulator block and the brake servo.... nice!!!

[jaybv6]

Yunis, I paid £117.50 for mine but it was done as a favour from a mate. There is a company in London that recons them. It's a git of a job to do but I did mine in about 10 hours total. Basically check what stu mentioned.

[SteveU]

What you're describing DOES sound like the rack though. Astras, Cavs and Callys all use the same type of rack and the Saginaw ones (marked ZF for some strange reason) are notorious for developing play internally. I changed mine last month for exactly this reason. Shop around in the Yellow Pages and you should get a recon one quite cheap. I only paid £65 for mine (no VAT cos it was cash ;-D) from Autosteer in Chester, their number is 01244 680437.

[yunis]

yeah thats the feeling im getting it is the rack! [img]/sad.gif[/img]

im not suprised its died, the roads around here are terrible!

so i have to take off the brake servo and the accumulator block? could i just do it by taking the head off? i should get ample clearance?

[SteveU]

You don't have to take any of that off. Just remove the wiper linkage, unbolt the servo so that it's got some movement up and down (so you can get a deep 13mm socket on the upper bolt on the rack mount), move the master cylinder out of the way (but leave the pipes attached), loosen the 2 fuel pipes from the body to about halfway down the car (very important as these hug the rack like a Russian Wrestler), disconnect everything else from the rack and then it comes out diagonally up past the ABS pump (you may need to pursuade the brake pipes going to the pump out of the way to get the rack past). Not a bad job in all so long as you've done what I said. Took me about 4 hours start to finish (but then again, I have done them before).

[Naz]

Steve, do you have a cally T or normal?

in the callyT its a lot tighter than the rest of the cars.

Yunis >> If it turns out to be your rack, don't buy a recon ZF type. There are two types ZF type and another which i can't recall what its called. The ZF type uses ally housing for the column and they wear, but the other type doesn't use ally. I had to replace mine, got it from western power steering, for about £145 delivered. I did mine when i was doing the gearbox. I had a lot more room.

If you thinking about replacing the head, then yeah it will give you more than enough room to change the rack if you take the head off.

[yunis]

the zaginow rack? but will that one fit? mine is a 92 k on an n chassis