I've looked around and couldn't find quite the same incarnation of the question I'm about to ask. Recently I noticed my 85 Z51s rack and pinion leaking out of the passenger side boot. Most everyone says this is cause for a new unit, however Turn One apparently no longer remanufactures 84-87 model racks for some reason. Other than this leak the rack works fine and doesn't suffer from "morning sickness" or whatever.

So my question is: can't I just replace the seal that's leaking and call it a day?

 

I've been informed elsewhere that replacing any of the seals required disassembling the entire rack. Only sources I can find for reman units are zip Corvette and Top Flight and they're both on backorder. Anyone else got a source for a rebuild service?

 

If you call TurnOne they can probably rebuild it. I just had them go through an '85 Z51 rack for me about 3 months ago.

 

Oh thats good to know! I was pretty disheartened when I saw that they don't work on them anymore. I'll give it a shot!

How long was the turnaround?

 

makes no sense they wouldn’t work on the early rack. must be having an issue finding parts. my understanding is they resleeve the whole thing and maybe they have supply shortages of the seals.

i remember there was a video on youtube about rebuilding a rack

 

I saw that but I haven't watched it yet. Everyone seems to be wary about rebuilding them yourself unless you're a hydraulic mechanic or something, and since I don't even have a shop I'll likely be steering clear lol

 

meh. unless there is a hydraulic press needed, its all pretty easy. but, no doubt u have other things u could be refurbishing while the rack is out to turn 1. could you pls let us know how that goes!!! Hope they will service it for u.

 

84-87 racks have to be bored and sleeved. Unfortunate that they can no longer provide a service for those years. I had a rack done that required the bore and sleeve years ago. I got lucky and had Junior do mine. Friendly and easy to talk to. He even went out of his way to sand blast the aluminum housing before reassembling and shipping back to me, so it looked brand new. Definitely sounds like a part shortage issue, or maybe the machine used for the work is out of commission.

 

I assume Junior is someone at Turn One?

Also apparently there a hydraulic shop in Texas that can refurbish these that I might look into if Turn One doesn't work out

 

Yes, if you contact Turn One, and he’s available, he may be able to assist with other options. Hope the Texas shop works out as a backup!

 

Awesome thank you!

 

Yes, Junior is still there at Turn One and he did my refurb. As 1985_Corvette mentioned, the early racks need to be bored and sleeved, and Turn One is short on sleeves so they no longer advertise the early rack service. If there is enough demand they will do another run of sleeves though. I was lucky that Junior managed to find another sleeve on the shelf for my rack.

 

Last time I google'd around the consensus seemed to be that one can swap in a later rack using early tierods.
Finding a quick ratio one might be a bit of a pain as nobody ever seems to know what they are selling.
I'm going to have to venture down that road eventually and see how it works out.

 

The rack in my 89 has been leaking for 15 years. I did a power steering flush and decided to replace the pressure line as preventative maintenance. I had to use a crow foot on my wrench to unscrew the pressure line at the rack. And the crow foot dug into the boot on the driver side when tightening. And while doing a flush right after, fluid leaked out the driver boot. I've since been using Lucas Powersteering Stop in my fluid to keep the leak from being as bad as it could be. I've gotten to where I've now been running almost 100% Lucas Powersteering Stop leak as my power steering fluid. Though I do have to add in some regular power steering fluid during the winter as you'll get the morning groan and stiffness if you don't. But during warm weather no problem running 100% Lucas stop leak.

So, maybe try sucking some fluid out and adding Lucas powersteering stop leak and see what that does. Could also try a 50/50 mix.

 

Been doing something similar with an overly expensive Jaguar rack for at least 2-3 years now. The stuff does seem to help.

 

I actually did suck out the reservoir and toss in a whole bottle of Lucas stop leak and it has quit leaking, I think both from the rack and the pump. I have a new pump and lines on standby but just replacing those without fixing the rack seems like maybe it'd be a bad idea? Idk if there's metal shavings in the rack somewhere that would immediately kill the new pump. This is working for now.

 

I'd be iffy about contaminating that system as well. There are such things as inline magnetic filters you could add.

 

I've heard they make a filter that you can splice into the return line I believe. So you could look into aftermarket filter options.

 

It's either that or bite the bullet and swap the rack I guess. Lonestar Caliper apparently has sport racks ready to go.

 

I bought the Lonestar Caliper from Texas A-pillar latex weatherstripping like a decade ago. And it was junk, the foam turned to dust via exposure to water. I had to coat it in black RTV to keep it from completely falling apart. Customer support was terrible as they essentially called me a liar even though I sent photos showing the foam cracking open and falling apart. They still sell weatherstripping, so have no idea if it's still latex. Or if they fixed their quality issues. I still have a factoyr b-pillar OEM latex weatherstripping on that has had small cracks that would let water in, and the OEM foam didn't turn to dust. I have though sealed those small cracks with black RTV to help keep water out though.

Wish they'd send me a replacement as I have had to do several RTV repairs coating it all, and last time I did a major RTV repair, the top is now stuck to it. As I went to remove the top, and it started tearing it open as the RTV has really stuck to the top. Just so anyone knows, the RTV was allowed to fully cure before putting the top back on. I just think the heat helped cause the cured RTV to really stick to the top. I plan on trying to remove the top later on, and will probably have to do more RTV fixing from any tears. But I bought some weatherstrip conditioner that I plan to put on the weatherstripping to hopefully keep it from sticking to the top.