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Steering rack removal, balancer has seperated limited space
Hey guys, seems as though my balancer has come apart and worked its way off till it touched the steering rack. Heres my problem...if I slide the rack to the passenger side, where the steering linkage connects to the rack (the neck of the rack per se), hits the balancer cause its sticking out so far and won't come around it. I've tried twisting it but it still doesnt have enough to clear the balancer. I'm looking at pulling it out the drivers side but theres hard brake lines mounted and not much space. Doesn't look like the neck of the rack will fit through it. Any ideas what to do?
I've had the balancer off on mine by putting the rack over towards the passenger side so I know it's doable. You don't have to get the rack out of the car, you just have to push it out of the way. You can push the tie rods up and out of the way if they're in the way.. otherwise I'm not sure what you mean. I think you're thinking the tie rods just stay straight parallel with the rack, but they don't.. with a little pressure they'll move a good bit, which makes it possible to get enough room to get the balancer off without pulling the rack all the way out.
If you go out the drivers side you have to do some major pushing and shoving and moving around of brake lines to get it out. I've done that way too and I wouldn't do it that way again.
Passenger side is way easier.
Again.. post a picture so I can see the problem and I'll be able to tell you what to do. It is 100% doable though. It takes some finessing but it will go towards the passenger side enough to get out of the way.
Thanks for the reply. I'm trying to post a picture but I can't get the forum to 'insert' the picture.
Here's where I'm at now. When I refer to the "neck" of the steering rack, I'm referring to the part that the two power steering lines that you disconnect goto, and also where the steering linkage from the steering wheel attaches to.
I've moved the tie rods all around but that's not what's hanging me up.
I got the neck of the rack almost past the balancer (barely, because it was rubbing against the balancer and the electric fan), but there's two hard lines on the passenger side of the car that go into the radiator. Now the "neck" is hitting those. The only way it looks like it'll clear them is if I remove the electric fan and twist the rack forward.
The rack needs to turn 180 degrees basically to clear the pulley. Pull the fan, takes 5 minutes.
The hard lines into the passenger side of the radiator are trans cooler lines. Not a big deal to unhook, just remember to refill trans fluid.
Eta: just looked at your pictures. That's the lower radiator hose and a hose that runs to the top of the radiator and then to the water pump/heater core. If they are in the way, your going to have to drain the radiator and remove them. When i did mine everything was out including the radiator since i was doing a cam.
Unbolt the power steering cooler as it makes moving the rack around easier. Careful with the fins although they are pretty easy to straighten.
Yeah, you have to spin the whole thing basically to get the "input" of the steering rack pointed a different direction.
I had the whole radiator/fan/hoses/thermostat housing off on mine when I did the cam. I'm not sure what you can leave and what you can't, but it looks like you're going to have to at least remove the thermostat bolts to get that and the hose out of the way (or might can just disconnect the hose, I'm not 100% sure)
As they have said, just remove the stuff that's in the way and it will come out. Pulling the radiator is a 20 minute job if you can get the condenser unhooked and then you'll have all the space in the world.
I have been looking at other threads and it seems where I may be making a mistake is I'm leaving the input or neck of the rack pointing upwards at a 12 o'clock position, whereas others seem to have it pointing down. Like you guy said I'm gonna try orienting it differently and see if that helps me.
04-20-2016, 10:18 PM
Steering rack removal, balancer has seperated limited space
