My power steering rack started leaking from the Seal where the linkage meets the pinion. Has anyone fixed this before? How hard is it? I ordered the new seal (26032824), but I want to know what I am getting into before I bring it to a shop. Id rather fix it myself.

Here is the area it is leaking from...



Any help is appreciated,

Thanks

 

anyone??

 

I recently had a leak in the same spot. I discovered that I could pull the pinion shaft up and down about a 1/4"...the rack had 150K on it so I just replaced the entire steering rack.

 

hmm, mine has about 145K on it. How much was a new rack?

 

All the racks out there are rebuilds, including the racks from GM. Prices ranged from $130 to $330. No one could tell me the difference in quality for the price. I opted for the $130 rack. It's rebuilt by A1 Cardone and I got mine through autopartsgiant.com. There's a refundable core charge. The replacement rack looks identical to the original piece. Comes with new inner tie rods and boots. Just need to transfer your outer tie rod ends over to the new rack.

 

Get the re-build rack, don't replace the seal at that milage. IMO

 

How hard is it to do the replacement? Mine is leaking.

 

Straight forward to replace. Disconnect the tie rod ends from the steering knuckles. Disconnect the steering linkage (U-joint assembly) from the pinion shaft. Unbolt the rack from the K member (2 bolts/nuts). Disconnect the 2 hydraulic lines (have a drain pan handy). Remove the rack from the car. The new rack comes with inner tie rods and boots. Set the new and old racks parallel to each other and rotate the pinion gear shaft on the new rack to match the old rack (centers the inner tie rod ends). Accurately measure the distance to transfer the outer tie rods/jam nuts to the new rack. If it's a high mileage car, I'd just buy new outer tie rod ends and set the distances the same. Reverse the procedure to mount the new rack. Bleed the hydraulic system. If you're not accurate with setting the outer tie rods, you'll need to have the car realigned and/or the steering wheel re-centered.