i just recently bought a used rack and pinion unit from a salvage yard the rack is good but i have one important question. one of the ends on the unit is barely bent. it is so slight that it takes a lot of concentration to see it. it is at the very end where the threads are. the slight bent is at the very end. it looks like it is just bent just a hair. im in a bad finacial situation and i need to replace my rack because my steering has a lot of play like about 2 inches on either side, will this very, very, very, slight bend will affect anything? can i still use the rack or what can i do for the least amount of money possible.

 

Take it back and find one that isn't bent. It must be bent enough since you noticed it.

 

Did you check to make sure it wasn't the steering linkage going from the column to the rack.. ? A lot of times the rag joint the degreades and allows for slop in the steering (in my case that happened). You can order a rag-joint eliminator kit for pretty cheap that fixes that problem from unbalanced engineering:

http://www.unbalancedengineering.com...alled_kit.html

the rag joint is replaced by that aluminum part in the picture.