Finally went to Firestone place that knows their stuff. But they had some bad news, showed it to me too. The inner tie rod ends are shot and my power steering rack is leaking fluid. I did a search on here and it seems the rack replacement is not too difficult. Is there a guide to replacing the rack? I saw posts that said to unbolt the out tierods, unscrew the power steering fluid lines, two bolts with castle nuts hold the power steering rack in place. How is the steering attached to the rack? is it easy to take out? anything I should look out for? Im going to try to do it soon if possible, Im in the FIX the car mood as of late.

 

well, the hard part will be getting the driver's side rack bolt out. GM did a wonderful thing by putting the bolt in the crossmember from the top. you'll have to lift the motor to get it out. or, if you have a torch, cut it out from the top.

the steering shaft is attached to the rack with a 11mm bolt. remove it and pry the shaft off the rack.

 

that bolt on the driver side rack will be impossible for me to get then, I was hoping to save some money by doing it myself too. oh well, is the steering racks at autozone good, they have a lifetime warranty.

 

The car you have is an 97 LT1, the one in the picture is an 99 LS1.
Just check under your car they may have a different setup.

 

you're right ireman, the bolt on LS1 won't clear the block, but the LT1's do, so I am back in business. I have other questions, but I'll do a search and post if I cannot find them.

 

Did a search and found this thread... So it's impossible to get at the bolt on the driver's side of the rack for an average joe like me with some jack stands and a ratchet on my 98Z? Can anyone confirm this?

My rack has been leaking for a while and I want to replace it myself if possible.

 

I had to replace mine. You can do it yourself. Just buy a new bolt for the driver's side, and "sacrifice" the old one! I sawzalled the head of it off so it just dropped through the K-member. Replace it with a new one, and put it in from the bottom!!

 

Just did the rack a couple of months ago on my LT1... Was a piece of cake.... Cleaning the thick greasy gunk off things ahead of time made the install much more pleasant

 

Make sure you don't rotate the steering wheel one than 1 turn in either direction while the steering coupler is removed from the rack. If you do you'll break the airbag harness (clock spring) in the steering wheel.

 

I take it this won't happen unless some yahoo jumps in the car and yanks on the wheel?

 

no, the wheel can rotate on its own... jut use something to hold it there in place, like tie a rope around the steering wheel inside the car. Its cheap insurrance! Like from the bottom of the steering wheel to the seat mounting brackets... this way you know you wont have a problem.

 

Taking the ignition key out will lock the steering wheel in place. You need to be able to turn the wheel 90 degrees to get access to the bolt for the shaft coupler, so it's easy to forget about locking the wheel afterwards.

 

I'll just tie it in place then. Finally got a situation where I can go without using my car for a while. Just gotta buy the rack and apparently a new bolt along with fluid. I guess a person would put teflon tape on the fluid intake/outtakes when reattaching them?