[takrdown]

Thanks In advance! Today I put the car onto a lift to fix a leak that I had after replacing the steering rack.for some reason I cannot get the steering rack to fit back in with the steering wheel linkage. There's just not enough clearance. Has anyone ever run into this? I'm left walking until I can figure this out. I've taken the steering rack in and out at least for five times and I've never had this problem.

unlock your steering adjustment lock inside the car

[Ingeniator]

Originally Posted by takrdown

Thanks In advance! Today I put the car onto a lift to fix a leak that I had after replacing the steering rack.for some reason I cannot get the steering rack to fit back in with the steering wheel linkage. There's just not enough clearance. Has anyone ever run into this? I'm left walking until I can figure this out. I've taken the steering rack in and out at least for five times and I've never had this problem.

I also find it easier to take the shaft off the firewall side install on the rack and fish the whole thing up and reconnect.

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by takrdown

Thanks In advance! Today I put the car onto a lift to fix a leak that I had after replacing the steering rack.for some reason I cannot get the steering rack to fit back in with the steering wheel linkage. There's just not enough clearance. Has anyone ever run into this? I'm left walking until I can figure this out. I've taken the steering rack in and out at least for five times and I've never had this problem.

You ever figure this out? For the life of me I cannot get the steering rack to go back up to the mounts. I even disconnected tie rod ends, control arms and sway bars. So frustrating.

[takrdown]

What it ended up being for me was the steering wheel linkage had extended itself far enough down that it gave me the false impression that the linkage wouldn't fit. I guess I had extended it so far down it sorta locked in an extended position.

I recommend seeing if you can push up on the steering wheel linkage towards the cabin and the steering wheel to give you enough clearance. It was obvious to me when it went all the way up.

Good luck!

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by takrdown

Thanks In advance! Today I put the car onto a lift to fix a leak that I had after replacing the steering rack.for some reason I cannot get the steering rack to fit back in with the steering wheel linkage. There's just not enough clearance. Has anyone ever run into this? I'm left walking until I can figure this out. I've taken the steering rack in and out at least for five times and I've never had this problem.

Originally Posted by takrdown

What it ended up being for me was the steering wheel linkage had extended itself far enough down that it gave me the false impression that the linkage wouldn't fit. I guess I had extended it so far down it sorta locked in an extended position.

I recommend seeing if you can push up on the steering wheel linkage towards the cabin and the steering wheel to give you enough clearance. It was obvious to me when it went all the way up.

Good luck!

I may try to give this another go with a second set of hands. The entire steering rack has been hanging down while I installed my turbos this entire past week. It's possible that it's just extended past where it should be. If it's not that, I'm gonna lose my mind!

But thank you for your help!

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by takrdown

What it ended up being for me was the steering wheel linkage had extended itself far enough down that it gave me the false impression that the linkage wouldn't fit. I guess I had extended it so far down it sorta locked in an extended position.

I recommend seeing if you can push up on the steering wheel linkage towards the cabin and the steering wheel to give you enough clearance. It was obvious to me when it went all the way up.

Good luck!

You my friend are an absolute life saver. In my case, the steering rack and subframe were dropped and the drop pulled the steering shaft out of the firewall a good 4-5". When we attempted to re-install, the rack wouldn't come close to fitting back into the subframe brackets. All it required was your recommendation - a quick push of the steering column back into the firewall from above and the rest of the install was super easy. Thanks a million.

[takrdown]

That is awesome!

So the back story of why I was quick as hell to help you: A couple of years back when I made that original post I was replacing the steering rack with a rebuilt one from rack doctor (great guy BTW if you need one and cheap as hell!). I had been in there a million times due to down pipe installs, waste gate fixes, and water pump replacements so I figured no big deal.

I work at a place that has access to a lift so I got there at 10AM and figured it would take 4-5 hours if I took it slow. The job went as planned and was easy all the way up to the point of reconnecting the steering rack to the steering shaft.....couldn't get it to fit.

I spent the rest of the day there until 8PM when they had to kick me out with the car still on the lift. I felt like throwing shit I was so upset. I had to call my girlfriend and hour away to have her come pick me up and had to have her drive me back the next morning.

I spent 5 or 6 hours working on it the next day trying to figure out what the hell it could be. I troubleshoot stuff for a living so this was proving to be debilitatingly frustrating.

A light bulb went off and I tied to just pull up on the steering wheel and push up on the shaft linkage and low and behold it shot up a good 6 inches....way more clearance than I needed.

I still had an hour of work to get the car back together after that but it was a huge relief.

I'm glad you didn't have to experience what I did...or at least my pain saved you some of yours.

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by takrdown

That is awesome!

So the back story of why I was quick as hell to help you: A couple of years back when I made that original post I was replacing the steering rack with a rebuilt one from rack doctor (great guy BTW if you need one and cheap as hell!). I had been in there a million times due to down pipe installs, waste gate fixes, and water pump replacements so I figured no big deal.

I work at a place that has access to a lift so I got there at 10AM and figured it would take 4-5 hours if I took it slow. The job went as planned and was easy all the way up to the point of reconnecting the steering rack to the steering shaft.....couldn't get it to fit.

I spent the rest of the day there until 8PM when they had to kick me out with the car still on the lift. I felt like throwing shit I was so upset. I had to call my girlfriend and hour away to have her come pick me up and had to have her drive me back the next morning.

I spent 5 or 6 hours working on it the next day trying to figure out what the hell it could be. I troubleshoot stuff for a living so this was proving to be debilitatingly frustrating.

A light bulb went off and I tied to just pull up on the steering wheel and push up on the shaft linkage and low and behold it shot up a good 6 inches....way more clearance than I needed.

I still had an hour of work to get the car back together after that but it was a huge relief.

I'm glad you didn't have to experience what I did...or at least my pain saved you some of yours.

Hahahahahahahahha! I SO feel your pain! I've done the same removal/install multiple times too to get to the downpipes. I figured that reinstalling the steering rack was going to be about as tough as putting the wheels back on. When it took me 2 1/2 hours and STILL couldn't get it in, I was livid pissed. I threw sh** for sure. Your post was the ONLY one to come up on all of the inter webs that talked about this issue.

[takrdown]

Truly glad I could help!

[pruettfan]

Getting ready to do this job so I am hoping your experiences help me get mine done.