IPSC

Well my power steering rack has started leaking… DAMN IT ! ! ! I did a brief search and see that there is a rebuild kit out there and a few people have done it. My steering is working perfectly it is just leaking. My question is, how long do I have before my rack goes bad? It has been leaking about a week now and the spots are getting bigger on the ground. What exactly fails in the steering rack? Is this just a replace some seals thing or is it more involved? Oh yeah and I have to garage the car at the end of this week for who knows how long as I am getting sent overseas and this is probably not going to get done before I leave.

IPSC

Ahmet

Racks very rarely go "bad" further than leaking all the fluid out. Pull the powersteering belt off, and live without powersteering if you don't want to leak anymore fluid, until you fix it (you shouldn't let all the rubber bushings under your car get coated with ps fluid though).

I have a spare rack you can have for very little, if you'd like to get mine rebuilt so you can continue driving your car. Otherwise I'm probabbly going to give it away or throw it away.
Ahmet

Travis - sflraver

<a href="http://www.rennbay.com/tutorials.html" target="_blank">Rack seal replacement guide</a>

This is the guide I send to people that buy my seal kits. It will give you an idea of what you are getting into as far as resealing your own rack. For most people It takes this guide and about 10 emails back and forth to get through the process.
There is a place out there that has seal kits for $30-$40 but I am not sure of there quality and I dont think they offer any support. (mine seals are all OEM)

Good luck with the rack.

ERAU-944

[quote]Originally posted by over1g:
<strong>Racks very rarely go "bad" further than leaking all the fluid out. Pull the powersteering belt off, and live without powersteering if you don't want to leak anymore fluid, until you fix it (you shouldn't let all the rubber bushings under your car get coated with ps fluid though).

Ahmet</strong><hr></blockquote>


this isn't entirely true... when you turn the wheels, the rack moves, and your seals are leaking, so you will leak fluid out them (same thing happened to me, except i had a BIG failure all at once, and now i have manual steering.

good luck with it man! if i were you i'd drive it till its unbearable, keep the stuff clean under there, and rebuild when you have alot of time and another car.

cheers!
-Mike

Ahmet

What do you mean exactly? Seal go bad, and leak. That's all that happens, over time if you run the rack dry, it may start wearing faster but "failure" other than leaking is very rare, and that's all I'm saying...
Ahmet

Travis - sflraver

There are 2 springs that are prone to breaking when the rack is run dry. They are in your pressure relief valves (the ones that give you the variable assist at higher speeds). When the rack is run dry they can break due to the vibrations of air bubles being forced through them. When this happens you will have a loss of assist at low or idel rpm's. (spring breaks, does not push as hard to keep valve closed, lets more fluid back to the tank rather than to help you steer) If you happen to only break one spring you may only feel it when you turn one direction. Easy $5 fix at your local hardware store.

Besides that... there is not much to break in a rack.

And as far as a reseal goes, it takes a good two days if you totally have no clue what your doing. 3 hours if you have a working general knoledge of steering racks.

JLeake

sflraver -

Could you give me some more info on these springs? My power assist is lacking at times, but it is somewhat intermitant. I first rebuilt and then eventually replaced my power steering pump. The latter helped, but did not solve my problem entirely. If the springs are really a $5 fix I'll try it for sure. So here are some questions:
1) Where are these springs? 2) What are the spring dimensions, material, and spring rate...or do you have a p/n? 3) Will replacement of the srpings require replacement of any other parts? (i.e. will the replacement destroy any seals?) 4) How long will the replacement take? Thanks!

JLeake

sfraver-

Reading through your write up on rebuilding the rack answered my questions about the springs. Thanks for posting the information! Luckily my rack is not leaking right now, but I know where to go if it starts.

Travis - sflraver

I like to go with lighter springs so the assist starts to fade off at lower rpm's. It gives you full assist at parking/idle speeds and then rapidly sends the rack into an almost manual feel over 2000-2500 rpm's. It's somthing you have to play with to get right. If your going to try to change the spring rates plan on taking your rack in and out a few times before its correct.

ERAU-944

Ahmet -
The failure i was referring to would be the failure of the power steering assist, not the actual power steering rack itself.

i had small leaks in my end seals, and eventually one of them totally blew, and i had a horrid leak out of it. so i removed the belt and drove it home dry. i took the pump, resevoir, hoses, and cooler off, and put grease in the rack. its been fine since. what i was saying is that if he leaves any fluid in the rack and takes the belt off, he'll still have a slow leak as the seals are leaking, and there's fluid in the system. but if he drains the fluid, and runs the rack dry, it won't leak at all.

: <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" /> :
- Mike

Travis - sflraver

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by ERAU944:
<strong>Ahmet -
The failure i was referring to would be the failure of the power steering assist, not the actual power steering rack itself.

i had small leaks in my end seals, and eventually one of them totally blew, and i had a horrid leak out of it. so i removed the belt and drove it home dry. i took the pump, resevoir, hoses, and cooler off, and put grease in the rack.
: <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" /> :
- Mike</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Its a shame to do that when all you needed to do is replace two small springs... Guess you could write it off to droping weight.