konakat

I found an '83 at the local junkyard with a manual rack. Working in a junkyard is a pain in the ***, is the rack worth it? It will almost certainly need refurbished...

odonnell

I grabbed one and it turned out to be slightly bent - didn't catch it until buyer left me a PM. It's easy to re-grease it and dial out play.

V2Rocket

It's worth around $325 if you get the intermediate shaft with it.

konakat

So how much of a pain is it to remove? I looked at the procedure at Clark's, but I'd like a real-world estimate of how long this will take while working in a junkyard. Any gotchas I should have a special tool for? Should I get the tie-rod ends too? It would be easiest to just leave the ends on the car and take the rest.

Darwantae951

Took me about 30-40 min at the junkyard when I removed one. I pulled everything, but I had the tool to pop the tapered ends out of the spindles. A big flat head screw driver to help spread the intermediate shaft pinch bolt ends to get it off.

V2Rocket

the upper u-joint is the hard part, the rest of the rack is really easy. 4 bolts in the middle (to the xmember), 2 tierod balljoints, and then the intermediate shaft u-joint.

konakat

Is there a procedure that includes removing the shaft? Clarks doesn't include that in their steering rack replacement procedure.

V2Rocket

13mm bolt and nut...under the brake booster...hard to reach (easier from below...or remove the booster) and the nut is pretty tight. nothing special to it, just gotta be determined...

konakat

It looks like the steering column is also different between manual and power steering according to the parts lookup. Is that correct or can I just use my current steering column?

V2Rocket

column should be the same

konakat

Just spent a couple hours trying to get the rack out and just couldn't get it. I couldn't get either the lower or upper ends of the intermediate shaft to come off the splines, the rack and tie rods came off no sweat except that they're still attached to the shaft. I also couldn't get the brake booster out of the way, so it was difficult working with the upper end of the intermediate shaft. I couldn't figure out how to disconnect the brake booster from the brake pedal, the 17mm nut behind the brake pedal is seized and I couldn't figure out how else to disconnect. At this point I'm thinking of using a sawzall to cut through the steering column near the intermediate shaft so I can get the thing out of there and worry about the splines later. Any better ideas?

divil

Did you get the pinch bolts out of the u-joints? They have to be fully removed, not just loosened, or the joints won't come off the splines. Once they're out, use a big screwdriver, pry bar or chisel to slightly open the lower joint. If it binds on the splines it might feel like it's seized, when all you really need to do is go back the other way and try again. Once the lower end is off you'll have a lot of room to move it around under the car to get it off the column.

konakat

Ah, didn't realize the pinch bolts had to come out completely. Thanks for the tip!

tifosiman

I've found that a small wood chisel works great to separate the joint once you've removed the keyed pinch bolts. Lightly tap it in there to wedge it open and them pull the shaft out. Don't worry about wedging it in there, you won't break it. Spraying a little penetrating oil in the spline area doesn't hurt the effort either.

Good luck!

T.

konakat

I got it! Thanks everyone for your help. Once I figured out how the clip that holds the brake pedal to the brake booster worked, I was able to get good access to the intermediate shaft. $28 for the rack, intermediate shaft, and both tie rods. Can't beat that.