I am in the process of replacing my steering rack on my 91GT. Both the boots were full of oil. I don't want to disturb my alignment as it is perfect right now.
So my plan is to undo the tie rod from the knuckle and swap the tie rods into the new rack and then install the whole assembly into the car. However, the steering linkage also has to be removed and reinstalled on the new rack. So the question is should the steering wheel be locked in the straight position or locked when fully turned to one side or the other? So that the steering wheel is also positioned properly.
Thanks in advance.

 

I do all of them straight.

 

Not much hope of that I think, even a small change in how the rack sits in the car (e.g. fresh mounting bushings) will effect your toe alignment. It's worth getting toe checked, just don't let them lift the car or touch anything else.

The u-joint only goes on one way, so that the clamping-bolt passes through a flat that is ground into the splined shaft. It is helpful to mark the center of the flat, as a visual aid when sliding the u-joint back onto the splined shaft.

There is also a good possibility that the pinion in the replacement rack will not be "clocked" the same as the old one, either because the new rack or a previous one was assembled randomly.

There was a good discussion and some pictures in this thread:
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/485847-help-please-steering-rack-giving-me-the-shaft.html

 

PM sent for a technique involving laser level, 3M post it, and a sharpie pen.

Gary--

 

The way I have done it ON A 4-POST LIFT has preserved the toe alignment, although toe is very easy to check with toe plates and tape measures or other methods (lasers levels, etc.). The wheels/tires stay planted on the lift ramps and will not move unless you tweak something hard. (Drive-up ramps for the front wheels should work similarly.) So I set the steering wheel straight, lock it down with some straps, confirm the rack is centered (it should be unless installed incorrectly). Remove the balljoints from steering knuckle. Then remove the tie rods and stops from the rack and swap them over onto the new rack. Remove the old rack. Put the centering bolt into the new rack and put the new rack up into place. Then see if the balljoints slide right up into the steering knuckles. If the balljoints do not mate perfectly, adjust the tie rods until they do.

Note it's a 50/50 shot getting the rack onto the right spline of the steering shaft as you have to do this before the rack is fully bolted into place, so the positioning is a guess. If you are one spline off, you cannot correct this at the steering wheel as that end of the steering shaft has only 1/2 as many splines. Any multiple of two splines off at the rack end can be corrected by removing the steering wheel and shifting it over.