lazyhomie

iTrader: (3)

Hey everyone my car has been a PITA this whole weekend for me decided to swap the rack along with a friend due to leakage. Once the rack was in and it came time to hook up the stering shaft the part on the rack didnt quite line up so well so steering shaft wa turned about maybe half a turn to make it fit and bingo everything was great except wheel being off we figured alignmnet would fix. Took to the shop got it aligned but they told me whoever did the rack put it wrong aka a buddy and me. OK so bottom line he said that the rack is longer on one side than the other. He said that it because we didnt align the rack before we put it on... So now the car is aligned but the steering wheel feels hard at certain points in the turnin motion. Also one side has more turns than the other. So what can I do to fix this..? Alignment shop said only thing to do is take off and align rack and put back on is this correct?... Any help would be appreciated.

bigj2717

iTrader: (15)

Did you make sure the rack was actually in the middle of the turns. Count the turns to one lock and the turns to the other and make sure their the same before
you install it

lazyhomie

iTrader: (3)

No I did not check this before I installed it... It looked ok so I just slapped it on had to turn the steering shaft in order for it to fit in the groove that the rack had. So What are basically my options now take off the rack again center it and get the car re aligned??

porksoda

iTrader: (39)

I bet you have the rack 180* off.

lazyhomie

iTrader: (3)

Ok so what would this mean then? I'm a newb at this. It was my first time ever replacing a rack.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

Yeah ... I wanna know what that means, too.

Something isn't right, here.

Even if the rack wasn't centered in it's turn sweep, it just means that tires have to be turned somewhat to align the tie rods. And except for the tie rod/toe adjustment, the distance between the tie rods is constant. So if you have to turn one wheel, then the other will turn a similar distance in the opposite direction. And the steering shaft will only go on one way.

The racks between LT1 and LS1 versions of these cars are basically the same. But the steering shafts are clocked differently. Did you change the steering shaft? If not ...

How much thread is exposed where the tie rod end attaches to the steering rack? Are they both about equal or is one screwed WAY in and the other has a LOT of thread exposed?

My guess is the latter ... sounds to me like you had a hack do your alignment.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

That appears to not be true.

There does seem to be a difference between LT1 version racks and LS1 version racks ... at least they have different part numbers.

Not sure what the difference is. Maybe something as simple as a fitting.

I do know for a fact that LTx and LSx version of the steering shaft are different.

Fireberg

I had the same problem. In general it seems that buying rebuilt parts these days is a hit or miss proposal, but I do not want to get started on that.

I replaced my steering rack a few weeks ago because of leaks, and after finding Mitch's earlier posting and decided to go with the AC Delco rebuilt unit.

After installing the rack and new outer tie rods, I noticed theat the wheels were not straight and figured that I lost count while threading on the tie rods; not a big deal, I used a tape measure to center the wheels and rough in the toe.
Later as I was bleeding the air out of the system I too noticed that the steering wheel would turn 1 revolution to the right but 1 1/2 revs to the left.

My first thought was to pull the steering wheel and center it at the middle of the racks travel, but after thinking about it, I was not sure if the turn signal canceling cams would work properly.

My next idea was to return the rack on monday and wait for another to arrive (did not really want to wait) or to re-clock the rack.

I ended up re-clocking the pinion so that it is centered on the rack when the flat spot on the pinion shaft is aligned with the steering shaft while in its center position.

This worked for me, and I have had no leaks after partialy dis-assembling the rack.

If you have never worked on a steering rack, I would recommend that you return the rack to the parts store and let them sort it out.

As was said earlier, I believe that some of the racks are clocked differently for different installations, so I do not know if my issue was because of the person rebuilding the rack or if it has something to do with the application guide used to match up the correct parts to the correct vehicle.

lazyhomie

iTrader: (3)

Well the place where I took my car to get aligned said that it was basically a matter of taking off the rack and centering and installing it again and it would solve the problem? Does this sound true? I have not checked the tie rods to see if they looked almost equal. I believe the whole steering shaft is stock.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

Why would the tech tell you you'd have to take the rack back out? That confuses me.

Why not remove the steering shaft from the stub, center the rack and then re-attach the stub? And in the end, what will that gain?

Centering the rack, whether it's bolted on the car or laying on the garage floor shouldn't make any difference. The rack doesn't care ...

That is why I asked about the tie rod ends ...

lazyhomie

iTrader: (3)

I checked out the tie rod ends and you are correct. One is way out the other way in. Passenger one is the one all the way in. So does centering the rack seem like the correct solution here?

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

I would center the steering wheel and the reset toe.

For the record, this is something your aligment tech should have spotted. I would complain to the shop where you had it aligned ...