Mr. Coop

The car - 2001 T/A Firehawk M6

Long story short - car doesn't get driven inthe winter, last winter side post fell out of battery while in the garage, never noticed until spring, wouldn't start, popped hood, acid all down the frame rail, sway bar bracket, and ran through the loom and all over the crossmember. (yes, I should have just pulled the battery, after the fact now)

This winter I decided to pull the front crossmember and fix all the damage now rather than let it get worse over time. Pulled all the plastic bits off no problem, sway bar, lower control arms, etc, no problem. Got the rack and pinion all undone and ready to come out except for one bolt. The two bolts for it drop in from the top - go through the ears on top of the crossmember, then through the rack and pinion, then through the lower part of the crossmember. Drivers side bolt hits the oil pan and needs to go about 1.5" yet. Obviously at the factory this is all assembled with no engine in the cradle yet.

I was considering just dropping the crossmember with the rack still loosely bolted onto it but then the brake lines would be all intertwined between everything and I really didn't want to crack the brake system open. FSM says to just pull the bolts out and pull the rack (shows a pic of a cradle with no engine in it), yet it also says that to pull the crossmember you should pull the steering gear first. I'm tempted to just cut the top of the bolt off with a sawzall and put a new one in from underneath upon reassembly, or am I just missing something completely obvious?

subhumanzz

iTrader: (46)

when i did mine i cut the bolt and then upon reassembly simply put the new bolt in the opposite way. i couldn't figure out for the life of me how to get that bolt out! sawz-all is your friend.

Mr. Coop

That was my plan as well, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything before grabbing the sawzall. I'm trying to keep the car as nice as possible and taking a sawzall to it just makes me cringe, lol.

Thanks!

Dave 96TA

iTrader: (10)

I just jacked the engine up the little bit needed to work the bolt out of the steering rack. Probably helped that I had a worn motor mount.

lo_jack

iTrader: (27)

I would be hesitant to put rack bolts in upside down. They are in from the top to keep the rack on in case you lose the nuts for some reason, however unlikely.