Steering rack bushing replacement

[NuwanD]

Picked up the whiteline steering rack bushing a while back...

Pulled of the skidplate to do an oil change and took a look at the rack/bushing while i was under there... 3 bolts can be tackled with a wrench/gun no problem... the 4th is under a pair of power steering lines.

Will an open ended wrench fit? can the bolt be removed with the lines still in place?

Thanks for the help, i don't want to get started without knowing how much time i'll need

[professor]

Yes. I removed a couple of the bolts with my long open-end metric wrenches. Its a little tight but not too bad at all.

Then its just the geometry problem of fitting the rack out from under and through all that crap.

Took me about 2 hours but I was changing the rack as well, and installed new ball joints. Then I spent about an hour doing a tape measure align to get the wheels pointed reasonably straight before taking it for alignment, but you won't need to do this.

I really think if your balljoints are older now would be the time, as well as getting an alignment and making sure the tie rods are tight

The total job of late-model rack, whiteline mounts, new balljoints, and alignment tranformed my steering from horrible to excellent

[NuwanD]

thanks... so i tried to tackle it... 3 bolts came out no issue... the 4th's head snapped off

So now I've gotta tackle trying to get that thing out tomorrow.

Passenger side bushing came out no problem, but I have no idea how any of you did the drivers side?... I could only remove the bracket if I bend the lines out of the way. But that bushing is wedged between the rack and subframe... and the two won't seperate.

May have to undo the clamp on the steering shaft I guess?

Any input?

Thanks!

[professor]

I took the whole thing off, so I can't help too much here...

you can bend the ps lines out of the way a bit, they were born to bend, just don't kink them obviously

I suspect you may have to disconnect the rack from the steering column by removing the two bolts through the knuckle, but not sure. If you do, mark the relationship so your steering wheel doesn't end up all messed up.

[NuwanD]

thanks again

Ended up finishing it before you posted... trick I didn't realize was that you really don't need much space to get the new bushings in. Just tear the old ones out, and the new ones can be slid in since they are so much stiffer, using the packaged grease helps as well.

And here I was wasting time trying to get the rack further from the sub-frame

Got new bolts ordered for the steering rack, and managed to drill out the one that broke.

Thanks for the help

[schspeedster]

Have Whiteline bushings ready to go in. Took all 4 mount bolts out, pulled on the rack & didnt feel any play, what else has to come off to get clearance to slip on the new bushings? Is alignment a must after replacing bushings?

Did Whiteline front sway bar links + new OEM bar mount bushings, big improvement in cornering & no more rattles!!!

[Legacy777]

You're just going to have to muscle the rack down a little. They're a bitch to put in.

No you, shouldn't need an alignment.

[0perose]

what are the size of these whiteline sway bar link bushings? I need some for my XT6 and it would be nice if these would fit