Power steering system - The Saga of Njordi

With the front end all open for my AC rebuild, I am taking a close look at everything else.

Attachment 13285

My inspection revealed a leaky rack and pinion...

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It is leaking at the passenger side boot. I also get pretty aggressive steering whine when getting close to max travel while driving. I searched the cite but did not see anyone who had rebuilt a steering rack. With the combination of the whine and the leak, I am leaning toward replacement of the pump and the rack. All parts come to about $600 for reman stuff on Rock Auto. Steering pump and rack are discontinued from Toyota. This is not a critical fix at all, it is just so damn easy to get at everything right now it seems like a big time and energy savings to just do it while I have the front end all disassembled.

Any opinions or wisdom from the group for steering stuff?

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Pulled the trigger. AC and steering stuff should get here next week. Shooting to replace everything on May 18th.

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Rack and pump have arrived! I have all my parts for this project. Might be able to get it in this weekend.

Makes sense to tackle it now while access is easy. With both the leak and the whine, replacing the rack and pump sounds like the smart move—especially with parts discontinued from Toyota. $600 for reman is reasonable. Better now than later.

I can confirm this job is pretty much a PITA.

First step is to remove the air cowl and air box from the front end so you can access the power steering pump. This includes the rad fan and getting all the belts off.

Next, mark existing alignment with the wheel in a straight orientation. This will hopefully allow me to get very close to alignment when I reinstall everything.

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Then you need to drain as much fluid as you can, getting it everywhere of course. After most of the fluid is out you can remove the pump. This part is actually relatively easy.

With the pump out, I wrestled and smashed knuckles to get the hoses out. This was a nightmare. Everything is super tight and hard to get to and all the fittings are super tight (at least on Njordi).

Once I finally had the pump and lines out, I thought the removal of the rack itself would be easy.... nope. The FSM tell you to remove it in a certain order with the tie rod ends in place. That very clearly is not possible.

To remove the rack, remove both tie rod ends, and also remove the front accessory mount support and insulator (the one that surrounds the SADS). With everything fully disconnected, then surely I can remove it. Also no. Both left and right underside plastic shields also need to be off. Then you can finally get that darn thing out the driver side through a gap in the suspension. The whole time everything is covered in a thin film of ATF.

Jiminy Crickets.

Anyway, I got the whole thing out and removed. Got the new rack back in and mounted. There is a measurement in the FSM for centering the rack, so fingers crossed that gets me close on alignment. I got the new hoses back on last night too (again a wrestling match). My patience was failing me so I stopped. I think tomorrow morning I will try and get up early and make some progress before work.

I will say that the old tie rod ends, and rack were totally clapped. Everything was insanely loose and floppy, the leak was worse than I thought, and the tie rod joints were completely blown out. So I feel good getting this replaced and having the front end already fully disassembled for the SADS/Head/AC rebuilds saved a bunch of time. But geez, this project is a fighter.

Hoping for a final note and review by the end of this coming weekend.

Got the pump on this morning and the tie rod ends installed... I guess that measurement from the FSM to center the rack was not correct. Haha, WAY off center. I just counted threads, divided by two, then repositioned the tie rod ends. I am going to take it in for an alignment anyway, but just be aware for those in the future, that measurement of 13.62 inches in the FSM may not be correct or even remotely close.

I have work demands today and plans tonight. But hoping to flush the power steering tomorrow morning. Need to document the flushing for warranty of parts. I guess I will video the flush and save it locally and post it in case I need it.

All my parts are officially on Njordi. Feels great. New head, all new AC, and all new steering. Lots 'o time under the van, but I am almost ready to start putting the front end back together.

Starting to look like a proper accessory system again!
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Here you can see the tie rod end on the right side all the way out on the inner tie rod:
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And all the way slammed on the left:
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Readjust is easy enough, just kind of silly.

My centering seems to have worked well turns both directions equally, but I got my steering wheel alignment a bit off, will need to adjust that before it goes in for an alignment tomorrow. No more whine, steering is much smoother and tighter. Very happy with the update.