When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Installing a new power steering rack: gaskets, axles and racks (oh my!)
Next weekend I will be doing a job of work on my daughter's '97 CR-V. The list includes:
New oil pan gasket
New valve cover gasket
New cv axles (both sides, front)
New power steering rack
Transmission fluid swap (home "flush", not a machine flush at a shop)
For any interested I will put up threads for each thing I do with pics. The car already has new LBJs, upper control arms, OTR, rotors, tires, drive shaft among many other things I have fixed on it. Stay tuned.
Last edited by NMJimCRV; 10-14-2015 at 10:31 PM.
Reason: Clarity
Accomplished today (sorry, no pics as it was just me and the work was immensely filthy):
Installed new valve cover gasket
The old gasket and plug seals were in tact - no crumbling - but they were a bit hard. We have owned this beast for 3 years and I never had changed it, who knows when it was done last. Put some RTV in the corners of the humps. Top of engine has a slight varnish, but no gross concerns. No sludge. I found a site with pics of a guy rebuilding his engine, and picture #16 looks like the top of the engine in mine (NOt my page or images). September 2003 - Engine Dissassembly, Part 2
New oil pan gasket
There was a little leak from the old gasket I think, but the steering rack was blown and has been shooting power steering fluid all under the car for some time. The pan itself was filthy with baked on crud. In order to do this job right I had to remove the 90 degree pipe that connects the exhaust down pipe and the cat (back pipe). The hardest part of that was getting that f#@*ing O2 sensor harness apart. I hate these Honda harness connections. Finally got it, and removed all the other bolts. No real issue with them, thanks to my 18" breaker bar. 3 14mm bolts connecting to the down pipe, 2 12mm nuts connecting to the bracket (I also removed the bracket to get it out of the way), 2 spring loaded bolts connecting the pipe to the cat (12mm nut with 14mm head). also you have to remove the cover plate that accesses the torque converter bolts, as it is in the way to remove that side of the pan. 1 strangely long 17mm bolt, and 3 12mm bolts.
With all that out of my way I removed the pan (10mm bolts and nuts) and scrubbed it clean. Inside of the pan looked great. No sludge or glumps. Bottom of engine was slightly varnished as well, but again nothing to scream about. Took my time and cleaned the mating surface well, as well as scrubbed all the crap off the outside so I can detect if I have a leak when it is all back together. Bolted it back up.
I pulled the driver cv axle, waiting to put in the new one. This is a strange critter compared to my Camry, as the driver axle comes apart at the bracket. It splines into the bracket, which has a rod connecting back to the trans. I am waiting to put the new one in, as I found that the bolt that secured the lower control arm is stripped. https://honda-tech.com/honda-element...-help-3260910/ It appears that the bolt threads into a soldered in nut into the saddle that is attached to the frame. A $542 part from Honda, that is discontinued. I found one on-line for about $451 if I were to change it, but I will MacGyver this instead.
Tomorrow I rig that fix, put in the cv axle, the attack the steering rack. Reading the FSM, that is going to be one PITA job. FSM tells me to remove air bag in steering wheel, then remove steering wheel, which does not make a lot of sense to me. I'll see what I see tomorrow.
Sweet. Mother. Of. God. Replacing a power steering rack may be one of the most challenging jobs out there. And I replaced the transmission on my 2009 Camry 4 cylinder, in my driveway. This may be as bad if not worse, believe it or not. My FIL came down today to give me a hand, and I in turn helped him "flush" his transmission fluid. Not sure I could have possibly done this job alone.
In order to do this, you have to:
Remove the airbag in the steering wheel
Remove the steering wheel (still not sure why these two steps were needed)
Drain power steering reservoir
Remove wheels and outer tie rods
Remove side motor mounts and rear motor mount
Side Motor Mount (passenger) [there is another on the driver side, same bolts] This is looking up from the ground. Bracket bolts are 14mm. Nut in center of mount is 17mm (or maybe 19mm, can't recall)
Rear Motor Mount
The red arrows are all the bolts on the rear mount. For those two on the bottom left, you will need to go at them from the driver side wheel well. Use a loooong extension on the ratchet. Those bolts on the far right (two on top of the mount) are a pain to get to due to the hoses and such up top. You can just squeeze in.
Disconnect propeller shaft from transmission
The shaft has (4) 10mm bolts (lower red arrows). The other red arrows are the shift cable and one of its bolts. I did not disconnect this, but the FSM states you should. You can damage the cable and thus shifting if it gets too taught. Best to do that I think. The yellow arrow is the inner boot (driver) on the rack, as reference. The red circle is the reason all this is happening: that trans to shaft junction is in the way. You have to remove the three mounts so you can jack the motor up, tipping the trans down so there is room for the rack to drop enough to pivot out of the driver side wheel well. PITA.
Remove the 90 degree exhaust pipe connecting the down pipe to the cat
The yellow circles are where all the bolts/nuts are for the support bracket. 12 and 14mm I believe. The arrow is the O2 sensor connector, you have to disconnect that as well. That shaft is the other part of the driver side cv axle. From this view (looking up) it is hiding the two bolts that secure the exhaust pipe bracket to the engine.
The two spring bolts holding the pipe to the cat. 12mm (nut) and 14mm (bolt head).
Remove the stiffener plate that the rack bolts onto, that sits above the pipes
Driver side: The yellow circles are the bolts that hold the plate to the chassis. The red are the bolts that secure the rack to the plate. The yellow lines are the stiffener plate.
Passenger side: Yellow lines to show plate, red to show axis of rack. Those two bolts at the top are a bracket that holds the rack to the chassis. The bolt on the top right with the welded nut is touchy to get a wrench on, but you can. More bolts there holding the plate and rack together.
Get the rack disconnected from the steering column, which takes some crafty reaching
The red circle is the yoke you have to loosen and slide up. Two bolts holding that, one is showing. There is one above that. The yellow arrow is the return hose. It clamps onto a nipple that you have to remove, as well as the supply line below it which is not visible in this image. Best angle to get at those is from underneath. Very small wrench movement space, so takes awhile.
Better view of the return (red) and supply (yellow) lines. Two different sized nuts. This is a view from the bottom, looking up.
Jack up the engine a bit to allow it to pivot the transmission down, a few inches
Here is another place a partner comes in handy. You need to position the jack at the red arrow, which is next to the oil pan. I used a piece of 2x4 I cut to fit there, and put into the jack saddle. When you jack this up, the trans lowers in the rear. The FSM calls for 40mm of lowering. Your partner can jack while you watch for lines getting hung up. Do not jack more than 2 inches or thereabouts.
That red circle is the mystery bolt. It is one bolt holding the plate covering the opening to get to the torque converter to flex plate junction. That back plate is also held on by a few smaller bolts. No idea why that bolt is so big. I removed that all to remove the oil pan to change the gasket, and there is no fluid or anything behind that huge bolt.
Then you get to wrestle the rack out, which involves pulling and twisting it to the right, then pivoting and twisting it downward to the left side, down through the opening near the lower control arm. Sucks. Then you have to wrestle the new one back in, which is another massive PITA.
A view of how tight it is, looking form the passenger side.
Tonight the new rack is back inside to the proper location, but not yet bolted or connected to anything. I will have some fun trying to get the yoke back on it. I reconnected the exhaust pipe and the propeller shaft, as well as the bracket for the rear motor mount. Here you see the drive side motor mount. Uhh, yeah, it's dead. It was doing exactly nothing.
The passenger side is a tiny but better, but still shot. The rear is intact, but will be dead soon so best to change it out as well.
Had to build some huge ratchet extensions to get to various bolts. I had left the drive side cv axle out figuring it would be in the way. It would have been. Made it slightly easier to access some things with it out. Really, getting to some bolts required some serious head scratching and building long extensions.
Several hours yet to get it totally back together, but at least I am on the down slope.
Replacing the steering rack sucks, but I bet I saved at least $500 - $600 labor doing it myself. Sheesh.
Ordered the front "mounts" from Amazon as it was slightly cheaper than Partsgeek. The rear is still OK for now, have to save a few bucks. These mounts are really torque/shock mounts, as they do not hold the engine/trans in the bay. The passenger side is beefier, which is the trans side, so clearly more torque going on over there.
Everything is secured, front end is aligned, running as well as can be expected.
The alignment was WAY off. I am still not clear on why the FSM required removing the steering wheel. I thought I was clever and had everything lined up, but the wheels were so off they started cupping almost immediately. Only like 2 miles or so from my house to the alignment shop, but you could see the effect of dragging those wheels. Was awful. He had to work the rod to get it capable of using the machine, but in the end it worked out. The steering wheel was 180 degrees from what it needed to be, so I had to remove it again and flip it. What a pain.
The belts look shady, so I have new ones. But the AC belt is troubling. I know what I need to loosen up to make it work, but I cannot figure how any tool can get to the two bolts. You can't get a socket on the idler pulley bracket bolt as the wheel well is in the way. The little 12mm wrench I have barely fits between all the pulleys and no way I can get any torque on it. The adjusting bolt is just as bad. There is some freaky size head on that bolt, must be 7.5mm as 8 is too big and 7 too small. I was able to get a 5/16 on it but could not move it (I think the locknut has to be loosened first).
Gave up on that idiocy tonight. I am 100% full of the freakish ways you have to contort to get to some of these components. Why the AC belt is so hard is beyond me, as this is a serviceable item.
There are 2 bolts on the steering joint. The upper bolt's head sheared off as I was tightening it. Of course. The bolt body seems to be doing what it needs to do, so not sure I will mess with it. Someday I'll have to tap it out, but if it holds then I will DGAF for now.
Drained and replaced ATF fluid. 3 quarts and a smidge came out, 3 quarts and a smidge went back in. I am using Valvovline Maxlife ATF. I put that in the power steering as well.
I want to "flush" the ATF, but want to be 100% certain which line coming out of the radiator is the return line, as I prefer to not have a gyser of ATF fluid fly out. I can't seem to find anything that is clear anywhere if it is the passenger side line or the driver side line. I hit both with my infra thermometer and the passenger side seems to be the cooler one, so I am betting on that. On my Cary it is the driver side that is the return. Going to keep looking.
Wednesday I should have the new mounts, so will install those, and bleed the brakes ot put fresh fluid in.
Thanks. My issue seems to be I can't get a socket on the pivot bolt as the well of the car is too close. I'll work with it some more on Wednesday, see what I see.
Although I wish you had some more pics these writes up are pretty darn good. I will say that the general consensus when 'flushing' your trans is to not flush it. Just a simple drain and fill. 3 times I believe. I'm sure someone with more knowledge could tell you why as I can not.
Although I wish you had some more pics these writes up are pretty darn good. I will say that the general consensus when 'flushing' your trans is to not flush it. Just a simple drain and fill. 3 times I believe. I'm sure someone with more knowledge could tell you why as I can not.
Thanks. I really wanted to do the pic route, but this job was so incredibly dirty and had time pressure such that it was just not possible (UPDATE: PUT PICS IN ABOVE). I'll take a pic of the driver side inner boot on the rack and post up, and all can see how blown that was. Something along that area was shooting PS fluid out covering everything on the driver side suspension. For a long, long time. My daughter was just putting fluid in every now and then to keep it working. It resulted in a huge mess under there. Coupled with the oil pan gasket leaking - yeah. Only way I could get pics would be to take off my gloves, snap a pic, put back on gloves, etc.
Then there is the daughter factor. She is in college in a neighboring town, so I have to give her my car while I work on hers. She is an awful driver, so I tense up that she is going to destroy my paid off perfectly working Camry. She gets that messed up and no way I will get enough from insurance to replace it with kind, thanks to the mileage I have. Catch 22 with older cars that are in great working shape. So I was rushing to try to get it done in time to get it back to her before the work week kicked off.
As for the trans, yes "flushing" is not optimal, but I use the term to mean:
Drain the trans
Replace the same amount plus 1 quart back into trans
Decouple the return line from the radiator and hook up 3/8 hose into old container
Turn on car and pump out 2 quarts of fluid (with foot on brake pedal run through gears once). Turn off car.
Refill trans 2 quarts, putting you 1 quart over
Repeat until fluid coming out is nice and red (I use Maxlife which is red)
Top off the 1 quart you are down, recouple return line. Drink beer to celebrate
This is preferable, as when you drain, run, drain, run, etc., you are mixing old with new, which is less optimal. With new fluid in the pan and the above method you are pulling fresh fluid through the torque convertor, through the gears, through the radiator cooling passages. It seems to take about 10-14 quarts to get a nice clean transfer, which includes the 3.whatever quarts in the "pan", depending on how dirty the fluid was in the TC and radiator, etc.
Flush machines put pressure and chemicals into the system which can (or does at times) damage the seals, causing you to have a leaking transmission. Then you have to rebuild it, to the tune of $2,000+. Not fun.
So now that this job is done, and I have slept on it, I will say "OK, not as bad as I was venting right after." As this was the first time I have ever had to replace a steering rack, there was some learning to do, which took time and frustration. I will take pics of the main components and post those up to give a clue as to what a person will be getting into. What I can say, for this model of CR-V, is the following:
Have a helper. It will be of great help to have someone on the other end of that rack twisting and moving it around. It is a bit heavy, and designed such that it will barely fit into the space allotted. The old rack can get scrubbed up removing it, but the new rack you push back in you have to be careful that you do not destroy the plastic vent line running along the top of it. Dumb design, and you could easily pinch that badly or flub it up.
Get an 18" and 24" extension bar for your ratchet. There are two bolts on the rear mount that face the driver side. The easiest way to attack those is through the wheel well, which will require a long extension. These will also come in handy to break and replace the top bolts for the same mount.
Get ratcheting 12,14, and 17mm wrenches. Some small working spaces that you will want that to run up some nuts.
When putting the new rack back in, compress the driver side rod all the way in, and tilt the rod up. You have to position the "tower" of the rack forward (engine facing rather than rear facing) through the opening, then twist it around once inside and push toward the passenger side. It will take some doing, but with the right angles you can just pop in the driver side rod and get it up in there.
Line up the rack with the stiffener plate, loosely securing it with bolts until you are sure you have the angles and position right. Then fully tighten the bolts to secure the plate and rack in place.
Put on the return line first, pushing the supply line out the way a bit. The supply line is metal, so does not have as much play, but it is in the way of you tightening the nipple into the return hole on the rack (this nipple has to come out before you remove the rack as it is in the way. I cannot see how it can be installed before putting in the new rack for the same reason, but maybe others have had luck. I installed the nipple when the new rack was in place). You can thread the nipple on from above with your fingers, then access it to tighten to spec from underneath the car. Then you secure the supply line, which is under the return line.
The rear mount is loaded, meaning you have to tilt the engine forward to get it re-secured. You can tighten every bolt on that bracket except for the bolt running through the actual mount itself (all bracket bolts can be secured). You will have to tilt the engine forward, allowing you to slide the bolt through the mount.
No way that rack will come out or in unless you do tilt the trans back, so yep - have to remove those side torque mounts and that rear mount mentioned above, then jack the engine up. I'll post a pic of the spot later in the week. That pivots the trans down, which is crucial as the shaft joining the transfer case to the propeller shaft is in the way. And of course you have to remove the propeller shaft at this juncture as well.
In the end you will have disconnected a LOT of stuff. Many bolts of differing sizes. Put them back in their holes when removing them to keep them sorted out. Take deep breaths and look forward to a job well done in the end.
Got the belts replaced. The power steering and alt were easy to manage, but the serpentine belt wins the WTF design award. Only way to do it is to move the power steering pump. You have to remove the two bolts then move it to the side. Then you can get a socket on the nut, and a wrench on the tensioner/pivot bolt. Easy then.
For reference: Duralast belt numbers:
P/S : 353K4
Alt : 323K4
Serpentine (A/C) : 333K4
AutoZone will sell them to you but unless you ask they won't note which is which. ALt and PS are very close in size visually.
Blown out old rack. Someone rebooted those inners once upon a time as they were held on with zip ties.
It was not just the boot that was bad. Something else was shot as there was fluid everywhere. The new rack is not leaking, so not sure what the old problem was (lines were tight), but new rack installed anyway.
But there is a new steering rack in with new fluid, new oil pan gasket in with fresh oil, new valve cover gasket on, and an ATF fluid drain and fill, along with two new front mounts.
10-04-2015, 04:38 PM
Installing a new power steering rack: gaskets, axles and racks (oh my!)
