My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

1996 Integra.

I was at the canyons and I under steered into the wall when some homo over steered in a 240. The fender kissed the wall and im guessing the rim hit the canyon "wall". I didnt bend the rim and the alignment is beyond out of spec.

So when im driving the wheel has about 270 degrees of free play and I have to turn the wheel a few times before it does the proper turn. Also, ill be driving and the wheel just turns clock wise or counter clockwise without the wheels moving.

My friend said that the column has grinded teeth so that is what is giving it play. He is the one that did my auto-2-manual conversion so im sure he would know how to swap it for $20 and a happy meal.


Any input or comments? Thanks pps.

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

Care to go more into details?

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

ROFL broken rack n pinion?

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

broken rack n pinion the cost of a new one is 260.00 to 300.00 with core exchange. the work to be done to taken out the old one and replace with the new one is about 300.00 or more plus a new alignment.

good luck bro it suck doing the rack n pinion at home on the ground
with no lift

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

Either you've got a bad rack, or the inner and outer tie rods are reaaaally worn out.

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

Updated post sorry!!
Friend said its teeth are grinded. :/
http://www.autotalkcrew.com/forums/i...milies/FUU.gifhttp://www.autotalkcrew.com/forums/i...milies/FUU.gifhttp://www.autotalkcrew.com/forums/i...milies/FUU.gif

Yeah the outer tie rods are BEYOND worn out. I think they need replacement back in 1996! Does that affect the turning radius? Before it went bad, I couldnt make a u-turn for jack shit..

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

so what are you going to replace on column if the teeth are grinding put up a pic to see this if you can

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

Thats why im asking. Do I replace the column or the whole steering rack? I have absolutely no idea what a column looks like btw.

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

You won't know until you pull it out. When you remove the rack, the column will stay attached to the car, and you'll be able to see the teeth on the end. I would think you would need to replace both, but I can't remember if it's the whole column, or just part. IF you pull up a picture on an OEM parts website, you'll be able to see more of what you're looking at. You can probably find a used rack for less than $100, and the column won't be much either because I'm pretty sure you only need part of it. The worst part will be trying to get that out of there...it's going to be very labor intensive.

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

Dang... thanks bakertime, ill try to pull out everything sommetime this week to see what it is

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

No problem man, I hope it comes out easily for you. I didn't have time when I posted last time, but I just pulled up a picture and it looks like the column is unrelated to the gears in the rack itself...I'm not sure where I got that idea from haha.

http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/...st70_b3320.gif

Where #14 and the large part in #16 meet is most likely the issue. Technically fixable with a rebuild, but cheaper and more logical to replace the rack with a good condition used one or a remanufactured one from rockauto.com for $215, +$40 for a pair of good outer tie rod ends (if you've got the cash, I would just do that.)

One last thing...before you go to all that trouble, I would really make sure that it is in fact the rack that's causing your problems. Pull off the wheels and look at all the tie rod components to make sure you didn't just really screw one of them up. Either way, they should be replaced, but it would be nice if that's all it was. You or your buddy who knows his stuff could probably tell you right away if they're good or not just by jacking it up and wiggling the wheel around, holding it at 9 and 3. If it has a lot of play w/o the opposite wheel moving with it, then it's probably just really screwed up tie rods. If the wheels move together, but the steering wheel doesn't, then probably the rack. Another thing to check would be on the steering column itself there is a U-joint with a fitting that could maaaybe have loosened and is slipping slightly, where part #6 slips onto part #1:

http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/...13st70_b32.gif


Do you have a helms manual? If not, PM me your email and I'll send you a copy. It would probably help tremendously in getting that out. I haven't looked specifically at that section, but it sure couldn't hurt to check it out.

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

at least one of you is getting some play ;)

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

when linking the streering box to the swivil how do you line up the box to the wheel?
fig6 to fig17 and when the streering count 3 to left and 3 to the right or is one go one more turn then the other


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...st70_b3310.gif

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

streering rack
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...r/100_2279.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...r/100_2278.jpg

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

Thanks for the info and pictures, I found a 2000 civic si power steering rack n pinion.for 100$ I don't know if I should buy it, or wait up on it and find someone to tear up my car

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

wait up on it because the problem you are haveing could be verry minor such as the jount between the rack and colum being bad or the bushings that hold your rack in place after the impact you described thats the first place id check you dont want to go throwing parts at somthing before you realy know what you are dealing with

i had a similar problem with a pathfinder at a stop the wheel pointed a quarter turn to the left as you accelerated it made its way a half turn over to the right while the vehicle stayed strait the bushings that retained the rack were bad replaced em it drives strait as an arrow

Re: My steering wheel has lots of play.
 

Oh okay thanks a lot for your help. I found one for cheaper so im going to get that and try it out. Is the steering rack and column the same thing?