Hondaciv866

unfortunately the power steering / rack and pinion boot on the driver side of the car is a real PITA to put on. I must of tried for about four hours to get it myself. What makes this job so hard is that there is hardly any room to work and the boot fits very tightly onto the steer rack groove. I have an ok method to do this. Reason for this thread is to help someone else who is in a jam with this dang boot.

Tools needed:
a quality pair of 8 inch needle nose pliers. I used these
Sears.com
(you really need a decent pair this has good grip)

a punch. think i was using the 3/8th i used this set
5 Piece Long Drive Pin Punch Set

Other things needed:
Drop light.. put this somewhere so that you and your parter will have good lighting.

brake cleaner (use this to spray your pliers to keep them dry / de-greased) you need all the grip you can on the pliers.

Directions:
-Loosen driver side lug nuts.
-jack the car up high as you can.. USE JACK STANDS. one person will be laying under the car and will either die/get hurt badly if your jack failed and there were no stands.
-once car jacked/supported take off drivers side wheel.
-remover driver side outter tie rod(there is plenty of info on this on youtube and forums)
-now you have inner tie rod and boot. cut zip ties / brackets off of old boot
- remove old boot.
-honestly this is a good time to replace inner tie rod, because trust me you do not want to do this boot job again. I d go with OEM Honda, or moog inner tie rod here so it lasts 10+years.
-now this is where you need two people; person x and person y.
-person y lies down underneath the car.
here is a pic of how person y should lay:
View image: hot wheels honda civic ef 6
basically your head is on the drivers side of the car, looking down the inner tie rod, and your feet are towards the passenger side of the car.

-person x gets on top of the car. my partner had there feet/knees on the bumper/engine. basically person x is in the engine bay (very careful to only put your weight on the engine). Now look down at the boot from the top. Looking down the fire wall you will see where the boot goes.

-person y now slides the boot over the inner tie rod. now get the bottom of the boot positioned over the lower portion of the power steering rack where it should be (on the groove). you wont be able to get the whole boot on. that is the reason for two people doing this. It is ok if the boot bends a little when you get a portion of the bottom peice over onto where it should be. Now using the punch place it on the bottom of the boot, which is in place over the rack, to hold it there so it will not move. also use your other hand to help hold it there and to prevent the boot from twisting/moving.

-person x, who is on the engine bay, will be reaching down from the top, by the fire wall to get to the boot. it is tight there becareful not the break / hit other stuff. Now takes those good qualitly 8inch need nose pliers, trust me good pliers can make all the difference, and grabs the boot from the top and as close to the edge/inner portion of the boot as you can (you do not have to grab the exact edge, just grab it where ever you can close to the end as you can) and slide it up and over onto the rack.

-both person x and y will need to reset and re try a couple times but it can be done
-becareful not to rip the air nipple off the boot. keep that out of the way.
-once the boot is on, celebrate. hook the nipple to the vent tube. put your zip ties / brackets on.
-reassemble

Hondaciv866

also forgot to add.. before i got the boot on i stretched the boot out a bit..


i used these oil filer pliers:

OEM/Oil filter pliers 25320 at AutoZone.com - 3 reviews

i basically slid the boot over the pliers, opened them help for 30seconds, turned the boot a little and repeated.. i think this makes the boot a little easier to get on.

Former User

Aftermarket boot?

I found that installing an aftermarket boot (eventually ripped open) was difficult. I then bought the Honda boot and installation was extremely easy.

angrysmileyface

I did both sides using OEM and had no problem sliding them on. Biggest problem was getting the clamp on which for the passenger side I had to resort to other clamping means. (Zip tie FTW)

Hondaciv866

it was an aftermarket boot. these things are superhuman rubber and i put so much force stretching on it, it still did not rip. i was doing this on a power steering rack, not sure if manual rack users have the same problem.

I was in a jam and did not have time to wait for honda to order one and then for it to come in. this method can help people put on aftermarket boots if needed.

zip ties work fine as far as i know!

Former User

My aftermarket boot ripped open after about 3 months of use while driving. I recommend members skip the aftermarket boot and wait for the Honda boot to arrive.

Hondaciv866

i had my old boot on for about 3 years and it was aftermarket.. the boot itself never ripped. the nipple did rip off of it though. This may be due to the fact when i put the hose on the nipple 3 years ago i did not use silicone spray to help it slide on and i prob put to much stress on the nipple.