Keef

Thread, ARISE!

So what I've gathered from this thread is that I can directly swap the pinion gear assembly from a DC2 into my EM1. If this works so well and is that simple then why isn't it common knowledge? Lots of people hate how terribly slow EKs' PS rack is, and if the fix really is this simple I'm very surprised it's not common practice.

Has anyone else done this swap? I'm quite interested in it, if anything to get the steering nearly as quick as my old EG2.

quikflip27

so if i have a non PS rack on my civic, and wanted to decrease the lock to lock, there is nothing i can do without switching out the entire rack? i cant just change the pinion gear? TIA

rokwilder1

Good question but i dont think manual and P/S pinions are interchangeable. OP care to verify?

sil80drifter

Hey guys haven't been on for a while. Rack has been on the car for 5 months now, and since I messed up the toe (-1 on both sides looked straight to me), I successfully went through a set of 50% tread Azenis in the front in 200 miles. DOI. Now, correctly aligned, it's even better than before =]

To answer some of the questions:

slimjimming6688:
All you need is 16 in that diagram. 17 Should be reused from Civic PS Rack.

jdmdohcek98:
It fits just fine. I'd get new Civic PS replacables when it comes to bushings and tie-rods, but the only things that won't fit the PS rack are the non-PS bushings, as the rack is thicker and uses different d-brackets and bushings.

Keef:
As you have seen in this thread, NOBODY ever took the time to take a rack out, count the pinion teeth and the rack teeth, and put two and two together.

quikflip27 & rokwilder1:
The PS and MS pinions are NOT interchangeable, they are very different in circumference when it comes to how they bolt up to the rack itself. This was actually my original idea until I had the two in front of me and could compare.
I.E: If you have a non PS rack you CANNOT just switch the PS pinion into it, It will NOT fit at all.

Btw, I am considering making this rack powered because at autoX/parallel parking it's a bit hard to turn with 205/50-15 Azenis. All season tires/snow tires are actually just fine,but the sticky 200 treadwear ones.. not so much =]

Good luck to all,

sil80

BE2

Did you use the pinion shaft AND sleeve from the Integra? or did you put the civic sleeve on the Integra? I believe one or two shims are different, but the sleeve with the seals are interchangable and the books say to keep the pinion and sleeve together because they are precision machined into each other. So you take the pinion/sleeve from the Integra and press (or lightly hammer) it into the Civic's steering rack body top piece (the cap looking part with the 4 threaded holes and precision cut bore)? The Integra shaft had a thin washer on the main bearing when it came out.

I'm planning on doing this swap...with the rack still on the car. If I can get my wrenches in there, its 2 bolts and 4 threaded hardline ends. I'm going to remove the entire steering colum for some work behind the dash anyway.

sil80drifter

BE2 - I cannot recall.
If the Integra rack body top piece of the bolts up to the EK rack, then use it. If not, it should come right out and you can use the EK piece with it. It's been a while and I don't remember that detail.

sil80

rokwilder1

Do you have pics of your non powered p/s rach set up? Is it looped? My hardlines are just crimped off right now from previous owner and i want to loop it. THanks.

pdiggitydogg

Bumping this with some info--

Im pretty sure that you cannot use the integra pinion sleeve on the civic. I remember running into issues with an ITR PS pressure line onto my EJ8 rack - the angle of how the ports attach is exactly opposite, if I remember right.

I just got my pinion delivered today! Yes! Scored it for $30 off Fibercation.
I will be doing the swap...whenever my engine is done.

Anyone know what this kit consists of?
"06531-S04-J51 SEAL KIT A, POWER STEERING (RACK)"
Its like $45, so I'll pass if I can get away with not having it. I will be purchasing a new big-*** O ring, though (53666-S50-003 O-RING (41.5X2)) for $0.50

Does the rack itself need to be removed from the housing or can I just remove the entire thing and swap pinion shafts? If I can get away without messing with the rack guide and what-all that would be fantastic...

BE2

I will confirm this. The Integra pinion/sleeve seemed to go right into the civic's upper housing body. The integra one has the 2 left/right ports at about 180 degrees from the in/out hardlines. The EK Civic one has them on the same side, roughly 60 degrees offset from the other pair, so to use the integra body on the civic hardline setup, hardlines would need to be bent. For those of you swapping to flexible stainless lines, this would fine to use the Teg upper body then.

CivicSD

Good info!

RustyE.G.

I'd like to see a pic of the manual pinion next to a power one. I'm curious if you could have the integra pinion machined down to fit in a manual rack, and then have the manual bearing pressed onto it. I'm doing a full de-power (non-looped) on an integra rack now and I've been thinking it would just be a lot better, and easier, to have shorter ratios like these on a rack that's meant to be manual.

RyanA

You are in luck. Look at the first post in this topic. He has a pic of the manual pinion, the Civ power pinion and the Teg power pinion....

RustyE.G.

Yeah I saw that. I meant like a side view, not from the end like that. So I can compare the profiles and see if they are similar. I know the power pinions are fatter in the middle section, I don't see why a lathe couldn't slim that down to the same diameter as a manual pinion. I bet any re re with a lathe could do it. This is making me have second thoughts about going with a de-powered rack, when I could have the simplicity and reliability of a manual.

RyanA

I'm sure they are hardened pretty shallow so you'd have to re-harden the shaft best case. If I can get a manual rack to tear apart, I'll get some pics.

rokwilder1

This is an awesome thread! This is proving to be very useful in the case of a K swapped car when there is not room for the p/s pump. Thats my dilemma at the moment. Not sure if i wanna shell out the cash for a teg subframe/p/s rack and ekk2 mounts just to have enough room for p/s w/my a/c condenser. A/C is crucial in the texas summer however power steering wont be missed.

It would be perfect if the teg rack could be machined to be compatable with the manual civic housing.

shytdoode

hey i heard there a rack that will actually extend your steering ratio has anyone ever heard of those ?

RustyE.G.

Okay, I took apart my integra pinion housing a couple days ago. The pinion shaft itself is semi-hollow and made from two separate pieces of metal. If this were to be machined down to the same diameter as a manual pinion gear it might be too thin, and prone to breakage.

dookie_707

This is an awesome way to upgrade my non-p/s for more comfortable parking, I didn't want to shell out the money for a 'Queef' steering upgrade either, I was actually looking at steering quickeners before I found this thread which I thought might be too much for DD/weekend autoX.

I'm going to go pick up the necessary parts to do this tomorrow, and will hopefully have it in my EK by the end of this month. Thanks for this find!

trakwhore

Just so you know, the two pinions are actually a little different, yes they do work as you have said and a few people have done, but the civics teeth are a little finer then the integra's so basically after a little time the rack starts to wear out since it has the wrong size gears. Prob ok for a daily driver but for a racing application i wouldn't recommend it.

vinnehdu

run into a bit of trouble after getting my hands on both racks('99 ek p/s and 96spec itr p/s)

1. dc pinion/sleeve doesn't fit the ek housing because it's a few mm too big
2. ek sleeve doesn't fit the dc pinion because it appears it's a little too tall and doesn't allow you to clip on the circlip to secure the sleeve
3. the bearing on the pinion is larger on the dc than the ek

am i doing something wrong or did i just get a freak of a dc steering rack?
anyone with a 96-98 ek p/s rack able to get measurements of the bearing and sleeve height?

vinnehdu

bump
anyone done this recently?

Jimster480

damn thats pretty interesting. It should be stickied.

SlayANT

Just got this done lastnight:

My setup: 96-98 Civic PS rack using a 98 Integra PS pinion gear + housing.

You have to play around w/ the fitment. At first, the DC's pinion gear will feel too big/misaligned. After moving & pushing the pinion gear around a bit, it eventually will line up correctly.

Question: how did you guys remove the pinion gear from its casing? Did you guys use a press as stated in the helms manual? I couldn't get it off, so I just bent the hard line to make it fit.

vinnehdu

i just turned it upside down and gave it a sturdy bang on the ground and the pinion popped out of the housing
unfortunately i don't see any way of bending the hard lines on a rhd civic rack to fit the integra housing unfortunately
i am/have been using '99 racks though, haven't been able able to source 96-98 racks

can throw up some pics here if need be

vinnehdu

still trying to stuff around with this one..
the dc2 bearing measures 41.8mm
the ek bearing measures 38.9mm

maybe the usdm racks are different to the ausdm ones
racks tested were from a 96spec dc2r and '99 ek racks though, yet to get my hands on a 96-98 ek rack