I have a 94 Civic EX and I'm getting the horrible steering/car vibration under braking. Of course I think it's the rack end bushing, but after numerous searchs it seems that all of the posts have been for non-powersteering racks.

Is the rack end bushing even a problem on the powersteering racks?
If so have people changed it out and have a diagram for the one needed?

Thanks for the help.

 

i dont have nany experience iwth power racks. it could be. howeve, you need to check everything else first.

at the very least, you can try to retighten the pinion gear.

 

There is no "rack end bushing" inside a power steering gearbox. This is why you don't hear about them in rack end bushing threads. Instead of a bushing, the steering rack slides back & forth on three fluid seals & a host of other parts...

92-95 PS Gearbox:


92-95 Manual Gearbox (#10 = rack end bushing):


As you can see from the pictures, the PS gearbox is quite complicated (and the tie rods arn't even pictured with the PS rack). There are a ton of parts inside. This is just one more reason why lots of people prefer a manual steering system. You can always switch (for relativly cheap too)...

Just get under your car & check every ball-joint for play by shaking the crap out of everything (you will feel it). Keep in mind that there are 4 ball-joints on either side of the front suspension. Also check out your axles for any damage. It could also just be "warped rotors"...

 

Sounds more like warped rotors or uneven pad wear. Maybe you have a siezed up caliper. Rack and pinion probably is not causing that.

 

yeah but looseness in the suspension/steering causes the rotors to warp, and warped rotors should not cause the car to shake uncontrollably if everything else is tight.

it should be just a mild pulsing.

i know this because ive fixed my steering and still had warped rotors and thats all i got.

so its a chicken or egg situation, replacing just the rotors is not the solution.

btw, check your tie rods.

 

Thanks for the tips. I went to try to shake everything under the car tonight and nothing moved. Well I guess I will fix the rack boots and wait until something falls off the car to fix it so I know what is really wrong. Yeah I'm almost positive it's not the rotors because the brake pedal has not pulsing to it.

 

did you say your steering rack boot is torn?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by in2turbos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for the tips. I went to try to shake everything under the car tonight and nothing moved. Well I guess I will fix the rack boots and wait until something falls off the car to fix it so I know what is really wrong. Yeah I'm almost positive it's not the rotors because the brake pedal has not pulsing to it.

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If your rack boots are torn, and its been like that for a while, your rack is probably shot.

This is what happened to me, I had the same shaking sensation on the highway and while breaking, but the steering was sloppy too. I just changed out my manual rack for another rebuilt rack with a Quaife shorter ratio rack. Problem solved.