I took a drive to grab some smokes and the wheel turns right and left really easily, and my tires squeel.

I know I gotta get an alignment tomorrow, but I just want to make sure that this is normal after changing tie rod ends.

changed the steering rack bushing too

 

thats just your alignment being horribly off....get one immeadiatly

 

your alignment is WAY off. you need an alignment asap. its so hard to eyeball the alignment, especially when you changed the tie rods and lost all reference.


did you not tighten the gearbox lock nut? thats half the job of doing a whole steering rack rebuild.

 

gear box lock nut? is that the washer lock that you have to unbend to change the inners??

Only things I did for this job was the inner/outter tie rods and the steering rack bushing.

An alignment will fix my problem right??

 

http://media.honda.co.uk/car/o...4.pdf

use a channel lock wrench to wrench off the big lock nut. only thing in my toolbox that would work. im not going to buy a socket that size....

its a must do if youve gone through the effort of replacing the rack end bushing.

youll end up doing it a few times to get it just right, trust me.

 

I actually didnt even touch that at all...

now im confused, should I still go out there and tighten it? I think its already the tightest it can go since I didnt even touch it.

 

its an old, worn steering rack. the bushing is worn out on one end, you replaced that. the gearbox tightens it on the other end. now you need to tighten that side.

 

Alright I just went out there and the little nut is seized or something and the nut just got messed up when i tried turning it and putting force on the opposite big nut as well..

I was able to loosen the big one and tighten, loosen and tighten and the SW still feels really loose. The little nut moved the same way when I turned the big one.

 

are you doing it right?

you know that big thing is just a luck nut. the little 12mm nut pushes the spring against the rack and creates the tension. then the lock nut just locks it in position. the big lock nut should not dictate the position of the 12mm nut.

you ought ot be able to tighten that 12mm down enough so that the steering wheel cant even move.... (of course thats not the proper tension it should have)

did you also remember to tighten the ujooint pinch bolt at the pinion? at the bottom of the steering column.

 

**** I was using a 9/16 haha.

alright im gonna go out there and fix that, but what is the ujoint pinch? or even the pinion??

like I said the only things I touched were the 4 bolts holding the rack up, the inner/outter rods, and replaced the rack bushing. Now I am messing with the guide nut, which i didnt touch until now.

Thanks for the help Tyson

 

universal joint at the bottom of the steering column, inside the car. under the plastic cover just behind the pedals.

its posible you loosened the pinion (what rotates the rack) as you dropped the rack. or not.

also, btw, your alignment being totally off may be what you are feeling as "loose steering". get an alignment asap anyway.

 

well since I tried using the 9/16 it messed up the head, so now I cant even fit a 12mm on it. Tried using a crafstman locking wrench and the top part of the wrench completely snapped off

But after an alignment the wheel will still be really loose right? Should I just talk to the mech working on my car and see if he can do it?


Modified by Lucky-13 at 6:38 PM 8/16/2007

 

did you try to turn the 12mm without loosening the big lock nut???

im really not understanding you here...

you dont HAVE to adjust that lock nut. youre just skipping over a major area of steering improvement.

 

Yeah thats what I tried to do at first, and I couldnt move it because it was seized. But I was able to turn the big one with a huge monkey wrench, and the smaller 12 mm in the middle turned along with it.

So when I turned the lock nut the small 12 mm moved with it.

 

well, you really should be able to loosen the big nut. then hold the big nut with whatever youre using, and turn the 12mm one, independently.

 

I think im gonna have to use my sears nut breaker thing, itll be able to grab it.

but I appreciate the help

 

I'm removing my rack Saturday to replace the rack end bushing, inner tie rod end and adjust the spring. I have some inward movement on the passenger side and it appears to be moving past the inner tie rod end (my vehicle inspection mechanic diagnosed it as a bad outer tie rod end!)

Did you have to remove your exhaust and shift linkage?

I'm going to try to remove the rack w/out removing the exhaust or shift linkage. How long did it take you to remove your rack?

 

I didn't remove the rack completely, but the whole job took 2 hours replacing inner/outter tie rods, and taking out the rack end bushing.

 

I don't really have to remove the rack, but I hear it is easier to do that if you are going to replace the inner tie rod and rack bushing. I looked at the passenger side inner tie rod end and it looks a little difficult to get to, especially to bend those lock nut tabs back. My car is a 91 civic hatchback STD.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hondaisok &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Did you have to remove your exhaust and shift linkage?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes, you have to.

 

Ok, I'm thinking now I may just try to change the rack bushing and inner tie rod end with the rack still on.

I'm going to use some PB Blaster to attempt to loosen the rack adjustment lock nut. I might just try this first as it may be the problem at hand with the inward movement. I don't really believe it is the inner tie rod end because I could see the whole rack (bar) moving so I believe the play is not at the inner tie rod part.

It seems logical to believe a loose pinion gear would cause the movement I have going on.

 

Steering rack bushing feels alot better after this alignment

 

Well, I removed my rack this weekend, replaced pass side inner tie rod end, rack end bushing and adjusted rack gear spring. Took about 5 hours because I had a problem removing the outer tie rod ends. Had to go buy a tie rod pickle fork and pipe wrench for the gear adjustment.

Definately worth removing the rack to replace the inner tie rod. The rack end bushing took about 20 minutes to replace. I had to use heat to remove the tie rod ends and to loosen the rack adjustment locknut.

I also found it easier to just take out the bolts for both the u-joints on the steering shaft and take off my steering wheel and adjust later. I also took out my seat to make it easier to get at the steering linkage (only about five minutes to remove the seat).

Had a problem getting the bitch pin back in though. Like an idiot, I tried using my 8mm punch to start it and it got stuck inside the pin. After I removed the punch, the pin was opened up to much to put back in the car, so I took a 1/4" bolt and nut and put it in there for now. I have another bitch pin somewhere. The shifting is a little sloppy in second gear, but other than that, it's fine. I'm considering wrapping some tape around the bolt to make it snug and eliminate the bitch pin issue for future work.

Steering is alot better now!

 

hey tyson, i just changed inner tie rods, outers, upper and lower ball joints, and rack end bushing. i just got an alignment yesterday, but i never adjusted the gearbox nut. is it too late to do it now? or should i have done that before alignment? thanks

 

adjusting the gearbox shouldnt change the alignment.