Ok so my power steering rack failed on my 2001 Honda Civic EX. I am practically poor as a church mouse and i cant afford to go to a shop to have things done to my car. I bought an aftermarket rack and installed it. As soon as i was finished, i took it to Sear to get an alignment. They said i failed to center the rack so therefor they couldn't do an alignment (but they felt compelled to charge me anyhow) I have yet been able to get a clear answer as to what centering the rack even means. i was told to take it home, and center the steering wheel, then turn it all the way left counting the turns and then the same thing to the right. and to center it that way. only thing is after doing that my toe on the front right wheel was off by 5.39 degrees and there wasnt enough room on the tie rods to adjust for it. i went somewhere else and got a steering alignment again. The issue is that now the steering wheel is not straight. It is about a quarter turn to the right... but there is a slight pull when driving to the left....
On top of that my SRS light is now on. please someone help me. i dont know what to do, i am going bankrupt trying to fix my car and i seem to just be getting farther and farther away from it being fixed. Did i put in the rack wrong? it steers evenly to the left and right, it just has a slight (but noticeable) pull to the left and the steering wheel is not centered. And now im being told that it will cost me over a thousand dollars to fix the issue with the srs system... and i am due for a state inspection which the SRS light being on fails it. I really dont know where to turn. please help.

 

you just caused yourself a big *** headache. you rotated the srs spiral cable to many times and it's now damaged. those are not cheap to replace. try finding a used one but only after you get your steering rack issue sorted out.

you were supposed to keep the new rack as close to center as possible before installing the steering shaft on to the rack. now it will never be perfectly centered and performing a correct wheel alignment will be next to impossible to get the amount of adjustment from left to right.

 

pull your srs light out of the cluster.... then pull your rack out and start all over look at your old rack also for refernce ... do not spin it around

 

yeh i found some things i can do about the SRS light... to be completly honest if i can just disable it i will, if i get into a wreck well unlucky me, i guess thats the cost of being broke (lol) anyhow, i plan on taking the rack out in the morning, and trying to get it right, is there any way to measure it when im trying to center it before attaching it to the universal joint (and thus to the steering wheel) to get it as close to perfect as possible? oh and by the way, it came in the box with the pinion all the way to the left (driver) side of the rack... i have to turn it to get in anywhere near the middle.

 

Just reinstall the rack, but measure the turns and get everything as exact as possible. Maybe get some friends to help you. Make sure you try to get the alignment close on each wheel when youre reattaching the tie rods. Then google a diagram of your gauge cluster lights and cut the srs light.

 

hmm did you put back the same amount of turns for the outter tie rods?

if your steering wheel is a quarter turn to the right, you should be able to adjust it by moving the U-joint where it connects to the rack.

 

Yeah you need to take the rack out and try to center it first of all. Then reinstall it while keeping it centered. turn the steering wheel until its dead center. before you hook up the joint. Then attach the tie rods as equally on each side as you can. Then get aligned. You just need to redo it and be meticulous about it.

 

ok so for those of you who responded to my post, here is an update to the situation. I was able to take the rack off again, and i got it as close to center as possible. the steering wheel was now cocked to the left a little bit. I assumed i got the rack as close as possible to center so i simply took the steering wheel off and adjusted it til it was level. I got it realligned and apparently the people who alligned it before has a messed up machine cause the allignment was off by 1.23 degrees on the toe with the driver front wheel, and 1.24 degrees off on the passenger front wheel (what there machine was saying was straight was not straight basically) anyhow it doesnt pull to the left anymore and the steering is great.

As for the SRS light. I used the trick i found online that involves using a paperclip with a connector under the steering wheel near the fuses and now my light comes on for about 6 seconds and then goes off and stays off. not to sure if my driver side airbag would deploy if i were in a wreck but w/e.


Anyhow, thank you all for the advice and suggestions.