Hey guys.

here is my story.

A few days ago, i was being stupid, and showing off for some girls, and wrecked my crx... lmao.
=/

i blew out my tire, bent my rim, and now i can hardly steer.

Whats happening is, when i straighten the wheel out, its really hard to turn, until you get to a cirtan point, then it gets a little easier.

i took the rim off and looked for bent ti-rods, and all that, and they were all fine.

so im guessing its the rack and pinion...=[

so NOW i have to swap rack and pinions.


MY QUESTION (S)

im swapping a rack and pinion FROM a 89 HF to a 91 SI.
how should i go about doing this? were should i start? ect..

any help would be AMAZING!

thanks guys.

 

Jack the front of the car up and check to see if the steering is still stiff, then try with the tires off.

 

i did. and it is.

 

did you check to make sure you didn't bend a lower control arm? what about upper control arm? tweak the frame a little?

are you sure it's your rack? sure it's not just your outer tie rod that is out of whack?

to check to see if your tie rod is out of whack, raise the front end of your car. with the wheels on put hands on 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. rock the wheel left to right. listen for clunking sound coming from your tie rods. to find out if it's you inner or outer, just have someone hold on to one or the other as you rock the wheel back and forth.

unless your rack is giving you clunking noise, it might not be your rack.

 

yeah. i checked all that. it has to be my rack. =/

is it easy to swap?

 

non power to non power, no problem.

non power to power, a little different.

(for non power steering)
go under dash, take off steering column cover, undo the 2 10mm bolts
takeoff your outer tie rods.
you can take off or leave your inner tie rods on, it's up to you(i found it easier to at least take off the driver side)
unbolt the 4 14mm bolts.
(depending, your exhaust might get in the way, it might not.)
just turn your steering wheel (or move the gearing thingy to the passenger side)
pull down and slide out towards the driver side (you're going to have to rotate the rack to clear the under body.)
put on (at least the passenger side to save time) inner tie rod.
put back in rack.
bolt up.
take an hour to put that joint back on the column (dont bolt it back together yet, because you have to adjust it (your toe will be off))
put on outer tie rods (inner driver side now if you haven't already)
tighten everything
put wheels on
see how off your alignment is.
make sure that your steering is set back as close to factory as possible. then bolt back together the steering column.
take it to an align shop (unless you know how to do it your self)
finish.

not that hard. easier then it sounds. took me 3 hours to take off and put back on. that included a cigar break, bathroom break, and a drink. and it was my second time doing it. first time was taking it out the junkyard the day before.

 

Very easy if it's an HF rack to an SI. Sounds like you need a haynes/helms manual.

 

I'm not convinced its the rack - tell us how you "checked all that"? Did you check the wheelbase? Should be 90.6 Inches. Usually the front cross member and lower arms bend first on CRXs and you won't see it by looking at it - you have to measure. If you did indeed do all that - did you check for a bent inner tie rod as folks have mentioned? It may be covered by the boot(s). How you blew out the tire would be helpful to? Did you hit a curb?

 

who the **** shows off to girls with a CRX?

 

if you bent a wheel and the rack, you probably bent a lot of other stuff. so good luck replacing things like the subframe, radius rods and control arms too.

90EX has the procedure pretty much down. the rack will be bolt off and bolt on. the HF/DX is not the same as the Si but theyre interchangeable. however, i STRONGLY encourage you to get the "rack end bushing" part (only available) from the dealer and put a new one in the "new" rack. this will effectively rebuild the rack and is not hard when the rack is out of the car.

then adjust the pinion gear box. then get it aligned and really see how badly effed up your car is now.

 

We were all doing a fine job of ignoring that easy target... The more appropriate question is not who or why but how?

 

lol! ***** will do anything to impress a female i swear... flossin a hinda doesnt exactly make the ladies swoon

 

bahaha. you guys are funny. =P
what was really ironic was, as soon as i started driving, i told her "i love this car, i built it all my self, its so amazing"... like 5 seconds later, i crashed. lmao.


but seriously,
they way i hit the curb was i hit the curb sideways, rim/tire first. so i shouldent have messed the wheel base up...i have checked everything numerous times, and the only thing, that i think it should be is the rack...

they way it steers is, its pritty stiff when the wheel is strieght, but when you turn a bit, it gets easyer, then if you turn it a bit more, it gets harder again...

i have noticed, if im parked, OR if i raise the whole frount of the car, when i slowly steer the wheel left or right, it kind of pulses... as in when you slowly turn the wheel, it will get easy for a sec, then harder, then easyer, ect ect. its quite strange..

 

That info is just about useless for a real diagnosis... Measure the wheelbase, center point to center point of each rim on either side of the car. If it ain't 90.6 inches than something forward of the rack is bent that locates the wheel. Hopping a curb has got to be the #1 way of bending the Xmember and control arms on the lightweight CRX front suspension. I've seen it about 1000 times.

 

am having a simliar problem.. I lifted the car up and the driverside makes a clicking sound, the tie rod is not bent. Is it the rack?

When i turn a corner, I hear a clicking sound? ( i know its the cv boot) No, cause, i just got freshly rebuilt axles...

Can someone give me some info as well? PLEASE..

 

I put in rack from junkyard and got it aligned, then put in a better rack and aligned it again, was I supposed to do that if my mechanic said it didnt need an alignment? (he said the toe and casters was where they were supposed to be).

 

raised from the dead.

you probably hsould have started a new thread lol but good use of search...

 

Anytime you do anything with your suspension you should get an Alignment. Your mechanic has a good enough mentality.

Don't raise 4 year old threads from the dead.