I'm looking for a write up on a rack and pinion replacement for a 1998 Honda Civic EX. Thanks!

 

there is at least 1 how to in the in FAQ section. i think its be repo-jack...

 

Thanks I will check that out. The job looks fairly straight forward. The only thing that concerns me is how in the hell do you get to the hydraulic fittings on the rack and pinion?!?!?!? ****, you need hands the size of quarters!!! I looked and I can't seem to see if you can access the fittings via a wrench from the bottom, or if I should clamp a wrench to a piece of bar stock and fish it down between the intake the firewall. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

 

I have another question, I found a dealers repair book, and it says you have to take the steering wheel apart for a rack and pinion install? Does that seem right? Also, what is the best way to center the rack before coupling the pinion to the steering column???? Thanks!!

 

I was thinking, to center the steering rack, would it not be better to mark the tie rod end with paint on the threads, where it connects to the rack, pull the tie rods on both sides. Then after the new rack is installed, before I connect the column to the pinion shaft, reinstall the tie rod ends, making sure that the painted threads stop at the rack, tighten both sides, install ball joints into knuckle, tighten. THEN line up the column and pinion with the wheels being pointed straight ahead? This seems better than trying to eye ball the rack center, unless I am missing something. Could someone please respond to this and the other questions I had - I am doing this tomorrow!!!! Thanks again!!!

 

BUMP!!!!!!!

 

Anyone?

 

Bump again!!!!

Any trick to getting the two hydraulic lines off of the rack and pinion? From engine top side or is there room on the bottom?????????

 

I would disconnect the steering column joint (inside the car) and disconnect the tie rods first. Then undo the bolts holding the rack to the subframe. At this point, the only thing holding the rack into place is the lines, so you should be able to gently pull the rack away from the subframe and hopefully get enough clearance to undo the lines.

EDIT: You could also disconnect the lines @ the pump and reservoir. That way when the rack drops, it would drop WITH the lines connected to the rack.

 

How many lines are from the pump to the rack and pinion? Is it only one? I see two lines on the rack and Pinion, with the top line going to the pump, I can't see where the bottom one is going to? Thanks!


Also, do I need to drop the stiffener plate? because the dealer repair manual I have says that you need to...

 

There are two lines from the rack that you need to disconnect. One is the high pressure (that goes to the pump) and the other is the return line that connects to the reservior. It's kind of hard to see the return line from the bay as it's routed under a bunch of other stuff, but you could still disconnect it SOME where from the top and drop the rack with the lines connected to it. Infact, when I go to do my subframe swap that's what I plan to do.

Yes, the stiffner plate needs to come down as well. It's not bad, maybe 6 bolts.

 

I used this link to convert my DX to power steering. It should help you replace the rack with a new one though.

http://repo.jackmoves.com/v/erik/album106/album119/

 

Now I know why everyone wanted $700.00 + to do this!! What a freaking pain in the ***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was easy getting everything disconnected except for the lines. The rubber return line came off pretty easy, replaced the crappy Honda clamp after install with a beefier one. The HARD LINE was impossible to get off. Tried everything - a line wrench, nope, a regular box wrench, nope, finally after giving up tried a pair of vice grips... nope. Ended up cutting the line and buying a new line from NAPA for like $85.00. Didn't really want to, but what other choice was there? Finally got the rack off and with one person holding the rack, and me putting a ton of pressure on the hardline nut (line that was cut) it finally broke free. Jesus, how tight do they install these things from the factory?

The driver side was shot as when I compressed the boot to slide it out of the sub frame a ton of PS fluid came out. Not only that but the rack tie rod on the driver side was limper than a 90 year old man... the pass side was noce and tight and did not move around like a wet noodle.

My back is freaking killing me. Most of the time was dicking with the hard line to get off. Would have been done hours earlier, but as it was, I started at 10:00am and finished, cleaning up, washing the PS fluid off, checking for leaks, etc. at around midnight. Oh well, it works much better. Will probably get a front end alignment, although I measured and counted the threads on the old tie rod end, and it doesn't pull to anyone side...

 

Next time when you encounter a difficult to remove nut or fitting that has exposed theards apply pb blaster or automatic transmission fluid. Let it soak for a minute and you be surprise now easy it will be to remove.

 

Would that work on those damn "pipe fittings"? The hard line seemed tappered...

 

I'm actually taking this on tomorrow. I have a reman R&P and was looking for last minute advice on how to get this done. I'll try the PB blaster right now and hopefully by morning these will soften up. I've heard people say I need to take off the sub-frame. What is this and how do I get it out? Someone mentioned that taking the hard lines off of the PS pump might be an easier solution. Would this work?

thanks for any advice with this.

 

As I said I above it did it via the link I posted with not removing the subframe. It wasn't too bad of a job. The only tricky part is the space to get to the lines but its not impossible.

 

94EG8 mentioned that he just drops the subframe to avoid dealing with the difficulty of removing the fluid lines. I think I'll try that for my next rack replacement.

Check out the discussion here:

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...light=subframe

 

it's break time, I've got the rack loose and got all the PS lines off. BTW putting PB blaster on those nuts and letting them sit overnight worked wonders. It took me <2 minutes per line to loosen it. The order I removed them was took the left side off then right side then the middle. The middle is made eaiser if you move the left line line out of the way.

Now I'm at the point where I need to pull the rack out. I've read that if I pull the outter tie rod off I can pull the rack out wihtout having to pull the subframe. I've been at this for about 2 hours from when I started. I think I'll enjoy a beer and wait till it's under 100 degrees.

 

Post pictures. Would you like me to turn this post into a thread of your own?

 

Bah at this point I'm just upset. I spent 1.5 hours loosening the R&P and now I've spent over 3 hours trying to take it out. I've tried to take it out without removing the subframe, trust me that aint easy. Anyone reading this trust me, taking the subframe is no big deal. It's well worth the time savings to remove it. But now I have everything loose and hanging but I have two linkages running to the transmision that are getting in my way. One is easy to remove the other I have no idea how to remove it. Any advice on getting those out will be greatly appreciated



Hope if the image isn't too large since I'm kinda new to these forums

 

What year?

Another victim of the "bitch pin".



I prefer this method:

http://www.performanceforum.com/wesv...tch/bitch.html

 

93 civic EX

 

Looks to be the same:

 

just saw your write up on removal of the bitch pin. Very clean very well written. If it weren't so late and I hadn't already cleaned up I would be at it now. Once done with this I'll do a write up for Rack R&R since it's not hard but has some tricky parts that I'm sure other people would like to know before hand.