ALright, so today as i was driving on the highway i took the off ramp. I turned the wheel left on the turn towards the light and i heard many loud clicks. The civic kept going stright and never turned (almost ate **** on the guard rail). I have a 98 donor car with plenty of parts. My quesiton is would replacing the steering wheel colmun fix this problem?

 

Put the front end on stands and have a buddy turn the steering wheel while you watch the wheels and tie rods. What do you see? Post pictures.

 

im in class right now. I still have to drive this thing home. I might die. When i do get home that will be the first thign i do and post pictures. Thanks in advance RonJ@HT

 

Tow it. Don't drive it.

 

^ what he said. You would be out of your mind to try and drive it home after that

 

dad has towing company, had him pick it up but haven't put it up on stands, cuz its snowing and dark but will post pics when everything is said and done.

 

took some pics this morning damn its cold outside
now what?

 

It won't be in your steering column, it will be your steering gear. Your pinion gear must have decided to eat your rack gear. There are 4 bolts holding it on and you have to pull your tie rod ends and turn the wheel all the way to the short side of the rack in order for it to slide out when you remove it. You will have to drop the exhaust where the manifold attaches to the cat flange. I have done about 5 of these before and been through 2 in my car.

 

With the front end on stands, what happens when you turn the steering wheel? Do both front wheels turn normally? Is any unusual noise produced? If so, where?

Are both tie rods connected to the lower control arm and steering rack?

 

Tie rods are all connected. No response to wheels when i turn the steering wheel to the left and when the steering wheel is turned to the right the wheels do move.

 

Inner or Outter tie rods? Here is a picture of what the inside of the steering rack looks like. The inner tie rods attach to that rack gear on either end and the pinion is what runs up to your steering wheel. After the bellows, the outer tie rods attach.

 

Most likely the steering rack is bad.

 

Well I decided to change the whole steering rack. I'm going to be taking steering rack from a car with PS. Mine does not have power steering (probably why the steering rack went in the first place) because previous owner put a CTR crank pulley on motor. My question is what measure do I need to take, when switching the rack into my car and eliminating the PS.

 

You can just get a power rack and loop off the 3 lines. If you get a manual one, you will have to replace the bushing on the passenger side where it mounts to the subframe.