Steering Q's.

[einehund]

Okay, so I thought i'd have everything planned. When i went to Iraq this last time, i put the car on jack stands, plugged the intake and exhaust, and disconnected the battery. All was fine and dandy, came back, put a little oil in the top end and let it sit for 5 minutes, and then started it up after a year like i had driven it 15 minutes earlier. but now i got a problem. the seal on the driver's side of the steering rack got hard during the year of sitting and when i started to drive it, it cracked and started leaking. it wasn't bad enough to replace it at the time, but it is now. my question, can the seal(s?) be replaced and what is the difficulty of that, or do i have to shell out the $300 for a new rack and pinion at autozone? I can do the whole rack swap myself, but i know jack and shit about the seals. also, i could go cheaper, but not keeping it power steering. anyone swap a power rack for a non-power? if so how does it drive... etc. i'd rather keep it power cause i'm lazy. haha.

[1993SE]

do you mean the boot cracked and broke?

[whoa5oh]

if it's the inner seal you're better off buying a new one, manual racks suck unless it's a drag car, and if it's the boot it can be fixed easily

[Scooby]

Not sure where you are located but I can sell you a motorcraft rack for alot less than $300 if you want to go that way...

[J&SPolishing]

It has to be the inner seal, the boot is just a dust boot. Don't put a manual rack in it, you will hate it. I drove quite a few Fox bodies with manual racks, not so bad, but they were alot lighter. I assume this is on the car in your avatar. Use caution on Autozone and other chain store remanufactured racks, I installed one on a customer's car, replaced it twice under warranty before we went with a Ford unit.

[NoMo5o]

I actually have a rack out of a 2001 6cyl. I don't know if they are the same, Scooby?. but if you want to go that route we can work something out.

[Scooby]

Originally Posted by NoMo5o

I actually have a rack out of a 2001 6cyl. I don't know if they are the same, Scooby?. but if you want to go that route we can work something out.

6 Cyl rack is a different part number.

[whoa5oh]

probably a different power assit ratio for the 6cyl, since there's not so much wieght sitting on it to have to move the tires under

[einehund]

Thanks for the info. autozone is giving me $100 for the core, so i think i'm just gonna go with them cause if it does break, i got the warantee. it's not that hard to swap it anyway. besides, lets me work on the car in the garage.