Robert:
Thanks for your concise and practical advice. Your decscription is pretty
much how I have visualized the job. Thanks for the left/right tightening
procedure tip too. I do believe that I should replace the steering u-joint.
I'm sure it is a contributor to the notchy steering that I've experienced
The new unit looks much more substantial than the original. I'm anxious to
compare the old mounts to the new ones.
I'll be sure to report the results.
Best regards,
Walt Fogle
Robert wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I wouldn't bother disconnecting the lower steering u-joint when you
>replace the steering rack bushings. I would suggest that you set the
>steering to straight ahead and then loosen both clamps. Don't remove them
>both... then remove one of the clamp thingies and yank off the bushing.
>Install the new bushing and then install the clamp, loosly. Then to the
>other side.
>
>Now here's the "trick". Cock the steering wheel to full lock left. Go to
>the right-side clamp and tighthen it. Note: there's a plate that you
>access from the bottom of the rack - you can pry on this while you tighten
>the nuts to get the rack clamp "tighter".
>
>Once you get the right side clamp tight, turn the wheels to full lock
>right and tighten the left site.
>
>It's pretty easy.
>
>Now, I'll warn you that oftentimes the clamp nuts are frozen solid and
>when you try to loosen the nuts the clamp u-bolt snaps. In other words,
>it's not a bad idea to have a spare clamp thingie handy when you do this
>job.
>
>As far as the u-jiont is concerned, it's a pretty straight forward job.
>The only "trick" is that the bolt needs to be removed completely from the
>u-joint before you can seperate it from the rack or the lower steering
>column. You can loosen the u-joint "clamp" on the splnes by carefully
>applying some force in the slot that is the clamping space on the u-joint.
>Just don't go too deep into the slot or you can damage the splines on the
>shaft (or the rack). DO NOT DAMAGE THE SPLINES.
>
>:-)
>
>If you do, then you have to waste a lot of time "cleaning them up" so you
>can get things back together again.
>
>regards,
>rml
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>Consultant MIT unix-vms-help |
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