I have some play in the steering wheel and have narrowed it down to the ball socket end of the drivers side tie rod.  I have an 87 syncro with power steering and I have replaced the rubber steering coupling discs and the tie rod ends.  I jacked up the drivers side front and pulled on the wheel at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and I get slight movement (about 1/16 - 1/8").  There is no movement on the passenger side.  So I unbolted the DS outer tie rod end to remove it from the knuckle and pulled in and out on the tie rod, and noticed the same movement.  This points to the ball socket on the inner end of the tie rod or as Scott Foss pointed out in a previous message, it could be the bushing on the end of the steering rack gear (http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0803A&L=vanagon&P=R18268).  I am hoping it is the tie rod and not the rack.  How do I diagnose the bushing on the end of the rack?
 
My main question is has anyone replaced the whole tie rod assembly without removing the rack from the van?  I really hate messing with those PS fluid lines.  I am concerned about bending the tab that keeps the tie rod from loosening where it connects to the rack (see pic at: http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/InnerTieRodEndDS.jpg/InnerTieRodEndDS-full;init:.jpg)  I have read in other posts that the tab is on the top of the rack and is hard to get to.
 
My thought is to disconnect the steering shaft from the u-joint and unbolt the 4 bolts that hold the rack to the frame so I can rotate it to access the bent tabs without disconnecting the PS fluid lines.  Has anyone successfully tried this before?

I will be careful to clamp to the steering rack gear and not the rack when removing the tie rod as mentioned in other posts about tie rods.  And I will be getting an alignment.  Just in case I have to remove a PS rack again, does anyone have a trick to minimizing the amount of fluid lost and/or making a mess when disconnecting the PS fluid lines?
 
TIA

David Hines

87' suby syncro

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