hi David,
just left you a voice mail message, returning your call.
if the toothed gear rack moves up and down, or fore-aft in the bushing at
the end of the power steering rack/whole unit..........
I believe those bushings are only replaced during a rack rebuild by
companies that do that

I have a good used PS rack for sale .
Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Hines" <dmh1314@MSN.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1:22 PM
Subject: Tie rod replacement (not tie rod ends)

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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