any PS rack rebuilding kits available anywhere these days ? 

I have,  let's see..
6 I think..
3 running in vans, and 3 tired ones.
There's no risk to installing a kit in a rack that is no more than a core right now anyway. Well worth taking a chance on a kit.  

anyone know of any kits ?
Scott
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Rodgers 
  To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans 
  Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
  Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 5:22 PM
  Subject: Re: Advice about power steering problem

  When I bought my '85 GL years ago, the PS rack was dead. Leaking all over. I had a friend who was the chief mechanic and a specialist on VW's at the VW dealership in Anchorage, AK. I bought an official VW  PS seal kit from the parts department  and he installed it at home as a favor and didn't charge me for it.  I drove that repaired PS rack for 100,000 miles and never had a lick of trouble from it. It was still working well when I sold the van.

  Installing a PS seal kit is always a bit iffy. Same with any "repair kit". It may work, it may not. But it might be worth the try. I had three alternators down at the same time. Checked out the replacement and given I needed three the cost was horrendous. So, I opened up the back of the Alternators, checked the inside, lightly sanded the copper inside, installed a new brush kit, and away they all went. No problems. BUT, that might not have worked. The wear may have been out of limits and the repair consequently might not have worked. But you have to try.

  John

John Rodgers
Clayartist and Moldmaker
88'GL VW Bus Driver
Chelsea, AL
Http://www.moldhaus.com
  On 4/15/2011 6:31 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote: 
    sounds weird all right. 
    I have a used PS rack that seems just a tad bit bind-ye going straight. 

    I was reading in Bentley about that .. 
    not going to look right now . 
    but what I remember is they had a few tests .. 
    fluid pressure from the pump .. 
    and it wasn't many steps before they got to 'replace rack' .. 

    oh right ..it was make sure the pressure part and pump were working.. 
    measure turning effort at steering wheel if I'm remembering right .. 
    if that was above speck - 'replace rack' . 

    Like they got to that step pretty quickly ..no adjustments on the rack or 
    anything. 

    I suppose you could crack the 'in' pressure line to the rack , at the rack, 
    and fire up the engine .. 
    make sure fluid comes out of there pretty nicely under pressure ( if you 
    don't have some sort of pressure gauge ) . 
     If the pump is pumping well.. 
    and the lines are not blocked.. 
    and the PS give no 'power assist' ....it sure points to the rack itself , to 
    me. 

    how much are those Mavel racks  in dollars ? 
    one of these days I need to buy a good new rebuilt one. 

    Used pumps make me nervous ..I had an old used pump blow out a perfectly 
    fairly fresh looking and good rebuilt rack about 6 months after I started 
    driving it, or sure looks like that's what happened. 

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: "Ken Wilford" <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET> 
    To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> 
    Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 4:08 PM 
    Subject: Advice about power steering problem 

      Dear List, 

      I have been installing power steering racks for a very long time. 
      However I have run into a strange problem with one I recently installed 
      for a customer. 

      Customer had a leaking rack.  I put a new one on.  The fluid in the 
      system looked fine and I changed the filter to be sure there would be no 
      problems. 
      Power steering worked great for less than 200 miles.  Then it just 
      stopped working.  There is no leak whatsoever.  The customer brought it 
      back and I tried a new power steering pump thinking that the old one had 
      just died.  There were fine metal shavings in the fluid this time.  The 
      new pump did nothing.  So now I am thinking that the rack itself is 
      messed up.  However I have never heard of this problem.  I checked the 
      Bentley and they don't really seem to indicate that a heavy steering 
      problem was a rack fault.  Has anyone had a similar experience in the 
      past?  It is a Maval rack and I installed one on my own personal van 
      about the exact time that I did this for customer.  The one on my van is 
      working great.  I have sold many of them over the years and they are 
      good.  If anyone has any experience or advice I would appreciate the 
      feedback. 

      -- 
      Thanks, 
      Ken Wilford 
      John 3:16 
      www.vanagain.com 
      Phone: 856-327-4936 
      Fax: 856-327-2242