Tight steering rack
 

Hey everyone

so I depowered my PS rack, cut out the metal seal, removed the seals and welded the pinion shaft. I go to put everything back together tonight and the rack is even tighter than before?

Before I took anything apart, the rack moved within the housing somewhat easily. Now, it takes quite a bit of force to get it to move, and that was before i reassembled the pinion part.

Has anyone run into this before? I think there was a seal remaining in the rack housing, but in the MotoIQ article they left it in there, so I figured I would do the same. I havent installed this in my car so I'm not sure what it feels like (I'm working on a spare rack I purchased, one of the JKC racks, newer model I believe)

I removed the piston that you're talking about. I have no wheel on my hub right now and with the front end in the air I can turn the wheels with one hand. Sounds to me like there is something binding. What did you torque the pressure bolt to? The one that forces the pinion onto the rack.

Your pinion could also be warped from the welding...

I feel like there might be a seal in the housing that might be binding when i put the rack back in. It was tight even without even putting the pressure bolt in or the pinion. once i put the bolt in on the passenger side of the rack, it straightened it out and moved easier but it was still tight.

I dont think the pinion is warped, it seemed to be turning pretty smooth when i put it in its housing

I would pop it out and remove the last seal. IIRC it's just a c-clip.

OR before you do that loosen off the bolt that give tension to the pinion. If it moves fine then, then you had it too tight. Mine is torqued to about 10ft/lbs

I'll give that a shot. I think I might just have to disassemble it again. Hopefully I wont have to press the rack out again.