Suspension New Steering rack.. Questions

limp

wrap a little cheese around it and its a done
Oct 4, 2020
4,001
2,253
153
Florida
Updating my 83 to a newer steering rack.... I pulled a ZK rack out of an 03 car at the wreckers.... While cleaning it up I did find a " rebuild" stamp on it though...

According to the you tube videos, while taking off the old inner tie rods there should be a " rivet lock" of sorts... None I can find and I cannot get the nut loose and I do not want to really reef on it and break something...

Is the orange washer a bump stop???

Are the inner tie rods on that tight??? Are they lefty loosies or reverse threads?? Some pics...... TY all

UPDATE..... Uh oh..... Pretty sure its not good if oil comes pouring out after you remove the boot/bellows??
DSCF0730.JPG
 
Last edited:
  • Sponsors (?)


The SN95 tie rod ends don't use a roll pin to secure the toe rod end onto the rack. That's only done on the fox cars. You can see here in this pic that the fox cars use three 1/8" inserted in this spot.
1616089863288.png




The orange washer is a steering rack limiter.


No fluid should come out from where the boots are. It should be completely dry in there. If it's leaking, the rack needs to be rebuilt.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
So are the inner tie rods normally hard to get off a SN95 rack?

it takes some muscle. How ive done it is to extend the rack on the side with the teeth and I use and adjustable wrench on the main shaft closed down on the flat. Then I use a wrench on the tie rod end. Once they break loose, they come off by hand
 
it takes some muscle. How ive done it is to extend the rack on the side with the teeth and I use and adjustable wrench on the main shaft closed down on the flat. Then I use a wrench on the tie rod end. Once they break loose, they come off by hand
Thanks... I think the best way would be to leave the rack on the car when you loosen the inner tie rods...... I lag bolted the rack to my work bench then took my 18" crescent to it... One of the reasons I asked is the instruction videos for the fox body's say to just snug them, then use the roll pin... I guess the 99-04's are "torque the ell " out of them.. I also wanted to make sure they were Lefty loosie, but I found that in a video...

Would the steering rack limiter have come from ford new?? Or was this an add on? Is this what is used to limit steering with large wheels or tires??
 
Would the steering rack limiter have come from ford new?? Or was this an add on? Is this what is used to limit steering with large wheels or tires??

Yes, those steering rack limiters are OEM from Ford. I have a 2004 GT rack and it has the same orange limiters on it. The 2004 Cobra rack I have had a different limiter on it that was a little thicker.

For my car, I took it off and ran the fox style 91-93 limiters which are a little thinner. 1 limiter worked fine for my needs.


Torque spec on both fox and SN95 inner tie rod ends is 60 ft-lbs. The fox use the roll pins as additional insurance but they aren't necessary really. I don't use them when I install fox tie rod ends. Torque to spec and send it. The tie rod end is not really going to back itself off and if it did, you would notice it as the alignment would start to drift. It would cause the wheel to start to toe out and the car would begin to drift and pull heavily. At that point it should be a red flag, but I've never seen that happen. I just give it a good snug-a-dug and send it. I recently pulled my set off and still needed to chuck it up and use a wrench and some muscle.

BTW if the rack is off the car, you can just stick a bar or 36" long extension through one of the mount holes to hold the rack in place while you use a wrench on the tie rod end. I try to avoid twisting the rack shaft which is why I put a wrench on the rack itself, but I've done it both ways.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Yes, those steering rack limiters are OEM from Ford. I have a 2004 GT rack and it has the same orange limiters on it. The 2004 Cobra rack I have had a different limiter on it that was a little thicker.

For my car, I took it off and ran the fox style 91-93 limiters which are a little thinner. 1 limiter worked fine for my needs.


Torque spec on both fox and SN95 inner tie rod ends is 60 ft-lbs.

Watch the LMR install video.. They say finger tight?
 
I need to order new boots/bellows and inner tie rod ends for this 03 steering rack... Any recommendations on a specific ( like oem ford?) name brand for these parts?