Blew my steering rack!

[hotpony]

Woah guys, I was pulling out of my driveway today and as soon as I went full left wheel, the steering wheel bounced back and I heard a "SNAP", looked under the car and power steering fluid was pouring out of the rack! Upon closer inspection, it looks as though the steering rack exploded out the back, right underneath the oil pan on the backside of that line that goes into the center.

Anyone ever heard of this before? This is the first time I've seen one completely blow out of the casting! Yikes!

 

[Tape]

never heard of one Exploding but had to replace mine, got one from AZ for $189 an exact rebuilt replacement with LLT warranty.

 

[hotpony]

Yeh I've replaced many steering racks but I've never seen one blow out like that, maybe it's the solid offset rack mount bushings!?

 

[Tape]

glad it didn't happen while you were going 70 down a busy interstate!!!

 

[LaserRed01GT]

Woah guys, I was pulling out of my driveway today and as soon as I went full left wheel, the steering wheel bounced back and I heard a "SNAP", looked under the car and power steering fluid was pouring out of the rack! Upon closer inspection, it looks as though the steering rack exploded out the back, right underneath the oil pan on the backside of that line that goes into the center.

Anyone ever heard of this before? This is the first time I've seen one completely blow out of the casting! Yikes!

Wow, I have never actually seen the rack assembly or rack gear housing come apart. That is very unusual. Though, it is not uncomon for the inner rack seal and/or the plastic piston seal to give way on these.

Could it have been one of the transfer tubes?

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

 

[hotpony]

I'm going to pull it off right now and I'll post pictures asap!

 

[hotpony]

Alright so here's the pictures, looks like the passenger side motor mount is getting weak so with the torque of the motor it's rubbing on the oil pan, the offset rack mount bushings push it up just far enough to where it makes this possible, I got a set of new Energy Suspension motor mounts sitting right here, guess it's a good time to put them in Wanted to wait to get my LT headers but guess that just not possible, safety before performance!

 

[hotpony]

A pic of the bushings and oil pan

 

[Tape]

OK HotPony, you can tell us the truth. we won't rant you a left turn, I guess that's your story and your sticking to it

 

[mransr]

yikes...

good thing it didn't wear through the oil pan...that'd be a lot more expensive to fix

 

[LaserRed01GT]

Wow, it's a good thing your oil pan didn't wear through as well.

 

[hotpony]

AHah, yeh well I guess that full left turn (when the pressure goes all to the right of the rack), is the straw that broke the camels back ya know? Definitely a good thing it didn't wear through the pan, actually I took a good look at it just to make sure, but it's a steel pan and the rack is aluminum so thank the heavens for chemistry! You know these offset rack mount bushings don't even really make that big of a difference I don't think, and I have the bumpsteer kit, so maybe I can just go back to a set of polyurethane's while I do my motor mounts..

 

[blacksheep-1]

Try these and skip the rack bushings.
http://www.steeda.com/products/bumpsteer_kit.php

 

[hotpony]

Yeh, I got the bumpsteer kit already, and I can re-shim it to where I don't need the rack mount bushings, I think I'll reuse them anyways though, I got brand new polyurethane Energy Suspension motor mounts so that'll raise the motor a bit and they'll last a hell of a lot longer..

 

[hotpony]

Oh, by the way, I took the entire subframe out of the car today, just felt it would be easier to do the motor mounts this way, and then while I was at it, I decided to just go with longtubes, so the exhaust is off, just waiting for my LT's to come in, take a gander!

 

[blacksheep-1]

Well, while you're at it, nows the time to replace the front subframe with a light weight unit, You can't imagine the difference that will make in handling just by losing the weight off the front end.
Or maybe, get out the hole saw time.

 

[hotpony]

Yeh I was thinking about a tubular K-member, I actually had one but I sold it along with the extra parts I had... It was a D&D but I think something was cracked on it... I heard they're a real pain to get your alignment right after install? True?

There was somebody selling an AJE here on the classifieds that was for a FOX 4.6, I was thinking maybe I'll see if this will work by matching it up to the stock one...