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Topic: good news for those with a factory rack/pinion (Read 1574 times) previous topic - next topic

good news for those with a factory rack/pinion

I was messing around with my front end parts for the past few days off and on and i noticed something.

when you slide the boot off the rack / pinion and undo the inner tie rod end (BIG ASS NUT), there is an adjutment up in the nut to take up any slack in the pivit knuckle.  I was fooling with it cause i found some more slack up front and determined that it was also present in my inner tie rod end.
FIrst you have to loosen the tiny allen head set screws which pass the nut and lock into the pinion threads.
when you look up inside the big nut, there is a square hole.  Insert a 1/4 '' drive extenion in the square hole and rotate clockwise.  this is sort of a seating nut for the ball or knuckle pivit point.  when you do this,, all your slack is taken up with very little turning needed.

regrease everything and you should be set.


my bad news
i went to adjust the inner tie rod end on the pass side and they (SEARS) cross threaded the inner and i ended up causing some damage that forced me to pull the entire rack.  When i looked up inside the pass inner tie rod end, there was no adjustment.  thats when it occured to me that i remember my wife way back when had it replaced.  there was only a plastic insert in there instead of what i found on the driver side.

coug is down for now.

Re: good news for those with a factory rack/pinion

Reply #1 –
I wonder if that could fix all the play in my front end. My rack looks close to new, but the car rattles quite a bit going over simple bumps in the yard pulling up to my parking spot. When I was changing out the wheel bearings, I grabbed the passenger-side disc and wiggled it back and forth, and the inner tie rod pumped in and out of the rack quite a bit. (is that even close to normal with one side jacked up?)

Re: good news for those with a factory rack/pinion

Reply #2 –
not normal. mine was just a little bit but when you put the tire on,, it adds up to quite a lot.

just fyi,, if you slide the boot off, notice the large nut.  on the end there will be a few asorted holes.  one or a couple of them will have allen head screws to lock down that large nut to the pinion bolt.

loosen those before putting a large wrench on the nut.

you wont throw anythng out of adjument by doing this,, just remove the tie rod end from your spindal housing then go to it.

you should see that 1/4'' square hole i mention.  if you tighten up that metal disc way up in there, you slack should go byby.

grease up the nut on the inside as well as the pinion bolt / chamber.