A little before christmas my fiero broke down (clutch arm broke and some brake problems, all better now). During the time I was fixing it my car was sitting for just a little over a month I believe. During this time the ebrake seized up, which is now free and also the steering became much...harder. It feels like something is binding it up. I greased all the fittings up front with no change. The column is not binding up because there is a little play in the wheel before the wheels start to turn and the column rotates no problem in that little play. So the only place left is the rack. I have been told that by someone who has replaced his rack twice that they can fail at the boots and seals and let in road salt and corrode up. Makes sense since this happened after my car sat. He also payed 400 and 700 for his racks??!!! eek! One thing he mentioned was that he had heard of people drillin carefully placed holes into the rack, clean it out, put in zerks fittings (sp?) and grease the rack up and never have a problem with it again. I guess what I want to know is has anyone here done it, have any feedback on it, or know where to put the fittings?
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Im not a steering rack expert at all but theres a boot on each side of the rack, what if you pulled both boots back and turned the wheel left and right and checked for any corrosion. If there is some just take some fine sandpaper and get rid of it and grease it back up.
now that is a thought. I disconnected the dampner and it helped a lot, though off the car the dampner feels fine. The rack is still a little stiff and on a turn the wheels wont turn back to center on their own. The car work I don't mind too much but the wisconsin weather....
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12:26 AM
2000RagTop Member
Posts: 3999 From: Sussex, (Milwaukee) Wi. USA, Earth Registered: Jun 2003
lol. the cold wind. When I am working outside that crazy wind greatly reduces the time I can spend outside. It doesn't help that I live on top of a tall hill. It is always windy where I am. lol. The rain we had a while back didn't help much either.
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12:39 AM
2000RagTop Member
Posts: 3999 From: Sussex, (Milwaukee) Wi. USA, Earth Registered: Jun 2003
Have you checked your tire pressure, especially if you are using low profile tires? I have found that low profile tires can look alright and have very little air in them. This will increase your steering effort tremendously. The car will also want to follow grooves in the road more than normal. Just a quick idea. There also is a pre-tension adjustment in the steering rack, but it usually needs to be tightened, not loosened, unless someone did not adjust it properly.
i had the front tires off the ground and the steering was still hard. I dont have low profile tires. on a 14 inch rim that would just look a little weird. lol I do think this is corrosion. So no one has heard of or done this mod?
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10:41 AM
88Ironduke Member
Posts: 955 From: Willingboro, NJ Registered: Mar 2002
I just changed out the rack in my 88 coupe today for a breakage issue (independent front wheel steering mod). What I found out suprised me. The large boot from the steering column to rack had come off and was alowing water to get in top of the steering input shaft. We had some really nasty weather this past weekend, lots of rain, bitter cold temps and really nasty driving condtions. I found water all thru my steering rack, I suspect the water intrusion led to freezing and an eventual failure of the rack itself. I figure the boot has been off for a while as this didn't happen overnight. I think the water has been working on the rack for some time. I didn't realize how bad it was untill put the new rack and went for a drive. WOW is all I can say. The car steers so easy again, I forgot what it was like.
Just my .02 cents 88Ironduke
------------------ Pilots with out maintainers are just pedestrians with a cool jacket and sunglasses. I.Y.A.M.Y.A.S.
Don't neglect to check ball joints. If a ball joint is freezing up it will have the exact same symptoms that you have and have nothing to do with a steering rack. I have a 1962 Merk Meteor hot rod and only one stiff ball joint nearly froze up the steering.
Put up the car on jack stands and take off the wheels. Remove the cotter pins, rod end castle nuts, and use a pickle fork and hammer to seperate the steering rod ends so as to separate the steering rack from the spindles. Be ready to get two new rubber covers for those ends as you may damage yours taking them off.
You can then turn the spindles and rotors/brakes back and forth to see if your ball joints are moving smoothly or are starting to freeze up. If they move easily it is probably your rack.
I wouldn't rebuild or buy a new one. I would go to pick a part and get one cheap. They don't fail that often and most in the junk yards are probably good. You will just have to remove the steering column from the splines just inside the front floor boards and then take off the steering rack with, I think four bolts. Easy enough.
Best to you.
Gary
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12:03 AM
2000RagTop Member
Posts: 3999 From: Sussex, (Milwaukee) Wi. USA, Earth Registered: Jun 2003
After taking apart my old rack at FoxgapFieros place we relaized that anyone can put a set of grease fittings into thier Fieros steering rack. What we found found that failed was the bearing the holds steering input shaft in place. Sorry I don't have a digital or I would have pics. FYI the Fiero Store replacement racks have 2 grease fittings installed,
At your own risk. A simple and very easy fix is to add a grease fitting to the point where the gear train meets in the rack. I asume the easiest way is to pull the plastic tub that the spare tire sits in. This gives direct access to the top of the rack. The little black metal cap that sits over top the input shaft assembly is where to put the grease fitting. The best option I think is to remove the cap (7/8" wrench) and spring. The spring maintains the pressure needed inside the rack and does not seem to be adjustable, it will not go flying out. With the cap removed there is no chance of metal shavings going inside the rack. Drill, install grease fitting and reassemble in reverse order. Sounds like a Haynes manual. I figure 30 minutes and most of that is spent messing with the plastic tub assembly. A grease fitting could be added to the passenger side bushing, but I don't think in any way it would be a show stopper to blow it off. The bushing is plastic, its going to wear greased or not.
Just my .02 cents. 88Ironduke
------------------ Pilots with out maintainers are just pedestrians with a cool jacket and sunglasses. I.Y.A.M.Y.A.S.
Cool!! so it was not just a rumor. awsome. I am currently contemplating rebuilding the whole nine yards as I have replaced just about everything else in my front end (for maintenance really, not all of it needed it) I figure I may as well replace/rebuild what is left to keep everything good. But, I am also looking for a relatively quick fix. so that grease fitting is also a good option. I guess I have some desition making to do....
Ok, well this weekend I finally had time to work on the think. I am not sure what "cap" you were refering to 88, and the build threads I was looking at before had to do with the 88 rack, which seemed to be pretty different than mine. Since I didn't want to screw up the only rack I had i didn't drill anything or do much in taking it apart. I took the boots off and put as much greese as possible in there and worked it in further. the corrosion was almost nothing, except where the steering column shaft enters the rack. I really don't think that this has anything to do with my balljoints either, one side is brand new and the other was in good condition. So here is the problem again. When I steer, the wheel does not want to return and it is hard to start the wheel turning from when it is still. I took the dampner off and that made the steering much easier, but again the steering does not want to start moveing and still does not want to strainten out. this problem happend after the car had been sitting for a while. If it helps, I had it towed on a dollly just befor it went into sitting mode. Is there a problem in the column? I just dont know. I am running out of time and money. Please help.
Well, this isn't conclusive, by any means, but I think I may have narrowed the problem to the steering column. This was done via a sound test. When I turn the wheel, it doesn't want to, doesn't want to, then bam, it turns. When it reaches that point (overcoming static friction) then it turns pretty well, and makes a, oh i donno, a friction sound. like a sudden slide. and it resonates some in a way, my guess is throughout the shaft. That what it sounds like anyways. As far as I can tell, that sound is comming from the steering column. So what the heck went south, I donno. I am not at my car right now so i really don't remember, but if anyone could tell me tonight if there is an easy way to disconnect the flex linkage under the dash, I would appriciate it so that I could go out tonight and disconnect it there and test for sure if that is it, and at least my mind would be at some what ease, unless of course it isn't the problem. Then I will have nightmares of intermediate shafts, racks and pinions, tierod ends, balljoints and the such. I guess I should refrase that previous statement. I'm not neccessarily looking for an easy way to disconnect the flex joint, I just want to know how easy it is to determine weather or not it is feasible to go out in the rainny darkness tonight and get work on the thing, or to just work on stuff in the house. Thank you to those who have helped me so far, and I appriciate the help. I thank all in advance who will offer anything more.
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09:17 PM
PFF
System Bot
88Ironduke Member
Posts: 955 From: Willingboro, NJ Registered: Mar 2002
The felx joint under the dash has a an 11mm (I don't think it was 10) that atached the upper end of the flex joint to the column. You may have to drop the column partially down to get it to come loose. Once loose the wheel should rotate freely with out any binding. If it binds, change it out, Jazzman does rebuild work on here pretty reasonably IIRC.
If the bind is not in the column jack the car, remove wheels and disconnect the outer tie rods from the spindals. With the column re-connected and the tie rods disconnected the wheel should rotoate smoothly from lock to lock. If the rack grind/binds or just doesn't play well it more than likely is shot. If it is smooth with the tie-rods disconnected then your problem is at a spindal. One of the ball joints could be a problem. But in any case you have isolated out each component group.
ok. so. After the testing, it was the rack. The new one is amazing. For those interested, here is what I did to replace the rack. I put the car up on ramps. Then I dropped the column and let it rest against the seat. this made it easy to disconnect the steering shaft from the inside of the car. I then removed the frame braces and then proceded to snap the first bolt off that holds the rack on. so, I removed the spare tire tub (dont forget about the rivets that hold the break line on) then I didn't even bother trying to torque the other bolts out. I heated them all up with a torch and they all came out easy as pie, even the remains of the broked one came out easily enough. I would recommend doing this first and not bother trying it otherwise. Penatrant did nothing. they were soaked days before. Be careful with the heat not to scorch the rubber mounts. I then disconnected the tie rod ends from the knuckle, which I was lucky to be able to do with the wheels on. One side had been apart before so it came off easily enough, but the other side was tougher. there wasn't much left of the cotter pin holding the nut on, so since I wasn't able to pull it out I backed the nut off and just sheered the pin. Then I hit the top of the stud with a hammer untill the tie rod end popped off. You might be able to get a pitman arm puller in there with the tires on, but it wouldn't be easy. I then removed the rack with the tie rod ends attached. I lined up my rebuilt rack next to it and put on the new tie rod ends I got from rodney. by taking careful measurements from the old rack I was able to match the alignment perfectly. When I got it back together and test drove it on the road, the alignment was just as perfect as before. I did have to by jam nuts, as they werent supplied with either the rack or the tie rod ends. They were fine metric thread if I remember correctly, but I don't remember the size. I then reassembled everything and it runs great. Thanks everyone for the help. Me and my fiero greatly appriciate it.
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01:06 AM
Whuffo Member
Posts: 3000 From: San Jose, CA Registered: Jul 2003
I lined up my rebuilt rack next to it and put on the new tie rod ends I got from rodney. by taking careful measurements from the old rack I was able to match the alignment perfectly. When I got it back together and test drove it on the road, the alignment was just as perfect as before. I did have to by jam nuts, as they werent supplied with either the rack or the tie rod ends. They were fine metric thread if I remember correctly, but I don't remember the size. I then reassembled everything and it runs great. Thanks everyone for the help. Me and my fiero greatly appriciate it.
Do yourself a favor and get your alignment set. It's almost impossible to do what you describe and get it right - it's much more likely that you got it close enough so that it'll drive straight, but off enough to wear your tires out very quickly. Really; just 1/100 inch difference in the length of the rack / tierods is enough to put it out of spec.
no, I'm perfect jk. I will be putting on two new balljoints, 4 new bushings and the such to the drivers side when the weather gets better, so I'm gonna hold off spending moola on an alignment untill then. It doesn't really need the new parts, but I did the passenger side so I might as well do the drivers side.
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12:33 AM
2000RagTop Member
Posts: 3999 From: Sussex, (Milwaukee) Wi. USA, Earth Registered: Jun 2003
jk. I will be putting on two new balljoints, 4 new bushings and the such to the drivers side when the weather gets better, so I'm gonna hold off spending moola on an alignment untill then. It doesn't really need the new parts, but I did the passenger side so I might as well do the drivers side.
