Reflections On Replacing My Steering Rack Options

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So, analyzing an annoying vibration coming from the front end of my '74 2.0, proved to be bad inner tie rod bushings on both driver and passenger sides. Shying away from replacing those inner tie rods without a lift, I remembered I had in storage a rebuilt steering rack, complete with inner tie rods, lower steering shaft, hockey puck, and dust cover and decided to replace the whole enchilada.

Naively, I presumed I would just unbolt the outer tie rods, unbolt the steering rack and pop in the new one. No way. I quickly learned that the auxiliary carrier had to be removed first, a piece that is mated to the A-arms, necessitating removal of the torsion bar adjusters and the torsion bars themselves, for clearance. When you are under there, it looks like the aux carrier and the A-arms are one solid piece, but they are not, and must be persuaded to separate from each other with some brute force (hammer and large screw driver). Then, when you think you are home, you find that the brake master cylinder is in the way. Grudgingly, you undo the lines and get the master cylinder out of the way, and in my case buggering up one of the connections, requiring a replacement line be purchased.

So, rebuilt steering rack installed, torsion bars and aux carrier back in place, brake system back together and bled, new outer tie rods installed (because my pickle fork tore up the originals).and test drive successful. Car drives straight and true and solid. Vibration gone. The only thing I had to do post test drive was to move the steering wheel one spline to the left to get it exactly centered.

All in all, this job seemed harder than removing my engine to do seals, clutch, flywheel, etc. etc., but well worth it. Nobody in my area will touch this car for repairs like this and if they did, they would probably have wanted a boatload of money to do it.

One other thing, the manuals out there, including the factory manual are worthless for this job.

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