New OEM Steering Rack- How Much Movement is Normal?

[Zhehan]

As much as i don't want to, i'm going to swap out the oem bushings with Poly ones..

This level of movement just makes me uncomfortable.. It's almost like there is no bushing in there at all...

Btw i did recheck everything and all the bolts were at torque spec... It's just how these bushings are out the box...

Go with Whiteline if you want the least amount of movement. Energy Suspension bushings are softer in this application. I've ran both and I'm running the Whitelines because the alignment shop said there was too much movement when I had the ES bushings installed.

I remember the first set of ES rack bushings that I installed way back in 2004 being firmer than the last set I installed in 2022. After the shop told me they couldn't align the truck with that much rack movement, I took a look for myself and the D bushing was the culprit. Lots of movement from that area. I purchased a set of the Whiteline bushings and only replaced the D bushing. Problem solved. When I had both of the D bushings out of the truck, I could compare the firmness or Durometer of each bushing and the Whiteline is definitely a lot firmer.

W12978 Whiteline Steering - rack and pinion mount bushing
– Whiteline USA

I also installed a set of their front lower control arm bushings while I was re-doing things.

Hope this helps.

 

[SocalRunner15]

Go with Whiteline if you want the least amount of movement. Energy Suspension bushings are softer in this application. I've ran both and I'm running the Whitelines because the alignment shop said there was too much movement when I had the ES bushings installed.

I remember the first set of ES rack bushings that I installed way back in 2004 being firmer than the last set I installed in 2022. After the shop told me they couldn't align the truck with that much rack movement, I took a look for myself and the D bushing was the culprit. Lots of movement from that area. I purchased a set of the Whiteline bushings and only replaced the D bushing. Problem solved. When I had both of the D bushings out of the truck, I could compare the firmness or Durometer of each bushing and the Whiteline is definitely a lot firmer.

W12978 Whiteline Steering - rack and pinion mount bushing
– Whiteline USA

I also installed a set of their front lower control arm bushings while I was re-doing things.

Hope this helps.

Wow...if the ES bushings had that much movement, imagine how the OEM's would have been lol

I'll definitely look into the Whiteline's

 

[SocalRunner15]

Hey Guys,

Just to update you all- I finally got the chance to change out my steering rack bushings. I decided to put in the Energy Suspensions Polyurethane bushings..

The huge amount of movement is now gone....although i have to say that i don't notice any real difference in handling... It was fine before and its fine now. I just wasn't comfortable with how much the steering rack was moving.

As far as removing the oem bushings...it was pretty easy once i got some lubricant in there...i then used a prybar to leverage them out...

It seems that the new steering rack bushings are pretty darn soft.....so especially if you're offroading a lot, you might want to change them out to poly...