Rack guide candidate???

[68ChargerJMP]

Well, I finally got my 880/906 lift finished on my '97. I had to take the fronts back off to raise the ring to the second notch(Tundra 5100). Sits nice and level now. May have to put a 10mm trim on each of the rears to get a little rake for carrying a load. Anyways, I took it yesterday to get an alignment, the mechanic says no can do. He says I need a rack because its loose on the drivers side. Said it moved when he moved the tire R/L, but felt tight when moving it up and down. He thought it was the ITRE, but its not. He said the TRE all look good. Thing is , my rack isn't leaking at all, no noises, no looseness that I can tell. Changing my shocks and springs fixed about 99% of the wobble shake in my steering wheel, but I can still feel a very little shimmy at around 70-75. Plus my steering wheel is a little cocked to the right when driving straight. I searched the site and came across the rack guide issue. Sounds plausible to me that this could be the cause. What do you guys think? Do the rack guide and go from there? Thanks in advance.

 

[St Runner]

Unless it is leaking you don't need to replace the rack, but why do you say it is not the inner tie rod? Pull off the boot for the inner tie rod and check for play. You have the old style rack guide so you can replace it with the newer version or simply adjust your old one to spec to see if that is the problem.

 

[repo]

Unless it is leaking you don't need to replace the rack, but why do you say it is not the inner tie rod? Pull off the boot for the inner tie rod and check for play. You have the old style rack guide so you can replace it with the newer version or simply adjust your old one to spec to see if that is the problem.

Adjusting it to spec properly involves disassembling the rack and doing it with no fluid in it. If you do anything to it still on the vehicle it's trial and error, the torque values are meaningless.

 

[68ChargerJMP]

I said its not the ITRE because the mechanic said they looked good. I assume he knows how to check them. I will probably replace them and the OTRE anyway, as they look to be OEM and I do have 225,000 miles. If I want to check the ITRE, you say to pull the boot back...Do I need to disconnect it from the OTRE to check it for play?

 

[repo]

Undo the large clamp on the left side and pull back the boot like he said, and check if there is excessive play up and down where it come out of the rack and attaches to the inner tie rod. If you need a new rack the toyota ones come with inner tied rods already attached, which are very expensive in themselves, so you would kill 2 birds with one stone. Then do new lower ball joints and outer tie rods which is not too big a deal. The other option is to replace or tighten the steering guide that is behind the giant hex nut in the pic which might tighten it up, but like I said it's sort of trial and error to torque it correctly unless you remove the whole rack, but a lot cheaper. Toyota changed them to a different design on the later 3rd gen years.

 

[RS Dude]

Undo the large clamp on the left side and pull back the boot like he said, and check if there is excessive play up and down where it come out of the rack and attaches to the inner tie rod. If you need a new rack the toyota ones come with inner tied rods already attached, which are very expensive in themselves, so you would kill 2 birds with one stone. Then do new lower ball joints and outer tie rods which is not too big a deal. The other option is to replace or tighten the steering guide that is behind the giant hex nut in the pic which might tighten it up, but like I said it's sort of trial and error to torque it correctly unless you remove the whole rack, but a lot cheaper. Toyota changed them to a different design on the later 3rd gen years.

Man, I am jealous or your rack! Would you reveal how much it cost?:thumb3:

 

[gamefreakgc]

Man, I am jealous or your rack! Would you reveal how much it cost?:thumb3:

I can answer for you. From Toyota, roughly $600 as of November. Sometimes a little cheaper if you are lucky.

To the OP, the rollers on the old ones do wear down over time but I'm not exactly sure how that would affect alignment (unless you have excessive play and the tech can't line up the steering wheel?). I don't know of any way to say for sure if that's the issue, I changed the rack guide on mine because it was visibly damaged but if yours isn't then it may be a waste of $60.

It might even be your steering rack bushings and not the rack itself. If the rack is moving it would definitely affect alignment. There's a good thread out there on how to diagnose it but here's the short version.

1. Jack up the front end of the vehicle so the wheels are off the ground.
2. With the engine running so you have steering, have a helper move the steering wheel back and forth in short motions.
3. Get under the vehicle and look to see if you can visibly see the rack shift side to side as the wheel is being turned. If no movement, it's good.

P.S. If your inner tie rods are shot you'll get some sloppiness/play when you move the tire back and forth, as if the tire was loose or something. If you shove the tire side to side, even with a new rack on mine it will "give" but it's not the same feeling.

P.S.S. These sort of steering issues are hard to figure out and are even more expensive to fix. Ask me how I know.

 

[repo]

Man, I am jealous or your rack! Would you reveal how much it cost?:thumb3:

I dont know I just got that off google images. I'm still on my original one at 201k.

 

[68ChargerJMP]

Gamefreak....I should have mentioned that I already have new poly rack bushings. The rack doesn't budge. He just said it had movement on the
drivers side.....so I guess what Im asking is ...If the TRE are all good, is it safe to say the worn bearing guide could be causing this movement that he felt?

 

[gamefreakgc]

Gamefreak....I should have mentioned that I already have new poly rack bushings. The rack doesn't budge. He just said it had movement on the
drivers side.....so I guess what Im asking is ...If the TRE are all good, is it safe to say the worn bearing guide could be causing this movement that he felt?

Maybe. It was causing a lot of steering wheel wobble before I fixed it. Some tech had cranked it down as far as it would go to try and get rid of the wobble and ruined mine by doing that.

If you can back it out (it can be a pain to get out if it's been overtightened) you can look at it. If the metal rollers are really worn down then it's worth a try. Just be sure to put matchmarks and count rotations before you take it out. If you do not put it back in the EXACT SAME as it came out you'll find yourself having to adjust it a half dozen times to relieve stiff steering (too tight) or even more wobble (too loose). Also, our guides (old style) have a protruding nut which make for easier removal. The new ones have a inverted nut, I had to get creative and buy a bolt that fit nicely to install the new rack guide.

Sure is cheaper than a new rack though! I had a feeling my rack was going bad since I had fluid leaking but tried it just in case. Ended up getting a new rack 12 months later when it failed on me.

 

[tyr0981]

Similar issues here, only the driver side tire is wearing uneven also, and only driver side is able to slide inside the giant rubber bushing, my small oil leak is helping to lube up that bushing also... first guess by the the alignment tech was the ITRE also, but my rack is about 2 years old so that's unlikely... i'm hoping my oil leaking onto the old bushing is the cause... i should have replaced the bushings when i replaced the rack, but i wasn't using the correct brain at the time :brick:

This is the giant bushing i refer too: