North American Turbocoupe Organization

Hey - My kiddo's '87 TC is leaking out of the input shaft on the R&P.... Any tips on replacing the whole unit?? I saw Auto Zone has them for less than a hundred so I figured it would be the eaisest route..

Replace the tie rod ends when you do it. Make sure it is the 15:1 ratio 2.5 turns lock to lock. They are listed as the sport rack. make sure you center the rack and keep the steering wheel centered when reconnecting the shaft (you will need 2 people for this). When installing the tie rods, just try to get the toe-in close. Be sure not to cross thread the steering lines or you will have a leak. Refill the power steering fluid and without starting the car work the steering slowly left and right refilling the reservoir as needed. Get it to an alignment shop and get it aligned properly. Good luck.

I just finished one last week. Like zbird said, be sure to get the 2.5 turns lock to lock. Even these come in 2 flavors, Ford and TRW design. The difference is in the bushings where the rack mounts to the body. The Ford type uses 2 bushings for each of the 2 mount points. The TRW uses 1 large bushing each mount point. Which one you need depends on the size of the guide tube welded to the cross member that the rack mounting bolts go through, the Ford design is larger. I recommend you pull the old rack off and take it to Auto Zone to be sure you get the right bushings, they come with the rack as do new inner tie rod ends. I would replace the outer tie rod ends while you got it all apart. Count the # of turns on each end when you screw them off the old rack and put the new ones on with the same # of turns, it will get your alignment close enough to drive {carefully) to the the alignment shop.
Before I hooked up the steering shaft coupler to the rack input shaft, I temporally hooked up the rack and tie rods and spindles, put the wheels on and got it centered up straight ahead as best I could by eyeball. Then I locked the steering wheel straight and loosened the rack again so I could couple it to the steering shaft. That got the steering wheel pretty close, only off about 10 deg from centered when I test drove it.
Hit the mount bolts with BP blaster front and back, mine were pretty rusty a impact driver is a big help too. It took about 5~6 hours to do it alone, but I also replaced the power steering pump at the same time. As per zbird, an extra set of hand will help a lot, there is very little room to hook up pressure lines, take your time and make sure they start straight before tightening them.

Thanks for the help guys....sounds like a lot of common sense is involved here. Is it possible to get the rack down before taking the lines off?? I noticed the pressure lines were flexible?? Seems like it would almost be eaiser to remove/install them with the rack off??

You cant get the rack completely off with the lines attached, but you can pull the mounting bolts and slide the rack forward on the mounting sleeves several inches to make removing the lines easier.

Hey "lonstar7" where did you get the power steering pump from? Autozone? I will be changing mine soon and I need a good replacements. Any suggestions?

Quote:Originally posted by Thor Power:
Hey "lonstar7" where did you get the power steering pump from? Autozone? I will be changing mine soon and I need a good replacements. Any suggestions?

Yes, got it at Auto Zone. I think it was around $40 without the reservoir + core charge.

Quote:Originally posted by lonstar7:

Quote:Originally posted by Thor Power:
[b] Hey "lonstar7" where did you get the power steering pump from? Autozone? I will be changing mine soon and I need a good replacements. Any suggestions?

Yes, got it at Auto Zone. I think it was around $40 without the reservoir + core charge. [/b]

I just bought an 87 TC that came with a new in the box remanufactured power steering pump without reservoir that I will sell for $30.00 including shipping.