Power to Manual Steering Swap Success
judebert
familEE
I just finished swapping the power steering rack on my '88 AWD wagon to a manual.
The members of this forum assured me that it would be a drop-in replacement, and it almost was. If a clutz like me can do it, anyone can do it.
There were a few variations between the racks.
The power and manual tierods are slightly different. There's plenty of space, though, so that's a wash.
The nuts on the tierod ends were tapered for the power rack, and flush for the manual. But it slipped in with no problem.
The body of the power steering rack is thicker (it has a larger diameter) than the manual rack. This can be a problem. First, one of the boots was split, so when we tried to replace it, we needed something to adjust the thickness where it clamped to the rack. No problem; we just cut the end off the split boot. Fit like factory.
The rack's thickness also dictates the size of the clamp that holds it on. That's a semicircular clamp with two bolts. There's a rubber split ring to prevent vibration. Since I was going from a larger rack/larger clamp to a smaller rack/same-larger clamp, I needed to pad the split ring or it would just wobble around, loose. I used the original power rack's ring around the manual rack's ring. Nice firm grip.
Everything else went in smoothly. The bolts going through the rack to hold it onto the chassis were identical in size and spacing. The input shaft was identical. The length was identical, at least so far as we could tell.
I'm not sure that a swap the other way would work so well. At the least, you'd need a new clamp to accomodate the thicker rack. And you'd want to make sure you got good boots, because you're not getting the manual rack boots on the power rack.
After I get the engine back in, I'll let you all know how it steers. Until then, I can only say that it was a smooth replacement, with virtually no complications.
The members of this forum assured me that it would be a drop-in replacement, and it almost was. If a clutz like me can do it, anyone can do it.
There were a few variations between the racks.
The power and manual tierods are slightly different. There's plenty of space, though, so that's a wash.
The nuts on the tierod ends were tapered for the power rack, and flush for the manual. But it slipped in with no problem.
The body of the power steering rack is thicker (it has a larger diameter) than the manual rack. This can be a problem. First, one of the boots was split, so when we tried to replace it, we needed something to adjust the thickness where it clamped to the rack. No problem; we just cut the end off the split boot. Fit like factory.
The rack's thickness also dictates the size of the clamp that holds it on. That's a semicircular clamp with two bolts. There's a rubber split ring to prevent vibration. Since I was going from a larger rack/larger clamp to a smaller rack/same-larger clamp, I needed to pad the split ring or it would just wobble around, loose. I used the original power rack's ring around the manual rack's ring. Nice firm grip.
Everything else went in smoothly. The bolts going through the rack to hold it onto the chassis were identical in size and spacing. The input shaft was identical. The length was identical, at least so far as we could tell.
I'm not sure that a swap the other way would work so well. At the least, you'd need a new clamp to accomodate the thicker rack. And you'd want to make sure you got good boots, because you're not getting the manual rack boots on the power rack.
After I get the engine back in, I'll let you all know how it steers. Until then, I can only say that it was a smooth replacement, with virtually no complications.
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