Allignment issue after steering rack replacement (2 Viewers)

[rohitash]

Folks,

I replaced the steering rack a few weeks back and took it in to be aligned. The tech could not align the toe to spec on the passenger side as he maxed out on the adjustment.



There is plenty of adjustment available on the driver side.



Can this be solved by just turning the steering wheel towards one side and then adjusting the tie rods on both sides to get a 'new center'. I can then pop of the steering wheel and put if back centered properly? Or do I have to disconnect the steering column from the rack, then center the steering rack and reattach to steering column? Is the 'lock to lock' movement physically limited bu the steering rack or is there something in the steering column that limits it?

 

[AimCOtaco]

I would make the change at the rack connection to the steering shaft.

What's up with those shock mounts?

 

[2000UZJ]

I would make the change at the rack connection to the steering shaft.

What's up with those shock mounts?

It seems like that rack is clocked towards the driver side. Would adjusting the splines on the shaft correct this? Seems like the OP is trying to correct a mis-aligned rack with the toe adjustments.

 

[rohitash]

So what do we mean by a misaligned steering rack? Could the mounting of the rack itself faulty? From what i can figure out the steering rack pretty much mounts only in one position once both side bushings and mounting bolts are in place. Or am I mistaken here? I do want to correct the root of the problem. If the mounting position of the rack itself cannot be changed then I'm assuming what @AimCOtaco is suggesting would be the way to correct it. Disconnect the steering shaft, 'clock' the steering rack towards the driver side and then reconnect the steering shaft to the rack.

Those shock mounts are from Japan - designed to center the travel on the AHC shocks after re-indexing the lift.

 

[2000UZJ]

Yes, at first glance/guess it appears that the splines on the steering shaft going into the rack may be off. The wheel may be straight, but the rack may be slightly clocked to the driver side. I would center the tie rods (each having 50% of the threads used) and put it on the alignment rack, turn wheels dead center and wheel dead center. Then adjust toe accordingly.

 

[rohitash]

Great - thanks. I understand this part. Now maybe a naive sounding question. Is it possible to do this without disconnecting the steering shaft? Ie back out the tie rods so that there is 50% of the threads used on both sides, use the steering wheel to center the tie rods in the rack, then remove the steering wheel and put it back straight. Is there something inherent in the steering column design that create a 'natural' center or is it more or less freewheeling when not connected to the rack? Looking for some education here.

 

[Skidoo]

Best to do adjustment where column attaches to rack. Reindexing steering wheel may throw off turn signal reset and you also don't want to have steering wheel over rotate in one direction and break the airbag spiral cable. So yes spiral cable in column needs a 'natural center'.
What did you end up doing?

 

[rohitash]

I ended up doing a bit of both. Disconnected the steering column at the top coupler, then adjusted the tierods till they had almost the same no of threads showing and eyeballed the toe-in. Reconnected the steering shaft with the steering centered as much as possible. I still needed to take the steering wheel off and then set it back again to correct it a little bit. Got the allignment done and the numbers look good. I had to reset the Yaw rate sensor as well as the steering angle sensor as my VSC was going crazy - but all is good now including the turn signal reset.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I ended up doing a bit of both. Disconnected the steering column at the top coupler, then adjusted the tierods till they had almost the same no of threads showing and eyeballed the toe-in. Reconnected the steering shaft with the steering centered as much as possible. I still needed to take the steering wheel off and then set it back again to correct it a little bit. Got the allignment done and the numbers look good. I had to reset the Yaw rate sensor as well as the steering angle sensor as my VSC was going crazy - but all is good now including the turn signal reset.

How were you able to reset the Yaw rate sensor?

 

[Supra88]

I ended up doing a bit of both. Disconnected the steering column at the top coupler, then adjusted the tierods till they had almost the same no of threads showing and eyeballed the toe-in. Reconnected the steering shaft with the steering centered as much as possible. I still needed to take the steering wheel off and then set it back again to correct it a little bit. Got the allignment done and the numbers look good. I had to reset the Yaw rate sensor as well as the steering angle sensor as my VSC was going crazy - but all is good now including the turn signal reset.

Im going through this right now with a shop that installed the rack off center. They finally understand the issue, but think they have to disconnect the entire rack to get the steering shaft off and indexed properly. Am I hearing that this is not the case? Also, I'm assuming the TREs need to be disconnected to get equal thread count on both sides? I need to "steer" these guys in he right direction so they don't cause more damage.

Thanks for the help.

 

[rohitash]

You do not need to remove the steering rack to disconnect the steering shaft. There is a linkage towards the bottom of the shaft (just above the steering rack itself) that you can disconnect. Then disconnect the TREs, center the steering rack so that the TREs will have approx equal nof of threads on both sides when reconnected. Then approx center the steering shaft (ie the spiral cable insode the steering wheel should have good slack etc). You will have to remove the steering wheel to check this. Then reconnect the steering shaft to the rack. Get allignment done and finally you may have to remove the steering wheel correct its positions a few degrees. Definitely reset the Yaw and Steering position sensors after doing this. Otherwise you will have the rig trying to "correct" what it thinks is a slide because the yaw sensors are off.

 

[Supra88]

Thanks for the reply. Can you describe the mechanism that hold the steering shaft to the rack splines? I'm envisioning the it slides over the splines, but that must not be the case, otherwise you couldn't remove it with the rack in place.

 

[DirtDawg]

I had the same problem when I originally installed my steering rack. I could not have rotated the shaft without pulling the rack... but my rig also has a little rust on it.

 

[rohitash]

I seem to remember not disconnecting at the bottom of the steering column (where it goes over the splines) but somewhere midway on the column. I'll check under the hood when I get back home tonight and try and some some pictures.

 

[rohitash]

Sorry - ignore the previous image. Look at this

 

[Supra88]

Okay so there's an upper sliding yolk that should allow you to index the steering?

 

[DirtDawg]

Okay so there's an upper sliding yolk that should allow you to index the steering?

Yes, if you an get it to move at all. My steering shaft barely had any corrosion, but those slip yokes are an area susceptible to rust. I could barely get mine to disconnect at the slip yoke to remove.

 

[Supra88]

I tried disconnecting it when I installed my DT Headers and it was a battle I chose not to fight. I'll let the shop choose their preference since they got themselves into this mess. I really appreciate everyone's help with this matter.

 

[87warrior]

You can rotate the intermediate shaft without pulling the rack to realign the shaft to the rack. I had to do this when I installed the rack on my 99. The intermediate shaft can be slid up (bolt needs removed from the sliding joint as indicated above) if the upper splines are lubricated. When I pulled my original rack with 250k miles the intermediate shaft came out with the rack since it was securely corroded to the rack.

The easiest way I found to center the rack and align the intermediate shaft was by trial and error. I set the toe by tape measure and made sure both tie rods had the same number threads exposed. Then I reconnected the intermediate steering shaft and went for a test drive. The steering wheel was riding to the right when in a straight line so I loosened up the intermediate shaft, slid it up and then moved it one spline to the left at the rack. Once the steering wheel tracked straight I had a professional alignment done.

 

[Supra88]

Update: I took the hundy back to the shop for the 3rd time. They attempted to adjust the TREs to get the rack centered. I'm not sure if they can't count, but the TREs were still 2-3 threads off from one another. Anyway, the truck now pulls to the left. So, I decided that I could no longer stomach going back to these guys, so I took the hundy in for an alignment. They shop just called and said "everything is in spec, but the truck still pulls to the left, sorry we can't fix it". WTF? Anybody experienced this before?