Just got an alignment today and the shop told me that my steering rack was shifting. I figured that it's a worn bushing, but I gotta confirm this weekend. In the meantime, I've been searching around for a polyurethane steering rack and pinion bushing. Does anyone make them?
Aftermarket steering rack bushing? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter dwai
- Start date
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SuperPro PolyU Blue/Purple colour bushes are better than original in my opinion. P/N 2987
- Thread starter
- #4
Are you referring to this?
SuperPro Bushing Kit for TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 200 Series - 2007-on
I wonder if you guys have the same steering rack as us in the US.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll have to do some research on the fitment on a USDM LC.
Yeah, sorry mate. 100 = p/n 2987. 200 series is p/n 3770. These are the only non genuine bushes I would recommend that are superior to original. A bit of fun cutting the old ones out, drill rubbers out, punch out the centre, hacksaw the outer pressed sleeve carefully without damaging the rack housing too much, then a bit of lube and in they go. PS remember the method in which you remove the rack from the vehicle for reinstallation.
- Thread starter
- #6
Thanks man! I'll might end up buying a set of SPF3770K from ebay and have it ship to the US. They claim that it will fit a LX 570 which has the same 3UR-FE motors we get here.
Yeah, they're just mirror imaged. It's an easy job to do, and put Loctite Never Seize Lube or your equivalent on all the spines of the colomn for the next guy!
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
Being polyurethane bushes, how do you grease them after a year?
I’ve replaced quite a few Toyota steering rack bushes with PU over the years and have returned them all to rubber for squeaking and tearing.
@dwai, I would get another opinion on your rack bushes. Brand new steering racks move quite a bit when you turn the wheels. Claiming the bushes are bad is a common shops excusse for being unable to align. Also remember that most shops don’t have anyone doing your alignment that knows anything much more about alignments than to “get all the blocks green.”
Just my small opinion, but if I was a betting man (which I am), I’d bet your rack bushes are fine.
I’ve replaced quite a few Toyota steering rack bushes with PU over the years and have returned them all to rubber for squeaking and tearing.
@dwai, I would get another opinion on your rack bushes. Brand new steering racks move quite a bit when you turn the wheels. Claiming the bushes are bad is a common shops excusse for being unable to align. Also remember that most shops don’t have anyone doing your alignment that knows anything much more about alignments than to “get all the blocks green.”
Just my small opinion, but if I was a betting man (which I am), I’d bet your rack bushes are fine.
Urethane steering bushes are the easiest bush on a Landcruiser to access. 19mm socket, 19 mm ring. Wrraapp. Remove bush - grease. Don't even have to remove the rack, it can be done lying on the ground.
Mr Taco I'm a betting man too, my vehicles travel 40-45000 miles per year, on beaches of fine sand and salt, the bushes i have recommended are not moving or squeaking after 3 years and have never been removed for greasing after initial installation. Not many things on LC can be improved on as "standard", but that's just my opinion. Try checking upper and lower control arm ball joints for squeaking
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Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
I’m glad your having good results. For me with the American climate of Beach driving, desert driving, and snow roads and the road salts we use in the upper part of the country, urethane doesn’t do too well when dried out.
We have our opinions, but after over 15 4x4s with close to 700k between them that I still maintain, I’m not a fan... unless I can grease them. Hell I have to replace Icon control arm poly bushings on my buddies FJ every 2 years from tearing and that with grossing ever 6 months. My urethan steering rack bushes on my old ‘96 Toyota pickup tore and squelched after 3 years. My brothers that I did the same thing after 2 years living up north.
I even remember when I worked on restoring classic cars and we would do urethane everything. We did one early bronco and did urethane body mounts. The owner wanted to use his and drove his year round, after about 4 years he came back with complained about a small squeak and Lin story short we switched ever bushing back to rubber. I like urethane, if you can grease it.
We do use some nasty crap to keep road from freezing though.
Irrelevant comment, those component are sealed in grease. We are talking about bushes that doesn’t have a way to keep gunk out.
We have our opinions, but after over 15 4x4s with close to 700k between them that I still maintain, I’m not a fan... unless I can grease them. Hell I have to replace Icon control arm poly bushings on my buddies FJ every 2 years from tearing and that with grossing ever 6 months. My urethan steering rack bushes on my old ‘96 Toyota pickup tore and squelched after 3 years. My brothers that I did the same thing after 2 years living up north.
I even remember when I worked on restoring classic cars and we would do urethane everything. We did one early bronco and did urethane body mounts. The owner wanted to use his and drove his year round, after about 4 years he came back with complained about a small squeak and Lin story short we switched ever bushing back to rubber. I like urethane, if you can grease it.
We do use some nasty crap to keep road from freezing though.
Irrelevant comment, those component are sealed in grease. We are talking about bushes that doesn’t have a way to keep gunk out.
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- Thread starter
- #12
Thanks for the input. I'm heading down to socal this weekend, gunna have a friend who works at an alignment shop take a look at the issue.
- Thread starter
- #13
Did you have to take the whole rack assembly out to change the bushing? I've seen LC 100 guys just do it without having to pull the whole rack assembly out.
I had to have my entire steering rack replaced last year. It was a 12-16 hour job. Not easy...
I've finally gotten my steering rack out of my '08 without having to take the engine out.
Been working at this for the last 2 summers but didn't have a second vehicle so I always had to have everything back together by the end of the day and had been hoping I would be able to access the bushings without removing the rack.
I could get about enough acess to the 2 forward bushings (rear bushing halves popped out very easy) by disconnecting the lines bolted to the front of the rack with 2 fasteners (left lines connected to ports on the rack) removing the 3x 19mm mounting bolts, nuts and washers, inner tie rods (needed a 48mm crows foot, don't think there's a universal or over-the-tie rod tube style tool out there that is large enough for the flats) and disconnecting the lower intermediate steering shaft (remove bolt and persuade the shaft to slip off the rack) to slide the rack around enough.
Unfortunately, this wasn't possible due to the corrosion welding the outer sleeves to the rack; I live in Nova Scotia. Maybe somewhere outside of the rust belt someone might have a truck where the bushings will slip out much easier. A couple weeks ago I got access to a loaner vehicle and was able to park the truck for long enough to remove the engine bay components to allow the rack to come out.
Basically, the oil and coolant needs to be drained, the sway bar,
radiator, fan and oil cooler need to be removed (requires 2 replacement o-rings for reinstall).
Only need to disconnect sway bar at frame, but disconnecting links from lower arms does make it easier, the bar gets in the way while laying under the truck to work. I also broke the welds on 2 of the 4 blind mounting nuts inside the frame. Had to use a recip saw to cut the 2 bolts - Diablo blades cut like butter. Fished out the nuts to reuse. Having 20mm-ish tabs welded on nuts and piece of wire. Wire to position nut inside frame and start on bolt, tabs to keep nut from spinning by hitting side of frame rail.
Then there's some brackets for the oil cooler and power steering lines which need to be undone as well as removing the feed and return lines from the ports on the rack and of course the steering shaft needs to be disconnected. Once this is done, the rack slides out pretty easily by shifting it slightly to the passanger side and then pulling the driver side forward to clear the engine, followed by the passanger side (had the rack at full lock to passenger side to get access to the lower steering shaft bolt and forgot to return it to centre before I used a hammer and 8mm rod to tap off the shaft. Be careful not to damage the plastic dust cover and key so you can reinstall the shaft to the proper position.)
Lookup the Febest replacement part on eBay or somewhere and you will see what the factory bushings look like so you know what you're working to get out. I used the Superpro kit, but the design is different from the factory design.
Since the factory bushings were seized in good, I ended up using a torch to heat the inside of the inner sleaves for a minute to soften the rubber enough to use a screw driver to push each half out. I originally used a recip to cut off the exposed sleeve flange from one half and then a 1 1/8" hole saw to cut out the inner sleaves (outer sleeves will protect the rack from the saw). I had to torch and dig out some rubber to expose the inner sleeve halves. I used a dremel fiberglass cut off to score the flange of the outer sleeves, my recip to score the inside of the sleave and then use a cold chisel to separate the flange and "peel" it back off the inside.
Been working at this for the last 2 summers but didn't have a second vehicle so I always had to have everything back together by the end of the day and had been hoping I would be able to access the bushings without removing the rack.
I could get about enough acess to the 2 forward bushings (rear bushing halves popped out very easy) by disconnecting the lines bolted to the front of the rack with 2 fasteners (left lines connected to ports on the rack) removing the 3x 19mm mounting bolts, nuts and washers, inner tie rods (needed a 48mm crows foot, don't think there's a universal or over-the-tie rod tube style tool out there that is large enough for the flats) and disconnecting the lower intermediate steering shaft (remove bolt and persuade the shaft to slip off the rack) to slide the rack around enough.
Unfortunately, this wasn't possible due to the corrosion welding the outer sleeves to the rack; I live in Nova Scotia. Maybe somewhere outside of the rust belt someone might have a truck where the bushings will slip out much easier. A couple weeks ago I got access to a loaner vehicle and was able to park the truck for long enough to remove the engine bay components to allow the rack to come out.
Basically, the oil and coolant needs to be drained, the sway bar,
radiator, fan and oil cooler need to be removed (requires 2 replacement o-rings for reinstall).
Only need to disconnect sway bar at frame, but disconnecting links from lower arms does make it easier, the bar gets in the way while laying under the truck to work. I also broke the welds on 2 of the 4 blind mounting nuts inside the frame. Had to use a recip saw to cut the 2 bolts - Diablo blades cut like butter. Fished out the nuts to reuse. Having 20mm-ish tabs welded on nuts and piece of wire. Wire to position nut inside frame and start on bolt, tabs to keep nut from spinning by hitting side of frame rail.
Then there's some brackets for the oil cooler and power steering lines which need to be undone as well as removing the feed and return lines from the ports on the rack and of course the steering shaft needs to be disconnected. Once this is done, the rack slides out pretty easily by shifting it slightly to the passanger side and then pulling the driver side forward to clear the engine, followed by the passanger side (had the rack at full lock to passenger side to get access to the lower steering shaft bolt and forgot to return it to centre before I used a hammer and 8mm rod to tap off the shaft. Be careful not to damage the plastic dust cover and key so you can reinstall the shaft to the proper position.)
Lookup the Febest replacement part on eBay or somewhere and you will see what the factory bushings look like so you know what you're working to get out. I used the Superpro kit, but the design is different from the factory design.
Since the factory bushings were seized in good, I ended up using a torch to heat the inside of the inner sleaves for a minute to soften the rubber enough to use a screw driver to push each half out. I originally used a recip to cut off the exposed sleeve flange from one half and then a 1 1/8" hole saw to cut out the inner sleaves (outer sleeves will protect the rack from the saw). I had to torch and dig out some rubber to expose the inner sleeve halves. I used a dremel fiberglass cut off to score the flange of the outer sleeves, my recip to score the inside of the sleave and then use a cold chisel to separate the flange and "peel" it back off the inside.
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No problem. Let me know if you have any more questions. I was going to try and do a write up after I finished (hopefully finish it off this week after some other parts arrive) but then I saw this thread and thought I'd just do a quick overview and try to address some main points. Really helps if you have a FSM or access to TIS online, but there's also another thread on here for the FSM who may be able to help you out on that.
