Power Steering Rack Rebuild - Part 2 of 3

[RYU]

Like!

Soooooo.... I have all the bearings here finally. I had have one custom made. I have enough to do several more EPS racks.

I had to buy a press so that delayed me a bit. So far, I have two of the three bearings installed into Valhalla's rack. It's looking so good.

Thanks Nero and Ryu for agreeing to send me your manual racks. I look forward to getting them here. You won't be disappointed. I am getting a vendor page together for Prime I appreciate all of you guys.

I am confident that Valhallas rack will put back together by Saturday and tested on Tuesday.....hopefully. Its looking great.

 

[Valhalla]

I'm smiling :smile:

 

[d1 guy]

We have your rack 50% assembled. Its looking good. I'll post some more pictures early into the week.

 

[RYU]

Mine is on its way to you. Packing it took longer than uninstalling it!

I also sent over a set of new external poly bushings I had lying around. If you can press those in i'd appreciate it!

 

[RYU]

Also, upon reinstall it will be important to align the input shaft with the steering column u-joints in the center position.

Anyone have any pointers on how to properly do that?

 

[d.n]

Mark it with a sharpie before you remove it :biggrin:

 

[Valhalla]

Regan - In the Service Manual page 17-67 is a snipet on how the steering wheel should align. I've also asked D1Guy to center my rack after he tests it. It shouldn't move at all in shipping.

 

[d1 guy]

Valhalla, yours will be tested on my car. Ryu and Nero's will be tested on my bench. I am building a test bench with a mock steering setup. I have hopes of being able to do the power racks this way as well. As far as lining these up though.....I can get close. I know from experience that it may not be exactly in line when you install it, so just plan on having to remove the joint and clocking it to the left or right a notch or two. I tried eye balling it and marking it on my car....still took me adjusting it three more times even though it was marked. The steering wheel just kept being off one or two notches. This alignment isnt hard to do and can be done under the steering wheel inside the car.

 

[Valhalla]

That is what I was planning to do but I wanted to spend as little time as possible corckscrewed in the driver's side footwell, upside down and standing on my head. You can always adjust your toe-links but I wanted to get as close as possible before the alignment.

 

[jond]

It's good to know someone is doing this. It's an expensive part to just throw away and replace.

 

[shawn110975]

well I will send you my manual rack if it ever goes bad. knock on wood

there is some play but I dont notice it my mech pointed it out.

 

[RYU]

I also sent along the end links still screwed in at the factory position. If somehow those needs to be removed/replaced can you also kindly mark where how far they were screwed in so I at least have a good "ballpark" while I drive it to the alignment shop? Thanks!

I'm excited!

 

[Valhalla]

Hey Regan, on page 17-71 there is this item;

9) if the tie rods were removed, install the tie-rods on the right and left rack ends and screw them in until the threaded section is 11mm (0.43 in.) in length.

This should be a close setting for just driving straight to the alignment shop. Mines only 3 miles away.

 

[Valhalla]

Update -

Talked to D1Guy at length as more progress was made. Here is the latest;

Good news - The brearings make all the difference in the world. So much so that D1Guy is going to pull his rack back out and install them on the rack he just repaired! This will give the car original OEM manual rack like feel with power assist. His thoughts are these bearings are wearing out around 40 - 50k miles so if your's is sloppy or loose, he can fix it.

Bad News - After testing my rack and EPS brain together, they both work. The light goes off on the dash meaning they are both operational. What doesn't work is the torque sensor. So that has to be pulled apart, the jelly removed and to trace the electrical breakdown on those two circut boards.

Good News - You will all get to follow along. If there was ever a thought to rebuilding an entire EPS rack, here it is.

 

[d1 guy]

Just to clarify, Valhalla's rack and brain are both fine. I installed it into my car and the EPS light would not go out. I then swapped his torque sensor because it was throwing a code 23 which is a voltage problem TRQ1 and TRQ2. This is inside the Torque sensor. I used a torque sensor that I had laying around off of a used eps rack with low miles. I then started my car up and Valhalla's rack worked like a charm.

So, with that said, it is confined to his Torque sensor......yay. We are going to repair that now. Its looking good so far.....

The difference in a properly rebuilt rack and a non rebuilt rack with 80k miles on it is amazing. My car has 58k on it and I know it will make a huge difference in mine and my car has never been tracked or anything.

 

[UnhuZ]

Hi,

just out of curiosity, what is the price of this complete rebuild, and thurn arround time??

My EPS system is working flawless, and never had a issue, but i notice more play as the miles pile up... i bought my car with 82.000 miles 6 years ago, and i now have 130000 miles... so the play increase is very notorious in these 50K i did.

Thanks,
Nuno

PS - As i live in Europe, the ship time usually is 1 week each way through USPS Priority.

 

[d1 guy]

Hi,

just out of curiosity, what is the price of this complete rebuild, and thurn arround time??

My EPS system is working flawless, and never had a issue, but i notice more play as the miles pile up... i bought my car with 82.000 miles 6 years ago, and i now have 130000 miles... so the play increase is very notorious in these 50K i did.

Thanks,
Nuno

PS - As i live in Europe, the ship time usually is 1 week each way through USPS Priority.

PM sent

 

[d1 guy]

As soon as I get valhalla's rack back to him, I will setup a vendor profile. The response has been amazing. Thanks everyone for following.

 

[Nero Tenebre]

Good work. I am glad someone has stepped up to fill this void for NSX owners, everyone will need this service at some point!

 

[clarkm]

My 91 auto power steering has experienced some misc. malfunctions over the years. Almost never happens in summer. As soon as weather cools I start getting a little jerking feedback in the steering wheel followed by EPS light and shutdown. Clock fuse reset always works, for a while....Which eps units interchange with what years? Automatic trans. units are unique to autos, correct? What years interchange? Thanks for any information. Car is far less fun without power sreering.

 

[d1 guy]

Just an update for all of those following this thread. Valhalla's rack is almost complete. We have assembled everything except the torque sensor. It is now disassembled and we are currently diagnosing it. I do know the problem and what portion we have to repair, so it should be interesting to see how difficult it is.

As for Nero, your rack is totally apart and the new parts are on their way.

As for Regan, I havent opened your rack up yet. I just ordered everything new like I did for Nero's, so yours will go super fast once I get the parts in.

Thanks again everyone and like I mentioned before, as soon as I get some happy customers with good feedback after they receive their racks back, I will open a vendor page.

 

[d1 guy]

My 91 auto power steering has experienced some misc. malfunctions over the years. Almost never happens in summer. As soon as weather cools I start getting a little jerking feedback in the steering wheel followed by EPS light and shutdown. Clock fuse reset always works, for a while....Which eps units interchange with what years? Automatic trans. units are unique to autos, correct? What years interchange? Thanks for any information. Car is far less fun without power sreering.

Hi and thanks for the inquiry. Your problem sounds like your bearings are worn out and causing lots of feed back. This could be due to old "caked up" grease inside there as well...but Im certain the bearings are worn. One of these racks I received to restore/rebuild, the grease inside it was so deteriated that it looked and felt like peanut butter. Yes, all of those bearings were bad in that one.

You are correct that the automatic EPS racks are in fact different from the manual racks. The autos have two seperate plugs that come off of the torque sensor. If needed, WE CAN CONVERT AUTOMATICS to work with a manual rack, but we cant convert a manual EPS to work with an automatic. Once you convert an automatic to work with a manual car.....it cant be reversed. As for what interchanges, Im not exactly certain. I know some of the early cars had different EPS control units, but the racks look essentially the same. Feel free to PM me some pictures of yours and I can tell you if yours is like what I have been working on lately. Eitherway, Im confident that we can fix it. Thanks and PM for pricing as well.

 

[NSX91]

I have a 91 auto ( I know, I know, lol!), 54k steering has play and is notchy. From my reasearch it seems there is a bearing/bushing in the bridge that joins the two shafts...what would you charge for that repair? Thanks, Eric

 

[d1 guy]

PM sent. Thanks.

 

[d1 guy]

Nero, your rack is complete. It will ship out on Monday Happy (upcoming) New Year! Ryu......yours should go out by the end of the upcoming week.

Valhalla, your torque sensor is difficult. It wasnt a ground, but we have a very good idea where the problem lies. Hopefully yours will go out by the end of this upcoming week as well.

Thanks everyone for following.