(UPDATED w/PICS 04-18-10) Steering rack bushing band-aid

djui5 · **Joined:** Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:38 am **Posts:** 536

KJ in CO wrote:

some stupid clip.. to think that we might have to replace an entire rack & pinion for some stupid clip

I had one guy tell me he could fix it without replacing the thing. Not sure how true that is. Yeah, replace a whole rack for a single clip. Lameo :evil:

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:57 pm

wow

outstanding explanation and diagrams (the labels especially are very nice!)

KJ 119 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:57 pm

Excellent write up there.Hopefully this gets sticky'd somewhere.

tumanator · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:03 pm

I see what your talking about, the service manual has you drop the front axle, but that's to remove the entire gear. I've gone out and looked, and read this manual, and I honestly don't see why you can't just take that bolt out and replace the upper and lower gaskets without making it a 12 hour job. Obviously there's something I'm missing here because troy said it's a 12 hour job to fix. I'm just wondering if someone can explain this to me, cause from what I see and read I just don't get why it has to be so difficult.

phxtoad · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:20 pm

Well I think it comes down to work room. If you got the rack loose, you might be able to rotate it enough to expose the bushings. But unless they fall out easily, it'd be difficult to 'work' on them.

KJ in CO · **Joined:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:06 pm **Posts:** 346

The powersteering insulator bushings that you replaced with the rubber washers are actually sold at napa for $12.33 a piece. Dont know what the part number is, but it goes by that description. So, if yours do end up failing at some poin in time or you just wanna go back to the originals... Not too expensive

From the dealer they were quite a bit more a believe.

Xodius · **Posted:** Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:32 pm

OK so I checked out my bushings just a few min ago...and yeap same as drybones. On the pass side you can see it under the washer on the drivers side nothing...well there is a small tooth like piece sticking up but still...I suddenly remembered why I like doing all my own maintenance on my vehicles, lol.

KJ in CO · **Joined:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:06 pm **Posts:** 346

Xodius wrote:

OK so I checked out my bushings just a few min ago...and yeap same as drybones. On the pass side you can see it under the washer on the drivers side nothing...well there is a small tooth like piece sticking up but still...I suddenly remembered why I like doing all my own maintenance on my vehicles, lol.

Just a little help... I bought the bushings from napa and when to change out them out today as I installed my new lift. I noticed that the new bushings do not have the flanges on the top where everyone is having the failures. :roll:

Also, the new ones from the factory do not have said flanges. You do have to take out the entire steering rack to change the bushings and would be pretty time consuming. Since I had already fully completed my lift and this was last on the agenda, I tinkered around with it for awhile. After taking off both the bolts and moving the rack around a little to see if I could weasle out the bushings, I finally decided to put the bolts back and tighten everything up, without changing the bushings :roll:

. I noticed that when I torqued the bolts down, the movement in the steering wheel and popping noise has stopped. So, not to sure if you even need to replace the bushings if the flanges on the top are coming apart, cause neither of the new replacements I have found have the flange.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I dont see anything wrong with mine now and I have driven a good 70miles today.

djui5 · **Joined:** Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:38 am **Posts:** 536

Any chance you could put up a part #? Or did you just tell them you needed the R&P bushings?

KJ in CO · **Joined:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:06 pm **Posts:** 346

djui5 wrote:

Any chance you could put up a part #? Or did you just tell them you needed the R&P bushings?

I will put up a part number in the next day or so.. They are the power steering insulator bushings though.

KJ in CO · **Joined:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:06 pm **Posts:** 346

Part number for the bushings from napa is 274-9236.

phxtoad · **Posted:** Sun Apr 18, 2010 5:49 pm

Well here it is about 7000 miles later and I started to notice a bit more play in the steering. So I pulled the skid, removed the rack bolt and rubber washers I had installed way back when. Here they are:

The top rubber washers were in pretty good shape. You can see however that the upper steel washer was starting to punch it's way through, though.

The bottom washers were toast however. I took this pic after I sliced a chunk off one of them to use to pack the bolt sleeve. When removing the bottom washer I used some plyers and split the washer. It was still intact beforehand. As you can see both are cupped from the stress. Also the rubber on both the lowers was deteriorating on the inner faces - probably due to oil residue and the repeated cycles of movement and contact with the steel sleeve.

As mentioned I packed some rubber in the sleeve to firm it up. The rubber in the sleeve is disappearing more and more.

I installed four new rubber washers and tightened everything back up. Viola! Band-aid numero dos is up and running.

Still lovin this cheap fix!

TL

phxtoad · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2010 3:38 pm

Xodius · **Posted:** Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:52 pm

huntbuggy · **Joined:** Sun Dec 19, 2010 6:24 pm **Posts:** 91

Finishing up ARB install and doing cleaning, stripping and painting for the last bit - the air dam install at the bottom, noticed the rubber at the top of the steering rack bushing broken and sticking out on one bolt and receeding, dry and cracked on the other.

Will probably be in the same boat sometime and need to replace bushings... hopefully not rack just yet (pls, pls, pls - want to wait to do front diff regear before doing rack, seems a good time to have it all out)

But for now for the sake of discussion here - my fix for now was to back off the bolts a tad and put in a bunch of permatex gasket maker and line the original rubber up as well as possible. Let the stuff cure a bit and tightened back, then added a bit more gasket at edges with my pinky to make it all flush and keep air bubbles or overflow from happening.

Didn't notice any steering problem whatsoever before, but erring on the side of caution and will update here what it looks like in a few hundred miles.

It's ugly so no pics... unless you really need 'em. :oops:

XJMA · **Posted:** Mon Aug 20, 2012 2:45 pm

sorry to bring up this old thread but just wanted to thank phx for the tips, going to go do this tonight and be temporary before replacing the bushings entirely on the wife's KJ with 194k.

ihatemybike · **Posted:** Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:31 pm

FYI, replacing the bushings without removing the rack is possible. Think it was a control arm bushing press I used.

(UPDATED w/PICS 04-18-10) Steering rack bushing band-aid

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