Well, after a couple of months of loose steering, I finally broke down and replaced my steering rack. This was after replacing the bushings and inner and outer tie rods without much success. This seems to be one of the weak points on the 3rd gen 4runners, though most people have luck just replacing the bushings.

The rack cost ~290.00 bucks, from an online site- there's essentially one company that runs about 6 different websites that look slightly different, but are essentially the same place. It took several hours to replace the rack, the worst part was disconnecting the two hydraulic lines. The fittings were a little corroded and in a real tight spot to remove. I ended up removing several brackets that hold the lines in place between the rack and power steering pump. This gave me enough slack to slide the rack out and get at the hydraulic lines. It seems to have tightened things up considerably, so I'm ready to get back on the trail again! Overall, it was probably a 3 bannana job, with a little help from a buddy it wasn't too bad at all.

 

That price for the rack is not too bad. I'd expected it to be more. Mine is closing on 120kmiles but I am glad it still seems fine. I don't have the time to go offroad much which will probably prolong it's lifespan.

 

I still think we should have replaced your ball joints while we were under there. You didn't even break any tools.

 

I didn't even bleed, which means I'll probably hurt myself twice as bad on the next job....

 

I think I spilled enough blood on your garage floor for the next couple projects.

 

oh gawd... this meshes well with Daryl telling me "ya' know, we should just replace the whole rack..." when I was at his shop a few weeks ago.

Dangit kids... more money to spend on things other than SPEED.

 

Hey Mark,

I'm an "expert" now at changing the rack, if you ever decide to tackle it yourself you can use my garage...

 

Hey David,

What setup did you end up using to the central mount bolt out (one on the right in the pic)?



I was hoping someone came up with some easy trick for it.

 

thanks man!

 

Well, I did end up taking the sway bar completely off, which gives more room both directly behind the rack, as well as on the left side where you need to disconnect the hydraulic line. Took both tires off (obviously), and disconnected all the clamps holding the lines in place. For that top nut, I used one of those ratcheting wrenches, though if I remember correctly I was able to get a breaker bar with a socket in there to get it loosened up.

 

okay, i have 100k on my 02' runner, i was just showing my skids off to a buddy and noticed heavy leaking from right by the front driver suspension... looked at it a little harder and noticed my power steering rack is leaking. toyota down here wants 1280 for just the rack, can i ask where you got yours for so cheap... and possibly a write up, or atleast more information on this?

 

Other than the hydraulic lines, the steering rack is pretty simple. I had help the first time I did mine, but really, whatever bolts you see, remove, there isn't anything tricky to it. Pulling the swaybar is a must, it definitely frees up some room.
We actually disconnected my lines from the power steering pump and their random mounting points, left them connected to the rack and pulled them out that way. It is much easier to remove them when the old rack is mounted in a vice on a work bench, rather than loose and laying under your truck.

 

with all the control arm bushings, all the ball joints, and steering endlinks and a new rack. went smoothly except for a deep cut right in my eyebrow and a deep cut in my finger. the rack was not as difficult as i thought, but i was not able to get the middle vertical bolt back in, and my tech friend was not able to either, the bolt wont go through the poly bushing sleeve. (ES kit not the daystar)

 

As far as where I bought it, I basically searched online, you'll pull up a bunch of sites which are essentially all being run by the same company, this was the place I went through:

http://www.carsteering.com/addtocart...l%20Models.asp

 

Where do you guys get the new bushings anyways? I think mine is due. Im a dumbass for not changing them out back when I had the steering rack laying on the ground for a week in the garage.

What are the signs of a wearing steering rack? I get some ding-a-ling sounds from it once in a while.

 

Mine was leaking, and making metallic metal sounds sometimes, my pump was gone too, so I can't tell if any of the whining was from the rack or not. I think some of it was.

 

This is a pretty good thread to read through:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/steering-rack-movement-sound-can-you-help-me-out-46028/

What's funny is that once Christian started that, it seemed like EVERYONE was having rack problems at the same time. Mine's still wonky.