cackalak han

Bob,

Yes, I did realize that this was for the steering rack bushings. I got the link for the wheeler website about the steering rack bushings on the first page. Per the side discussion about the sway bar bushings is what I was asking about.

Bob_98SR5

ah, my bad.

but yes, that is the correct kit. though if wheelers says its coming, id take that with a big 3 week grain of salt. suspension.com has it now. but you gotta know your sway bar diameter, so have that ready

edit: just ordered and shipped today. $11 for the steering rack bushing kit (identical to what wheeler's is offering including the 14mm center bushing) and the sway bar bushing kit was $13. shipping is what fedex actually charges too. how's that for service? a nice lady by the name of lisa (who is knowledgable about parts---i made that sexist error! ) helped me with the order.

bob

cackalak han

Bob,

What is the diameter of the sway bar? Is the bushing kit polyurethane? If they can ship it out, I'll order from them instead. Thanks.

Gt4r97

A whole day of hard labor, tons of patience and common sense my 4runner steering rack bushing project is done! Congratulation my self!

MTL_4runner

Congrats man, does it feel any different?

Gt4r97

Thanks, Jamie. But hold on, I'm taking a short break! Man, I work grave yard shift so when i got home this morning, I sprayed PB Blaster down there. My plan is to take a nap before doing it but the thought of not getting it done before daylights go out made me proceed with the job. I can't believe myself-I didn't even took my breakfast and lunch! Well, I hope this will worth all my effort and PAIN!..or else

Gt4r97

Yeah, I took the Runner for spin yesterday and noticed my front end a little bit firmer now. It didn't fix one old problem though - a faint jerk feeling on the steering wheel when hitting a bump. So far so good and I can say it worth the labor and pain and peace of mind since my center mount bushing is torn.

BajaRunner

Well, I just did mine this weekend. To say the least, Im not too impressed. I don't feel any sort of difference.

Also, for whatever reason, it was a PIA to get the old bushings out. I ended up just using a torch on them and melted them out. Still took a good hour though.

I left the steering rack on, might have been easier to take it off, but, I didnt want to take the tie rods out of the spindles. Thats another good hour of using a stupid gear puller that doesnt fit right anyways.

Eh. Its nice to have it done though so I dont have to worry about "What if"

sschaefer3

I never noticed any difference either. That is why this part is not in the lift kits I put together.



If you guys want to try something do this before and after the bushing swap.

Start your truck and have someone else steer the wheels, look under the truck while this is happening and watch the rack shift back and fourth.

Change the bushings and do it again. See any difference? I never did.




Obviously stock rubber bushings will go bad over time, don't mistake maintenance for an actual improvement.

There are also two kits the Energy Suspension one that includes the big D bushing and the Daystar kit that does not. The Daystar kit does how ever have the correct sleeve for the stock bolt. The big D bushing also does not hold the rack from moving side to side so apparently Daystar did not include it.

Also FWIW the sway bars kits from Daystar are not “stocked” items and those can take up to 3 weeks to be made. They only make what is ordered.

RunnerUp

my power steering rack is leaking and today on the interstate i noticed the truck was swaying as if it had a uhaul trailer on it... i know i have to replace my rack, im wondering what else i should replace when i fix that... truck has 110k miles and last 110k miles have had some rough miles in there... truck sqeaks alot up front and makes all sorts of cool noises, i also plan on ordering the panhard drop and differential drop kit when i do the power steering so hopefully i will see a huge difference in the way it performs, so any ideas what i should replace? i.e. rack bushing, sway bar bushing, tie rods?

MTL_4runner

When I did my steering rack bushings the rack was visibly moving side to side when you turned the wheel (not excessive, but clearly visible). I doubt you would feel much of an improvement otherwise ulness this was the case. I did notice that my steering was tighter on the highway for sure and it makes any vibrations you had, much more pronounced (so you'll know right away if your alignment or tire balancing is off at all).

Getting them out isn't that hard, but some of the nuts/bolts are really torqued down so air tools will help there (I used a big IR 1/2" gun to remove everything). The center attach bolt was THE biggest PITA to get out and to put back in (especially since the rack doesn't really slide back into place enough to get the bolt started and there is no space to work above the steering rack while on the truck.....you need arms like Mr Fantastic!). To get the center one in, first I snugged down the bolts on both sides of the rack, second I screwed in the bolt in upside down to align the bushing (ie from underneath into the welded nut, instead of from the top), third I loosened bolts on both sides, fourth I retightened them and finally I screwed in the center bolt into the bushing from the top (part of a floor jack handle works great as a cheater bar when retightening). I tried the clamp method too, but I just couldn't get enough pressure on the rack to align the bushing no matter how hard I tried.....the way I did it took a bit of time, but worked great and no need for extra tools. Also if you had to drill out the center bushing like I did, make sure to give it a little extra clearance (I used an air die grinder and just kept cut/fit/cut/fit etc until it just slid through).....I made mine very close and it made the install job on the bolt that much harder. Getting the old bushings out isn't too bad with a really big pair of channelock pliers. I tried the torch method too, but it was just too easy to catch the rubber on fire and it turned everything into a sticky gooey mess (would be fine if you took the time to remove the rack from the truck)......so unless you are pretty skilled with a torch, the pliers are faster (you can use the torch to heat them a bit first which does help.....heat the metal part of the bushing only, not the rubber and have a bunch or rags handy for smothering in case the rubber does decide to go up.....I don't want to hear about someone losing their truck after a fire while changing steering rack bushings).