New England B.S. Thread

Not that bad at least for my truck. i would say about as hard as doing suspension. You have the two bolts that hold it in. buy a rack with inner already installed. use new outer TREs. Make sure the rack is indexed with center and remove the rack with the wheel straight and prevent the wheel from rotating. Other than setting the steering shaft straight the hard part is getting the fluid lines out. My froze so i had to disconnect the cylender end and rotate the whole line.

 

Not difficult, so much as expensive. Especially if you're not doing it yourself.

These are just ballpark #'s from memory from when I was a service writer, but a new rack's usually in the $400-$500 range, and a reman is usually about $100 less. The lines from the pump to the rack are usually rusted on in a truck that old, so you're getting new lines too, which run $75-$100 for the feed line and then usually $30-$50 for the low-pressure return line. The labor to replace the rack is generally 2-3 hours worth of labor ($200-$300, depending on the labor rate), plus the alignment ($70) and power steering flush ($75-$100) afterwards. So for a new Rack you're looking at $1000 pretty easy, IF they don't find any other problems while they're under there like bad tie rods, etc.

If I remember right, on a 1st gen they're fairly easy on a lift; they're right in front of the sway bar so all you have to do is unbolt the sway bar and drop it down, then unbolt the rack and the inner tie rods and it comes right out. But if you don't have a lift...forget it. It's a pain in the balls.

 

You?

 

Hm... Not worth it for me. Haha

 

My friend had a 1st gen V8 tundra, the rack rotted out. He bought a good condition used rack from a salvage yard, and we fought through installing in his driveway. It was a major PITA. once we got it in and went to hook up the lines, we found out it was from a V6 tundra, the lines are not the same.

He had it towed, and a shop put the right lines on.

 

Steering racks in general are a bitch to do in a driveway, regardless of vehicle/manufacturer, just because of where they're located. The only way to get at them is from underneath the car, so if you don't have a lift that means you're working on your back with extremely limited space and at awkward angles.

 

I have access to a lift. Just looking for a new toy to replace the evo when I decide to sell her.

 

find a tacoma x-runner

 

You could definitely do worse than a 1st gen 4x4 with a man tran and a new frame. I don't think I ever got mine stuck, and I took it places it really had no business being in.

 

Ugh...

 

Airtight y'all, steel or aluminum skids or a mix of each? Planning on getting them all minus the lca and rear diff from RCI as there will be a sale starting Monday and none of them require drilling.

 

Aluminum is nice because its lighter but it doesn't take a hit as well as steel does. Aluminum galls, dents and tears, steel.. well it just gets a knee scrape.

Granted enough of an impact anything will break/dent but with all the stupid things I have done in my truck the steel just needs touch up and its fine.

 

If you're planning on actually skidding with them, definitely go steel.

 

If you are going to play in the rocks......steel. If you are going for Overlanding maybe consider aluminum.

 

What are you thinking? Euro or JDM. Vintage or modern?


Side note: I can check off driving on two wheels off the bucket list. The Mazda is on the way to the shop.

 

Front wheels, rear wheels, or L/R wheels?

 

Wheeling in NE, steel. IMO the aluminum would only be good out west in the desert

 

You got me curious... pictures? Is your seat stained brown now?

 

What Mazda? And what happened?

 

Anyone ever bought anything from Sierra Trading Post?