'03 Steering Rack leak

I was under the truck the other day checking the frame and I noticed a drop of fluid on the inner tie rod boot on both sides. The rack has been seeping for a while now, but it looks like it's progressed to an occasional drip.

I haven't looked around much for what others have done with leaky racks. I see there are all kinds of cheap aftermarket racks out there though. What's the popular opinion on these? I'm leaning toward the OEM, which is significantly more money, but I have a good deal of faith in Toyota parts. It also looks like the racks come with inner tie rod ends, so that begs the question "Do you change out the outers too, and maybe the lower ball joints?" Don't shoot, but the inner/outers were replaced with Moogs about 2 years ago (in a moment of weakness). LBJ are original.

The mileage is 160K+. The frame looks terrible, but appears to be solid. There are no other noticeable leaks except for a crack in the transmission dip stick/filler tube. It came with that one, and I've no idea how the PO managed to do that. I have a hose clamp on it, which seems to hold it together without significant leaks.

 

At 160K, I'd say your LBJ'S need to be your primary concern. And I'd recommend OEM.

Regarding your steering rack. If it were me, (and I'm in the middle of swapping out my steering rack) I'd stick with an oem reman or new ($$$) Toyota rack. Replacing the rack is not particularly a fun job, so for a "lifetime" replacement rack that needs to be replaced every 40-50K miles doesn't strike me as a bargain.

Low range Off-road has some reman oem racks. They sell you the units out-right w/o a core fee. Maybe you can inquire if they'll accept your old rack for a core? To save some coin? I'd be interested if they did.

And I'm not a fan off Moog automotive parts. I got 5K miles out of Moog LBJ's on my taco, and 8K miles out of my OTRE'S, LBJ'S and strut bearings on my Volvo 245. Theyre garbage.

Low Range Off-road sells an "Ultimate" rack & pinion kit. That if I were in the market for a new rack I'd seriously consider.

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/toyo...t-by-low-range-off-road-tac-sp-1gen-urpk.html

 

Oh and if you're doing the rack yourself I highly recommend a crowfoot flare socket for the high pressure and return line hoses. Like this:


I found a used snap-on one on eBay for $20 shipped. It was so useful I ended up buying the whole set.

 

That Lowrangeoffroad one looks interesting. I notice that their inner/outer TREs are 555, who make the OEM TREs and LBJ, but also the aftermarket ones, including the moogs I have. I'd have to be convinced that these are the OEM parts. Looks like the outers do not have a grease fitting, which would be correct for OEM.

I've had the rack off of this truck to do the bushings a few years ago. The worst part was getting the skid plate off. Every bolt broke. It never went back on after that. But, did not have to disconnect the lines to do that. Looks like a new tool is in order.

Edit: I replaced a rack on an older Subaru, but that was years ago. I also replaced the lines on my skid steer over the past few years. Those don't require any special wrenches, although angle wrenches make it easier to swing the wrench in tight places.

 

Honestly I don't think it would hurt to try a little bit of Lucas steering rack leak fix. As much as I am against this sort of thing, some members here have used up to a half a bottle and said it fixed their problem. It may be worthwhile if it will get your further down the road before your steering rack totally takes a dump.

 

I hear you on that. I've never been a big fan of "liquid miracle" fixes, and didn't know there was such a thing for the rack.

 

I imagine it's just a higher viscosity version of ATF or similar, to slow down the drips or leaks. If you are going down the road to replacement of the rack anyways, might buy you some time or maybe a lot of time. At worst you're out 10 bucks and replacing the rack which you planned on anyways.

 

When you get around to replacing the rack, here's a tutorial you can use to help you get the job done:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wZoRP5ogrK0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

The hardest part of the rack swap is the PS lines. You don't want to round off those nuts or you'll have issues. I ended up having to disconnect the lines at the pump and fishing them out the bottom still attached to the rack.

 

Did you use a flare nut wrench? If you didn't, always, always, always, one more time, ALWAYS, use a flare nut wrench when working on tubing connections like power steering lines, A.C. lines and gas lines. A regular open end wrench only grabs two sides of the fitting while a flair nut wrench will grab 4 sides of the fitting.

 

It's be a long time since I did it, but I don't recall much room to get a flare wrench in there. However, I'm very familiar with flare wrenches and their purpose so I imagine that would've been the first option.

 

I have some flex head flare nut wrenches and I think I remember the flexible head being the ticket to being able to get on the fittings easier. As I gain a more versatile set of tools, I'm finding repairs are getting easier, but my wallet is getting thinner. Luckily I don't opt for expensive Snap-On or Matco tools or I'd really be broke.

 

It's hard to believe that I've made it this far without a set of flare wrenches considering I do nearly all my own work.

 

You're either a lot better at wrenching than me or you just haven't come across a really tight tubing fitting where a flare nut wrench would have made a difference between successfully loosening the fitting and stripping it.

 

This guy's videos are some of the best I've seen.

 

Just lucky I guess.

 

All you need are 17,14,12 & 10mm. I think that covers all the 1St gen. 22mm comes in handy for torquing those rear cam bolts near the steering rack... Actually, besides 11,15 & 16mm I've used all the other sizes for tough to reach shit.

And don't cheap out. The cheap ones will fit loosely or bend, becoming useless and still strip your fittings...
Also get the ones that are "six" pointed, they're stronger than the "12" point type.

 

Most of that "stop leak" shit has tiny hairs/fibers, they bunch together and I'm guessing through capillary action clog the point of the leak.
I've read that crap kills your P/S pump shortly after you introduce it.
I don't have direct experience with it. But I wouldn't touch it..

 

Most of my tools are Carftsman, some SK, a few Snap-On, and maybe one Matco. Prefer 6 point when I can get them. There are a few cheapo tools which were for one shot use, or sacrificial, depending on the need. No matter what you have or how many, there is always another that you will need.

 

I don't think a half bottle is going to kill anything. Everything works fine in moderation..

I did quite a bit of searching on the Lucas power steering stuff and it was difficult to find anything bad about people who actually used it other than random naysayers with nothing more than anecdotal "my cousin's girlfriend's brother's nephew used it and it killed his PS pump after a week"