[SOLVED] Crooked steering wheel from new rack & pinion

My steering wheel is about 45 degrees pointing to the left of center after a new rack & pinion installation.

Guess who installed the new rack & pinion? Me. First time hack. Steering wheel ended up upside down with limited turning to the left. I removed it, adjusted the power steering gear, put it back in, and now it's 45 degrees off. I'm looking to avoid removing the gear again without a rock solid way to ensure it'll be pointing perfectly straight. Otherwise I see this experiment happening 2-3 more times to get it straight.

Is there a way to remove the steering wheel and put it on straight? Or will this mess up the blinkers and whatnot? Help me avoid repeated trial and error attempts of removing and replacing the rack and pinion.

1995 Toyota Tacoma
2.4L EFI 4 Cylinder, 2RZFE
Power steering, RWD

 

practice makes perfect

 

Where is that detailed, thorough write up that 'dirty pool' typed up a month or two ago? Try a search for it, using his name 'dirty pool'. It was an excellent write up on replacing the rack and straightening the steering wheel.

 

well the thing is you can adjust the wheel but first you need to find the true center for your steering

first turn the wheel fully left until it stops and then counting the turns, back fully right until it stops and then half that many turns back to the left

this centers your steering rack, now disconnect the steering rack to steering wheel connection and go inside truck to turn steering wheel as needed and then remake the connection to the steering rack.

its pretty common people forget or just dont think about centering the rack "and the steering wheel" before making the connections, just use the opposite turns on the other side so the alignment stays good (left side in one turn, right side out one turn and vise-versa)

after you get it all set you can make small adjustments to center your steering wheel by adjusting the turns in or out on tie rods

 

Practice makes perfect. My second reinstallation was indeed faster. Maybe it will keep getting quicker.

@keakar, my truck is equipped with an airbag. I've read that there can be problems if I move the steering wheel while the rack is disconnected. Does that method only work for vehicles without airbags?

 

There is a clockspring attached to the airbag. Basically a wire that coils around the steering column. It is designed to be able to turn about 2 rotations in each direction, but if you turn it too far (like with the rack & pinion disconnected) then it can damage the clockspring.

The pinion shaft should have about 36 splines on it, so about 10 degrees per spline. That should help you make the adjustment. Maybe you can mark the shaft pieces with some paint to help you realign them the correct number of spline over.

 

@keakar, my truck is equipped with an airbag. I've read that there can be problems if I move the steering wheel while the rack is disconnected. Does that method only work for vehicles without airbags?[/QUOTE]

well your not going to be "spinning" the wheel or yes you can mess up the horn cruise control and airbag wires in there.

what I am talking about is the steering column to rack connection so you shouldn't even need to mess with removing the steering wheel

I think when you put it together the rack wasn't centered "or" you got the rack to column connection alignment off by a tooth or two

 

Thank you, everyone for your help so far. Much appreciated. Looks like I'll be able to center things in one more try (things I should have looked into before try #1, but live and learn).

As far as getting out of completely removing the rack & pinion, and only undoing the connection between the gear and the steering shaft ... found the reference to dirtypool's and loronzorizo's post here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/steering-wheel-off-after-rack-alignment.452922/page-2.

Seems there's a way to remove the rack from the steering column shaft ... on his 2003. I looked at my 1995 and it's a bit different. There's a bolt that tightens the steering shaft over the pinion shaft with the splines. Above that, looks like the the only thing is the connection to the yoke. Is the yoke that, if removed, will allow enough flexibility to disconnect the two?

 

Yeah, that's the thread I remember reading. I haven't done the repair but following dirty pool's lead is always a good idea.

 

After two more removal and installs, it's back on perfectly straight. I'm quite fast at getting that rack & pinion on and off now. Time to update my resume. And time to get a proper alignment done. Thanks everyone for your comments.