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Bet if you took it to a bike shop they could have it out in a minute....





as far as shoes I used the bendix from napa for a year.....and front shoes on each side had excellerated wear....

So I replaced with oem's from mcgeorge....ouch....

and when I put everything back together .....I made sure i used the brake grease in all the right places....

the adjusters and springs I ordered new from napa....took em a week to get em in....


make sure that adjuster plate isnt jacked or bent....so it doesn't stick against the star when adjusting...

alot of times people will bend that plate when sticking a screw driver in the back side messing with it....
and then it will seize or not even catch at all.

 

Yeah ....oem tool co may make a tool for this.......problem solvers.....






I've ordered a toyota oem steer shaft from dubui......

I got it like two days.....but the shipping was 30 something.....


Same with Japan....got in two days...but you know the rest....
$36 ship on a $18 part......

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rack-pinion-service-tools-tips.312600/page-2#post-16066339

.....' I made mine by grinding edges on a box end wrench'.....

 

Had a tough time finding anything other than HEx ....

until I relized that most water fittings are octo....

So a hose repair from your local ace might be solution...

the outer demensions I found on the one on Amazon was 1.25in by 1.25in

1/2FEM BRASS HOSE END REPAIR - Walmart.com

 

Oh man you are in it deep. My first advice is get some proper jackstands under it. With the wheels on you're probably OK, but if it falls the blocks can jam up under something and do serious damage.

Generally before you start this kind of work you strap the wheel in the straight position - don't lock with the key, unlock with the key and I use ratchet straps to the seat frames to ensure the wheel stays perfectly straight.

Since you're already in, I would suggest adjusting at the rag joint. Before doing that, find exact center of the steering wheel. You want to do this so it doesn't mess up/break the clock spring in the steering wheel, at the very least your turn signal cancel will be hosed up. Once you find the center, strap it in so it can't move. Once the wheel is locked at center, loosen the rag joint slip bolts above and below the rag joint and slide it up the steering shaft, free of the rack.You may have to separate the joint, I can't recall.

Now you can try to center the rack. I would normally suggest looking for the witness marks on the output shaft and casing, but you may not have them or they've been washed off. When these are aligned, the rack is centered. If you can find remnants of the marks, awesome (pictured below.) If you can't, you're going to have to measure both sides of the rack until it's centered, or move it by twisting the wheels until they are straight. Slide the rag joint back down, tighten the pinch bolts.

With the trial and error method you may have to do this a couple times. Another way is to adjust the TRE's, making a change on one side and the exact opposite change on the other, but then you can potentially have more on one side than the other. I'd leave that to an alignment shop, first thing.

 

First we're hoping to avoid removing these, but yes, and there's actually 4 nuts and bolts holding the rag joint together, you probably can't see from whatever angle you're at. Feeling your pain, I had to cut mine out and put in new ones.

As above, hopefully no. The pinch bolts are the ones above and below the joint itself, clamping both the rack and the steering shaft by the splines.

You should be able to remove those bolts and slide the entire assembly UP the shaft, out of the way, to free the head of the rack shaft. You want to remove them because there is a slot on one side of the shaft and the bolt goes through it, it won't move up with the shaft the bolt is in the way, second pic.



The rag joint will be rusted too at the splines, use lots of PB blaster and gently tap from below, it should start to slide up.

Below is what the shaft looks like without the joint on it, see the slot at the spline end? That is where the upper pinch bold slides in across the lower steering shaft. So if you don't remove the pinch bolt, it will go up a little and stop. Hopefully you can get it to move up just enough to free the head of the steering rack shaft.

Sadly, if you can't get it to slide up, you may need to address the bolts/nuts holding the joint together. and separate the joint. Be sure to mark where everything aligns before you do.

 

You are gonna tear the clock spring/ribbon cable. I'm not surprised you haven't already.

You need to find neutral on the steering wheel, not the rack.

Kinda tough now.

 

The wheel is so far off now he has to 1) get the rack loose from the steering shaft, 2) center the steering wheel and strap it so it will not move, 3) adjust the rack so it's centered, 4) slide the rag joint back onto the rack. That should get it close enough for an alignment.

I know man, it doesn't want to budge and to add to the madness there's not much room to work in there, especially with the lines connected. Took me a really long time to get mine to move. Don't focus on "separating" the pinch part, a real disaster would be if one of the pinch bolt ears broke off. Focus on even upward taps from below the rag joint. The problem is rust, once it breaks free it will go. Just take care not to damage where it connects above.

 

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You have to remove those pinch bolts, top and bottom. With this closer pic, it looks like someone has been here before, those don't look like the OEM pinch bolts (which is fine I guess if they're the right thread.)

I don't see any PB blaster on the top of the spline shaft. :-D It doesn't look as rusted as mine was, you should have a shot at getting it to move. You want to soak the top of the shaft at those splines and let gravity soak down into the splines. It's a good idea to soak it, go to bed for a rest, and check it again later, time helps when dealing with rust.

 

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Impact is always your friend against rust, but you can probably pull it off without it.

Short story, when I did my front suspension I had a terrible time with the tie rod ends. I broke 2 pullers on them, put it under pressure with a third puller and beat on the knuckle like Thor with a 3lb hammer, no budge. I was at it for hours, finally started to think I had a fail on my hands. Hit it with yet another squirt of PB blaster, left the puller on, went in and took a nap. Came back, hit it twice, it fell out. Then I did the other side lol . . .

I wasn't kidding when I said go to bed for a rest, a few hours of penetrant soak can make a huge difference.

 

I just went through similar situation trying to put in a used rack and rag joint. I made the mistake of taking off outer tie rod ends and letting steering shaft rotate so everything was thrown off. What worked for me was turn the shaft coming out of the top of the rack where the rag joint connects all the way one way counting the turns, then back the other way and find the exact center. You can do it with the rack still mounted on the truck turning it with vice grips or the rag joint mounted. Mark the center position with dots. If the steering wheel has moved while you were doing all this work just take the steering wheel off to get the clock spring assembly out and you manually center the clock spring. It's like 5 turns total clockwise then 2.5 back and match the arrows on it (it'll have the instructions how to center it on the clock spring itself). Once the clock spring is centered mount it back on the steering shaft and put steering wheel back on perfectly straight. Now lock that steering shaft/wheel straight with the seatbelt. Put rag joint back on the rack using your centered position you marked and slide it up to the steering shaft that's now centered as well. Lock everything down.

 

Joesmith………I’m praying for you!

good thread read

Kudos for trying/learning things on this big job
BTW
I like your Jack stands
‘Gotta do what you Gotta do’
GL brother

 

Be careful of banging on that steering shaft.....

You know those are meant to be break-away in an accident.....

and they are about $300 to replace.........

last time I've known someone who replaced it....had to order it from Dubui
and paid $43 ems just for the shipping....

 

Hey @joesmith123 did you get this sorted out?

 

This thread makes me suddenly okay with having to top off my power steering fluid now and then.

 

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