My son and I will be doing this job Sunday.  '87 GL wagon has over 375,000 miles.  I have a recon unit in hand, and though it seems pretty straight forward, I was hoping an experienced hand could share some tips.

 Hi,

 you should have on hand,  the bushings that mount it to the crossmember,  ( source is dealer or "maybe" other),,, the o rings that fit on the ends of the P/S connecting hoses where they screw into the steering rack.  you will have to disconnect the ones that go across and up to the pump, so the o rings for all 4 fittings.  there are 2 different sizes but i don't know them off hand,  they are metric dimentions.   if your rack has new inner and outer tie rods then you won't need to deal with that.  if you have to take off your old ones, slide the boots back,  the inner tie rod is like a big nut, there is a washer that is peened into notches to lock it in plase, hammer & punch to get that locking clear then the big nut unscrews from the rack shaft.   when installing be careful to don't scar the rack shaft, that wiould damage the end seals and cause the new rack to leak.  you will need a puller or small pickle tool to get the outer tie rod ends free from the steering knuckle after you take the nut off, it's a tapered fit and sometimes can be quite difficult, my advice is to do it first then to proceed to the under car stuff.

Thank you.  I'll have to scare up the o-rings after it comes apart, and I'll see how that mounting bushing looks.

The new rack came with the tie rods, so that part is easy.  I guess I should flush the system too after it's back together.

How is access?

Uh oh.  The steering shaft U joint is toast.

Local Pick N Pull doesn't have one.  Anybody got one they would part with?

(I also posted in the wanted section).

The steering rack will fall right out of there with the exhaust and sway bar dropped.

 

Ruparts:  I see no O-ring at the line connections to the old unit.  These fittings appear to be common pressure fittings with a tapered seat with no need for an O-ring. Am I getting this right?

 

Also-  Turns out the u-joint was fine.  False alarm on that.....

Ruparts:  I see no O-ring at the line connections to the old unit.  These fittings appear to be common pressure fittings with a tapered seat with no need for an O-ring.

 

No...there are o-rings....not a tapered compression fitting.

Do they seat at the bottom of the fitting in the box, or on the shoulder of the nut?

there should be a wider "flange" on the hoses, the o-rings seat up against them.

I'm not sure if the LHD models have this, but is there a small bracket between the lines down near where they bolt into the rack?

If so, remove that bracket when putting the lines back into the rack. It makes them so much easier to line up & get the nuts started.

 

Be thankful that your steering column is on that side of the car. With the column running on the other side, turbo models cook that uni joint...

We wound up pulling he lines out so we could tighten the (loose!) oil pan bolts while in there.  After cleaning everything off, the o rings were obvious,  It's all back together now except for some details- ran out of light.  Thinking we should flush the system, but need to figure a way to contain the mess!