Heard a rubber crunching sound, and i saw the rack has a good half inch of play at the bushings when my wife would work the wheel back and forth with the vehicle on the ground.
put new bushings in. Still does it, a little less now.
are the racks supposed to deflect this much? Iver never seen this kind of bushing in a round hole..i dont see a way for it to not deflect...what are your obeservations after doing the steering rack bushings?

 

Just had my rack bushings replaced along with airmatic to coil conversion.

I didn't hear any noises but the truck was extremely sloppy on the road. The wheel had waaay too much play in the steering wheel. I would turn the wheel way more than I should have to in order to get the wheels to actually turn. Very unsettling on an exit. I had zero confidence in my ability to do an emergency steer if some idiot jumped in front of me or cut me off.
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​​​​Those issues were likely two-fold. Poor suspension evident by my car sagging to one side (front passenger) when parked overnight. Which meant there was a leak in the airmatic. And the bushing which caused the excessive movement in the rack and pinion due to the bushing being basically metal on metal. My steering wheel doesn't automatically return to center either. Imagine making a u-turn. After you force the wheel to make the turn, you can normally let go of the wheel and it makes its way back straight without touching it.

Again the bushings never made any noises when turning but was sloppy as hell on the road. Because I changed the bushings and the airmatic to coil conversion at the same time I can't confirm which issue really impacted performance. What I can say is wow she's stable on the road. No longer do I feel like if I had to make an evasive maneuver on the road this thing will flip on its side.

That said, the steering wheel still does not return to center. Even my backyard mechanic is perplexed. But that's not uncommon, sometimes he sleeps on it and wakes with that "ah-ha" moment.

Everything I've read states that bushings could cause a noise when turning but also it could be a number of things. The bushings are worth replacing if it's a high-mileage GL and they're worn. You don't need to drop the rack to do it. But it could be a million other things also. Tie roads, ball bearings etc. Get someone to check it out before you go through the hassle.

​​​​​​Not sure if that helps in the slightest.

 

No that was not related to my question at all.

Id like for someone to verify with known good bushings how much lateral deflection the rack experiences when someone works the steering wheel with the wheels on the ground.

Return to center, could be alignment. Not enough caster will negate RTC geometry or lack thereof.
slop.on any front bushings will cause this too.

 

Sorry I couldn't help. I did an alignment first on the return to center issue. Unless I got completely screwed on the alignment that didn't help one bit.

 

I know a few months have gone by since the last post here, but I am curious what conclusion you have come to. I am having some suspension noise when I go over bumps, so am on a mission to figure out what is going wrong.

But to answer your original question, I was under my GL today with a helper gently sawing the steering wheel back and forth. I saw (to my calibrated eyeball), what looked like about .25 to .33 of an inch of motion, and a noticeable "click" when turning one way vs. the other. So I am concluding that my bushings are shot, and would expect (or at least hope for) a bit less deflection once I address the bushings, and less noise.

 

I want to say I just changed my bushing on my truck.. And it made a huge difference the car feels so much better and I don't have that clunk when going over bumps or shaking in the steering wheel. I am dealing with alot of issue and been working on my truck after this was done I pressure washed the entire underbody engine bay and etc.


I a couple of recommendations.. Have a jack hold from diff.

Start by
1. Removing passenger bolt and plate. These plates are the trick
2. Remove the 3 bolts on the front diff and put a jack on it.
3. Remove the nut from the driver side bolt.
4. Move the rack up and rotate the steering rack so the front bolt is facing towards floor remove the bolt. IMPORTANT when installing this bolt back on insert it backwards so you don't have to unbolt again. Yes, these go back from oil and power steering contamination.
5. Pull out bushings they may just fall out.
6. Install new bushings with the little tabs facing north and south.
7. Bolt steering back on.
8. Rebolt Front Diff.

These are my old ones.

 

@carlosrg Thanks for the writeup. How is the oil and power steering fluid coming into contact with the bushings?

 

So I haven't figured that part out completely yet.. However, here is my working theory
The line that feeds into the Power steering rack has 2 lines with 2 simple o-rings. Which right above the pair of failed bushings. I think that the o-ring is/was leaking because of all the movement. But it could have also been that I Was leaking oil because I stuck open CVV which was pushing air thru the turbo inlet that had a broken/leaking turbo gasket/hose and leaking all around the motor. I have put in leak finder in the oil and have yet to find any engine oil. I Will be chasing the PS fluid. But my reservoir has not changed in fluid levels. I think the broken bushing was causing strain the online connecting to the rack vibrating them enough to allow them to leak. I will check it this weekend and probably order the $3 o-rings x2 and replace them. I looking for leaks right now but haven't found any yet.

BTW the o-rings part numbers are 0159972245

And the bolt to the power steering rack right by the connector to the steering wheel by one single bolt. I would assume install would be easy. Remove underbody panels, drain PS tank, and then remove 1 bolt install o-rings reverse.