Hi folks,
New here just joined to see if there are any mechanics who follow this forum that have done a steering rack replacement on their Buick. I have a '97 I inherited from my mother-in-law that is my son'* car now. I replaced a power steering pump knowing that the rack might be bad and low a behold a few months later the new pump is spitting out fluid and the fluid is dark indicating the rack is full of metal and corrosion. Even though the old rack wasn't leaking the lines on the rack were very rusty and looked like they could go at any time.

So I schooled up on the procedure to replace the rack and ordered one from Rock auto and got started. The procedure to remove the old rack, while no cakewalk went pretty much as expected. The biggest challenge is getting the car up high enough to work underneath and be able to drop the subframe a couple inches which is necessary to get the old rack out and the new one in. All of that went fine, though I was worried about this the most never having lower a subframe for any other DIY mechanic jobs. The problem I am facing now is trying to get the damn steering knuckle (whatever the part is really called) coming from the upper steering column back on the top of the splined shaft of the pinion gear. The steering knuckle is a U joint and has a lot of room to move up and down and in different directions. But despite hours of fighting with this thing (that came off quite easily from the old rack with a long pry bar) I can't seem to get the positioning right to get the knuckle on the shaft so I can insert the retaining bolt (11mm).

I have tried wedging the pry bar into the opening where the retaining bolt goes to clamp down on the shaft, in an attempt to widen the opening even a fraction of a mm, but I am still not yet able to get the shaft connected.

I have heard that raising the subframe back up (it'* now dropped about 2 inches from the main frame) can sometimes help with the alignment of the knuckle and the pinion shaft but didn't try that yet (since I would have to lower it again to put the stabilizer bar back).

Not sure if many folks here would be this deep into this type of repair work, I normally wouldn't do this except it'* an older car for my son and due to college bills (ugh) I can't afford to pay $800 bucks to put in a $200 rack.

Any help or words of encouragement would be appreciated.

Cheers,
-Scott

I'd raise the subframe back to where it is supposed to be and try then.

It'* called the intermediate shaft, and it only goes on one way....

Hope you kept the steering wheel locked, because if you turned it, it can damage the SIR coil....

Agree, should go in easier if the sub frame is back up in place....should be able move that int shaft up and down, and position it on the top of the steering shaft out of the rack....could also be a burr on the steering shaft....try a little lubricant on the steering shaft....

Once you have the int shaft over the steering shaft, and it won't easily go on, using a pry bar on it against the fenderwell, should get it on.....

Thanks for the reply Cathedral. I finally got the G-D thing on the pinion probably a total of 3-4 hours of trying different techniques. I did raise the frame and couldn't get it on that way so I lowered the frame back down, still no luck. I took the mounting bolts out which I had put in but not put the nuts on so I had a little play. So now with the bolts out I could move the rack up and down a little which gave me some hope. Then I decided I was so pissed about fighting with the G-D boot (GM used this fairly heavyweight light gray plastic material and it was really had to push up) that I got out a hair dryer and heated the plastic so I could move it up another inch or so. Finally after trying many time I move from an 18-20 inch pry bar up to a 28-30 inch big sucker (thank god I bought the 4 pry bar set at Harbor Freight!) and by that time I had gained enough experience with the smaller pry bar, getting it at the exact right location inside the U-joint so the pressure would not disturb the critical orientation of the clamp end on the pinion shaft. But I still needed a lot of force even with that massive pry bar (wedges against the edge of the wheel well) to get it to slide on the shaft. I did spend a lot more time trying the best I could to spread open the clamp by wedging a flathead screwdriver and a smaller pry bar into the clamp opening, I found I also needed the big-*** pry bar pushing down on the U-joint while I jammed the screwdriver/pry bar into the gap to try and get even a 1/10 of mm of additional clearance.

The only good part of the experience (if you can call it that) is that after fighting with this f*ing thing that long, when it goes on it'* kind of like winning a 15 round heavyweight fight. I felt like trash talking to that POS clamp, yeah so you can't beat me mother-f*er LOL.

Cheers,
-Scott

LOL, I definitely know that feeling. What an adventure!

That'* nothing....try replacing a directional bulb in a Lucerne....you will not believe what you have to go through...