Steering Rack/Tie Rod

[Speedy]

Sooo this has been on my mind lately...

I've been getting a noticeable clunking noise when I hit bumps or when I turn the wheel left/right while sitting still. Today, I jacked up my car and atempted to shake each front wheel with my hands. The drivers side front wheel has slight play left/right but none up/down. I'm assuming this means I have a tie rod issue. Soo...naturally I will replace the tie rods...they are circa 1994 (aka sold in 1993) and have around 26x,xxx miles on them.

The dilemna:
It is very easy to attain a reman'd oem steering rack for my car. At 16 yrs of age and almost 300,000 miles, it might be time to replace the rack. The rack comes with inner rods already attached. Sooo...should I go ahead and replace inner/outter tie rods from Honda or should I just replace the whole damn rack? I believe the motor has to be pulled to remove the rack.

Price is not an issue...it's more of what is worth the time and hassle.

[danomatic93]

I don't think you need to pull the motor, you can just support the motor and drop the subframe with the rail attached. I've heard you don't even have to remove the subframe, but it makes live easier.

So why are you so sure your rack is mucked up? I suggest to start small and work up. Start with the outer tie rods, then if that doesn't do it go further.

[powellripper]

is your car swapped?ive only seen one wiped out civic steering rack ever.on a GSR swapped eg ex coupe.they just removed the p/s lines pump etc.and left the rack open and chillin.you need to find the culpruit first id say before replacing anything.grab the ball and socket of the outer tierod where it mounts to the hub as you shake it.is the outer wiped?if it feels tight grab the inner bar as you shake it.feel for play.you can also do this on the ground with the wheel cut all the way either way with the motor off have someone shake the wheel while you look.also put the windows down and have someone grab the roof/doorframe and shake the car back and forth.this will show you all movement in the front end.get a flashlight and watch everything.unless your car is slammed with a lip.also check the boots of the rack for fluid and your steering gear u-joints.the motor does not need to come out to change the rack,niether does the subframe.

[angrychicken]

I don't think I've ever heard of a rack going bad, but then cards are just now getting past 200k.
A swap would def not hurt.
If it was my car, I wouldn't swap it out, but I'm unemployed, overweight, and lazy.

[Dina]

Speedy the only reason to replace the rack on a car with out power steering would be if the rack binds or skips you dont have to remove the engine to do the rack or drop the subframe it will come out without taking any of that off.

I would replace the inner and outer tierod ends and have the car aligned

[naman]

Speedy the only reason to replace the rack on a car with out power steering would be if the rack binds or skips you dont have to remove the engine to do the rack or drop the subframe it will come out without taking any of that off.

I would replace the inner and outer tierod ends and have the car aligned

Ditto, inner and outer tie rods. One of the techs at work has 89 lxi that has like 250k in it and he used to auto-x it all the time. All he has ever done is replace tie rods.

[powellripper]

a good tip is to just crack the jam nut on the inner tie-rod and leave it there so you know where it was set at and you dont have a scary trip to wherever you choose to do the alignment this works good when doing both inner and outers too individually or both at the same time

[angrychicken]

I should have thought of this earlier.
One reason to swap racks is to upgrade.
I think the GSR has a better turn ratio, if you have one of those, I'd say swap out for sure.