Last year at SDAC, the day before the drag race, one of my outer manual rack bushings fell out. We shoved it back in and crimped the end so it wouldn't fall out again, but it was well worn and still had a lot of play.

I took the worn manual steering rack out tonight. Compared it to the new I got from Advance.

The old one has a plastic boot that pops on the hub where the input shaft is to seal it, then there is a boot that attaches to this plastic piece with a hose clamp, and goes up in the firewall to seal it all.

The new one doesn't have any provision for this plastic boot. It's not even round. It has two bolts where the input shaft goes in.

The old one has 13 splines on the input shaft.

The new one has (I think) 26 splines. I didn't sit there and count them all, as I got to 13 and was only half way around.

The new one has TRW cast into it.

The old one didn't have a name on it that I could see.

The old one came from a 79 OMNI in the junkyard.

Ideas?

I was going to take it back to exhange it. I think my old power steering knuckle would fit it, but then I have no good way to seal it to the firewall. I don't mind that the knuckles would be exposed, but I'd have a big hole in the firewall where the input shaft goes into the steering column.

Tim Costello gave me some bushings for my old rack, but I can't figure out how to take it apart. I got it tore down to the rack and the pinion, but don't know where to go after that. I'm assuming that the big plug has to come out, but I don't want to destroy it.