Steering rack info

[player1up]

Does anyone know what rack these came with? TRW? Saginaw? The parts list shows the part number for a power rack, but I just had the car up with the wheel off and it does not have any fittings on the rack.
Here's the weird part, it doesn't look like the pictures of a manual rack on rock auto.
Some observations from the rack in the car: It has a tall collar for the steering input shaft like a power rack but has no fittings ( kind of looks like they were welded closed ). Not the stubby input shaft of a manual rack.
It does have the cross rack vent line though like a power rack but no other lines or fittings that I can see.

I need to replace my inner tie rod ends but having some trouble getting them off, I'm afraid i'm going to hurt the rack by twisting too hard.
I've got a bad feeling that I'm going to have to pull the entire rack and get it onto a bench to get the inner's off.

I'd like to not have to pull the rack and wait for the parts while it's out ( especially since it's only been back on the road for a few days after the blown HG ) , but beginning to think that's the only option.
...and yes, I've verified that the inner rod ends need to be replaced..took the boot off and the drivers side has quite a bit of play in the socket.

[DaveSkrab]

I have a damaged front suspension that I am pretty sure still has a steering gear installed. I will take a look for ya either tonight or tomorrow during the day.

[polopharm]

Mine appeared to be a power rack off a daytona , with the fittings for the lines welded shut.

[Johnny]

Mine too is a power rack without the hoses.

[player1up]

Mine appeared to be a power rack off a daytona , with the fittings for the lines welded shut.

Thanks for the call yesterday. I thought that it looked like a power rack but where the fittings should be are welded and ground flat, like the bosses are there but have no holes or threads. Glad to hear that sounds like what happened when they were built. I ordered the threaded TRW inners and will be pulling the rack and doing the front suspension bushings sometime in the next couple of weeks. I'll take some detailed pics and report back on lessons learned. Hopefully none too hard.

Johnny, That reminds me ... i need to order some stuff.

[player1up]

So I started taking stuff apart......the inner tie rod on my car has been cut and re-threaded and is about 3-4 inches shorter than the one I picked up.
None of the pics on rock auto for any year of dodge, chrysler are as short as the one in my car. There's about an inch between the ring for the boot and the threads for the outer arm and you can see in the picture where the inner rod was clamped in a vise close to the joint.

[player1up]

Thread size is m14 x 1.50 for the tie rod. I had to order a die as no one had it locally so it may be a while but I'll report back with if it worked. I'll make sure to get some pictures of the rack and front subframe when it's all apart.

I'm not the only one to have replaced the inners, right? what has everyone done? I'm also curious to hear if the series 2 cars are different.

[Johnny]

Ihave not needed to do the front, but did replace the inner in the rear of the car. Totally different.

[player1up]

Ugh, lost my post trying to get a pic in here.
So here's the original, new and modified tie rods.
I was initially worried that the die would have a hard time with the hex portion of the rod, but it just made it a little harder to turn and ended up fine.
I didn't end up removing the rack but did pick up an inner tie rod tool ( priceless btw ).
The inners are held in place with RED loctite and it was a pain. There are little nylon bushings behind the inner to keep it from bottoming out metal to metal against the rack and I had to protect those when applying the heat ( didn't know they had loctite on them, but figured some heat might help, it did )

On a good note, the rack doesn't appear to be modified other than having the holes welded shut. Remarkably only one bushing needed to be replaced in addition to the tie rod, but I did both on that side. I'm guessing that the front suspension doesn't take the kind of beating the rear does due to the lack of weight.

The above is INCORRECT. The rack has been altered quite a bit. I ordered one from RockAuto to replace mine ( bad passenger side slider bushing ) only to find out that the original rack is about 6-8 inches longer and has a tube welded in to make the housing longer and the main rack rod has been welded to account for the extra length.
I ended up taking apart the new rack to use the bushings and such to repair my old one. Hope this helps someone.

Only ran into a couple of things that were problematic:
The lower shock bolt can't be removed with the front lower a-arm bolt in place. It hits. Since the lower shock bolt has no nut this is at least understandable from a safety perspective ( it's impossible for it to fall out ) , its a pain to line up...and don't ruin the threads...
I couldn't get the upper rocker arm bolt out without pulling the inner headlight cover.
I still need to get the lower cover back on but at least it's on the ground now.

Part number for the inner tie rods that I used is ev128 and the M14 x 1.5 die + shipping cost more than both tie rods combined.