Steering Rack

[1990new]

I'm starting a new thread about Festiva Steering Racks.
I have posted about racks in several other thread but it really is hard to find things in this forum as a result of the way it so unorganized... and I have contribute to that disorganization a lot myself.

I see great potential for AI to be used to gather information from forums like ours and organize the information to make it easier to access and weed out the invalid and obviously bad information. Perhaps it is already in the works.

Anyway to my point...
I'm getting my 89 in shape to hand over to my grandson next summer.
The right axle was clicking while making sharp turns and I knew it needed to be replaced. I remove it and also found that the bushing in the steering rack was gone as well. The rack is an aluminum one. Since this 89 has only 109k original miles on her I though it would have the original rack (which I though would have been steel).
Anyone know if any of the 89 automatics came with the aluminum rack installed new? I know the automatic 89 was sort of a hybrid.
Long story short.. I gave away my last good aluminum rack earlier this year but still have a good steel rack.. which I specifically kept for this eventuality.
Instead of replacing the rack though, I'm going to try to replace the bushing with the rack still on the car. The original bushings are no longer available but I bought one of the Australian bushings (blue). It will arrive later next week.
My question .. has anyone already attempted this? If so.. how did it work out?
I bought an inner tie rod removal tool today at harbor freight only to discover that it did not have a 24 mm crowfoot adapter... I cannot remove the pin since it is on the back side and I cannot get to it. I have read that I can just apply a lot of force and pin will sheer. Is that true? Can I damage the pinion gear by using a pipe wrench to break it loose?

Comments?

[WmWatt]

Putting "Steering Rack" in the subject will help with searching. Posts with things like "I'm about to give up" and similar in for the subject don't help the search engine at all.

[1990new]

Putting "Steering Rack" in the subject will help with searching. Posts with things like "I'm about to give up" and similar in for the subject don't help the search engine at all.

Wouldn't it be nice if all the forum posts could be scanned by an AI program and that would rename the topic to reflect the real subject of those posts.

To continue with what I have learned: The rack in my 89 automatic "Trixie" is not the original. It is the 90-93 aluminum one and it has the roll pin that drops down in the notch behind the last thread in the inner tie rod end after it is screwed all the way in.
If I tried to unscrew the tire rod without removing that pin it would mess up the threads on my tie rod as I removed it and could also distort the thread in the rack with too much pressure applied.. and I could screw up the pinion gear as well.

My bushing from SuperPro came today (SPF3450K) and it is the correct diameter inside and out. But it is slightly shorter that the original.

My plan now is to remove the brackets from the fire wall and lower the rack on the right side so I can get to the locking pin to remove it, then screw off the inner tie rod end, turn the wheel so the rack goes in as far as it can, clean out the rest of the old crumbled up bushing, add as little more grease inside and the slide in the new bushing and put the inner tie rod back on (it is still good).

I will post more with pictures as I proceed with my plan. IMG_2116.jpg

[theastronaut]

All of my 89s have had aluminum racks, only the 88's I've had have steel racks.

[1990new]

2023-12 Festiva Right Inner Tierod Replace (34).jpg2023-12 Festiva Right Inner Tierod Replace (29).jpg2023-12 Festiva Right Inner Tierod Replace (27).jpg

All of my 89s have had aluminum racks, only the 88's I've had have steel racks.

Thanks for that info. Trixie is the only Festiva I have owned that is less that 1990. All my 1990 + Festiva's had aluminum housed racks so I assumed Trixie had the steel rack... had not really looked at the rack closely before.
I got the information about 88-89 having a different rack from the Rockauto web pages which showed 88-89 having a different rack than the 1990 and beyond.
I thought the rack on Trixie should have been the original because of her low miles and am glad to hear that it is the original rack. The inner tie rod end has very little play in it and is still good. It's just that the bushing inside the housing has disintegrated.
I'm hoping to be able to get this new bushing in without having to remove the rack from the car.

I was able to get the tie rod end off by lowering the rack off the fire wall.
I drilled out the locking pin and then used two pipe wrenches to remove the inner tie rod end.
Even though the inner tie rod is not loose, I'm going to replace it with a new one instead of putting the old one back on.

I ordered a needle adapter for my grease gun so I can inject more grease in the housing before I put in the bushing and put on the new tie rod.

Some Pictures here:
Festiva Right Inner Tierod 10.jpg