Any chance you wrote anything up or took pictures of removing/replacing the steering rack?
Oh man, not really. It was time consuming.
I’ll try to summarize:
1) Jack front end up and safely support it. I used jackstands up front and left back wheels on the ground. Probably smart to disconnect the battery too.
2) Drain radiator.
3) While it’s draining, remove front wheels.
4) Disconnect transmission fluid lines at bottom of radiator and let the trans cooler drain.
5) Remove radiator hoses from engine. You’ll need pliers to squeeze and slide the metal tension clips over the lip on the tube fitting of the engine.
6) Remove the upper and lower fan guards from the radiator assembly
7) Remove the two upper radiator mounts (two bolts per side 12mm socket)
8) Remove radiator (Should just pull straight up and out) and set aside
9) Remove the fan from the clutch assembly (4 nuts and you’ll need a 10mm wrench for this job. A gearwrench works great for this). You will need to take tension off of the belt so you can spin the fan to get to all of the nuts.
10) Remove the serpentine belt
Now at this point you should have some room in the engine bay and be able to see the rack and the power steering lines. But, you’re not done taking stuff out yet. This part’s a little fuzzy, but you’ll need to drain and remove the power steering reservoir, power steering lines, and power steering pump.
11) Drain power steering fluid.
12) Remove the power steering reservoir. Disconnect the two hoses/lines toward the bottom of the reservoir.
13) Remove power steering lines from the rack. Also, there are two bolts for clamps on one of the lines and one bolt on the other. Removed the bolts.
14) Remove the power steering pump and it’s bracket. Two bolts which are accessed through the holes in the pulley and one on the back side for the pump. I think 3 bolts for the bracket. (Note they may be different lengths so keep track of them). Also, there is an electrical wire the needs removed from the pump.
At this point, you should have an even better view of the steering rack. I took one more thing off of the engine which I don’t know is necessary and that was the AC compressor. This thing is held in place by 4 bolts 2 on top, 2 on bottom. DO NOT disconnect the lines going to the compressor. You can swing this thing out of the way with the lines connected.
Now you’re ready to remove the rack.
15) disconnect the tie rod ends from the knuckles. Remove the castle nut and cotter pin and push the stud out of the knuckle on both sides. I used a tool from a kit I bought at harbor freight to help with this step.
Again, I did new tie rod ends, new upper and lower ball joints and the ADD coil springs with bilstein shocks so I had the knuckle completely removed, but it’s probably not necessary for just a rack replacement.
16) Remove the bolt in the steering linkage that’s connected to the spline shaft of the rack.
17) Remove the 4 bolts that mount the rack to the unibody.
Now the rack should be free. You may need to get creative on disconnecting the steering linkage from the rack as mine was strongly bonded via rust. Take a break as the next step requires some magic to get the rack out. I think we (probably need a helper) took the rack to the right as far as we could until we could drop the left side of the rack down in the center of the truck.
Have a beer and call it a day. Reassemble in the reverse order.
One important note:
Make sure you center the rack and your steering wheel before connecting the steering linkage. I had to redo this as I assumed that the rack came in the centered position from the vendor which it didn’t.
