ingredients:
1: power steering rack (obviously) either from an l or an early liberty because apparently they both fit.
2: power steering pump, bracket and hoses from ea82 motor, (plus appropriate bolts to mount them). cost me round $130 including the rack.
3: steeringrack mounts/brackets and bushes. as the powersteer rack is greater in diameter, so the manual ones won't fit. got mine new from subaru japan, $25 for the lot!(trade price).
4: steering shaft/knuckle. the link between the steering rack and column is different to manual steer. cost me $40 from a wreckers.
5: around a litre of ATF dextron 2 or 3.
6: both new drive belts, as they are longer to accomodate for the new pulley. cost $25ea retail, i paid $30 for both (trade).
7: doesnt hurt to renew rack boots while it's out of the car, $30 for both retail.
8: tools to do the job, ie: a good socket and spanner set.
9:most importantly, a nice cold bourbon waiting for you when you finish.
manual steer removal:
step1: get car onto jackstands, with enough room to fit under. remove the front wheels, lift hood.
step2: remove split pins and castleated(spelling?) nuts from tie rod ends, and persuade with a hammer to break the seal on the taper.
step3: loosen and remove both end bolts of the manual steer shaft, then remove shaft by sliding it along the splines back up toward the steering column to free it from the rack, the back forward to remove it from the column.
step4: remove bolts from the swaybar brackets so it can swing down away from the car.
step5: remove bolt from centre exhaust mount. then unbolt exhaust from cylinder heads. at this point you're probably asking why, the manual rack will come out fine without the removal of the exhaust or the swaybar, but there is no physical way that i could find to install the power rack without detatchin these parts, so best just to get them out of the way early.
step6: remove bolts from the rack mounts, and TADA! no more manual steer.
Powersteer intallation:
step1: loosen both the front belt tensioner and the alternator bolts to remove the old drive belts.
step2: remove the stock air cleaner assembly, and the front engine hook.
step3: mount the pump backet first, there will be three holes waiting for you on the block just in front of the carby. p.s. it's pretty tight in there so an open ended spanner is best. bolt the pump to the bracket, without the pulley or it won't work. then bolt the pulley to the pump. do not install drive belts yet because it will get in the way of bleeding the system.
step4: install the hoses, it's pretty straight forward attatching them to the pump, from there the hoses run parralell to the front of the engine, under the radiator hose then back along the head, down towards the crossmember. you will see on the head where the hoses mount up, throw in a bolt and you're set.
step5: mount up the steering rack with the new bushes and brackets, re-install the swaybar and exhaust, i reccomend using maniseal or new exhaust gaskets to prevent exhaust leaks.
step6: reinstall tierod ends to hubs, tightening the castleated nuts (spelling again?) and using new split-pins.
step7: install the steering shaft, slide onto column side first then on to the steeringrack. when i went to do this i was worried i would do it wrong and screw the wheel alignment, but it turns out it's nigh on impossible to stuff up because the grooves in the splines for the bolts prevent mistakes.
step8: it's best to renew the o-rings on the steeringrack end of the hoses to prevent leaks, attatch hoses to steering rack, they only fit 1 way.
step9: fill the powersteer fluid resovoir with oil ready to bleed the system. there may be other methods of bleeding steering systems, but this is the way i did it.
Get a willing volunteer to sit in the drivers seat. then spin the powersteer pulley with your hands untill its stiff to turn. get your helper to turn the steering wheel lock to lock, keep working the pump with your hand and top up the resovoir as required, keep this up for maybe 20 turns from lock to lock. install the new drive belts and tension them as required with the alternator and the tensioner. re-install the air cleaner assembly and start her up. agian turn the wheel lock to lock about 20 times with the oil resovoir cap off, top up the oil again an put the cap on.
step10: put the wheels back on, get it back on the ground, and take her for a spin, much better hey! But 90% of the time the tie-rod-end adjustment between cars is completely different, so it's best (if you're confident) to try and fiddle with the rackends to adjust the toe in/out and get the car tracking properly in a straight line. I got the wheel alignment done professionally anyway because i didn't want my tyre wear to be out of whack.
I hope this will eventually help someone out, it took me around 4 hours but i wasted a half hour stuffing round with the exhaust and swaybar. and thanks again to everyone's support prior to this as well. now... where's that bourbon???:mrgreen:
