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Wedge TR8 Power Steering Rack is Out!

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GBRandy

GBRandy

Jedi Knight
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Yea. I just finished the interior & the PS rack sprung an unrecoverable leak. :cry: So I took it out this weekend. Holy Moly was that a pain.

It's out and so is half the darn underside.
TR8parts2.jpg


The rack is off to the shop. For grins I pulled the pump for a looksy. Anyone know where I can get a new one & a pulley? YIKES!:
TR8PSPump.jpg


New ball joints & tie rod ends were ordered today. I will install the new Classic Tube stainless tubes and hoses as well.

This should be a whole new steering system once completed next weekend.
 
Pump is a Saginaw unit if I remember correctly. It was commonly used on late 60's GM products. Try matching it up to a rebuilt unit or taking it to a rebuilder. Here is where most of the TR8 owners have there racks and pumps rebuilt.

https://atlantic-ent.com/power-steering-pumps.html

Even the shops that advertise a rebuilding service actually send the racks here. You will need to reuse the pulley and mounting bracket, so try to straighten that bad boy out.(maybe find a GM billet pulley) While you have the subframe out, it would be a good time to do a pan gasket. If you get stuck on the pump and pulley I have several laying around.
 
yep, I fought that battle too, I went to the manual steering set up and rarely miss the power steering. It is nice to have that one less leak dripping on the floor
 
So far with my maybe 100 miles I am not that keen on the manual box. Think I will go back this winter, maybe.

By all means. Do the pan. Stuff to remove on the back side but not to bad.
Had mine ceramic coated and glued the gasket in from Woody's shop I think.
 
If you go the manual rack route, you have to make sure the u joints are well lubricated, as well as the fire wall bushing and the sleeve inside the column. Roller strut bearings also help the cause. Keep these parts moving freely and you won't miss the PS. That is unless you have really big sticky tires, spend your entire driving experience in a parking lot, only have one good arm, you enjoy vague feedback in corners, your female,........
 
I am pretty sure those were the points Todd sold me with a year ago.
 
I'm looking at doing my rack and p/s, how much of pain am I looking at?
also, I would PM you about some other questions, but not sure how,still learning the system after all these years.
Tom
 
I just got my TR8 back from my painter a few weeks ago and was about to replace my PS hoses when I saw that the pump was also leaking from the front. I called Woody Cooper and he is sending me the pump's rebuilt internals which I will put into the original pump casing. $75 plus 4.95 for new banjo washers. Seems like a good solution to me. I was hoping to drive the 8 to Road America this weekend -- I'll either drive it before the PS repair or take the TR3 instead.
 
sabot said:
I'm looking at doing my rack and p/s, how much of pain am I looking at?
Click to expand...

Go look long and hard under your car. Then come back and look at this:

TR8parts3.jpg


The whole lower sub frame comes out. That means disconnecting both front motor mounts. You need to support the engine from the top. I have a 2 x 4 across the engine bay and a come-a-long attached to the engine hoist loop in the front.

The jack on the left side of the picture is not supporting anything. It is just snugged up to the main pulley. It is there in case that darn 2 x 4 breaks while I am under the car. It should stop the engine before my forehead has to :smile:

sabot said:
also, I would PM you about some other questions, but not sure how,still learning the system after all these years.
Tom
Click to expand...

Just click on my name and select "send a PM"
 
Randy- for adhesive I used spray contact cement,#90.
Sprayed the pan edges and one side of the gasket a couple of times and layed it on there. I practiced dry a couple of times to see how it fit. turned it upside down on a flat surface for a couple of hours.

Todd- the Rack was a brand new unit, don't tell me I was suppose to grease it? U joints where brand new as I toasted the other brand new ones taking them off.
What should I do to lubricate the delrin bushing?
I'm running 205/50's Kohmo's
 
I use white lithium grease on the fire wall bushing and also inside the white sleeve inside the column. Make sure you keep the u joints greased as well. Use bearing grease for those. Add a little bit of heat and road spray, and the sliding surfaces rust up quickly- then the steering gets heavy. When you grease the u joints, jack up the front of the cars to get the wheels off the ground. Spray on some liquid wrench or similar thin lubricant and work the wheel back and forth many times. Keep reapplying the lubricant until the rusty drips stop. Wipe the joints down with a paper towel and work in some bearing grease by turning the wheel back and forth between several applications of the grease. An acid brush works best for the grease. Not sure if your rack came with grease or not. I installed a new rack from Roadster a couple of years ago that had very little grease. I had to add some. That new rack was still a little tight 500 miles later when the freshly installed 4.9 had to come back out. The used racks were never that tight, so I assume the new rack will loosen up once the car is back together and it gets some miles on it.
 
OH, U joints in the steering arm. Was thinking ball joints. I Powder coated them so I bet they are stiff I will do some Todd medicine to them
 
Well, the rack is in the shop and they needed to order a seal for it. The pump is being pulled apart today. I was hoping to get them back by Friday....but reality says I'll be lucky to see it ship by then.

The new tie rod ends showed up and they have a grease zerk on the top. My old ones did not. I am going to pretend that is a good thing for the moment...

Pressed out the ball joints yesterday and managed to mangle one of the new ones going in. More money to TRF. :frown: New one here by Friday.
 
Well the rack is STILL being rebuilt. Waiting on some seals. Getting tired of looking at my car on jack stands.

Banjo washers: Is there a special part number for the rubber / steel washers used to attach the banjo to the pump? Seeing as this is a pretty standard Saginaw pump I was hoping there might be an easy answer on these washers.

Anyone?

Randy
 
Woody has them listed at $4.99 on his wedge shop site. Don't know numbers for local parts stores.
 
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