New. Power steering rack removal. Any advice would be appreciated
 

I'm due for inspection in.... 3 days. Checked most everything out that is considered safety last week, brakes, tires, seatbelts, headlight clarity, all that stuff. I took it to the shop and he told me that the power steering rack needs to be changed. He said one of the seals is broken, I take a look and it sure as hell is. I'm planning on replacing the entire rack, not just the seals. No point in doing only the seals when a few months down the road, the entire rack can take a dump.

Does anyone know what all I'm going to need (tool wise) to do this?
It's my wife's car, I rarely work on it cuz I just got my car back up and running and working out the kinks. It is a '92 civic dx. Auto trans. 118xxx miles. I just wanted to see if yall know of any easier ways to do this, besides looking in the haynes manual. The shop quoted $800 for it. I am not jumping the gun on letting them screw me.

its not a hard swap. jack it up pull the tires off unbolt the tie rods use a ball joint seprator to seprate the tie rod ball joints. go under the das on the bottom of the steering shaft you'll see a bolt un bolt it. then under car 2 bolts on passengerside of the rack unbolt and a bracket comes off that holds it.then on the driver side there is 2 bolts that hold it on. now if you have power steering unbolt the lines from the rack. now rack is loose (you can take the tie rods off the rack to make it easier also) slide it far as you can to the passenger side and the driver side will drop down. then pull out.

tools:
10mm
12mm
14mm
ball joint seprator
17mm
19mm
4 way to remove tire.

So it's pretty much the same way as Haynes describes it? Should take how long, about 3 hours or so? And.. since I don't have a joint seperator, and I'm in a little bit of a budget crunch, what can I use instead? I never had a problem getting mine loose on my escort.

it took me about 1hr but i know honda's
for the ball joint sep. goto autozone they have a free tool rental. you pay for it (deposit)
when done you bring it back and get ur money back.

you will also need an alignment after.

Ok. The mech. on duty gave me a ballpark of 3 hours, so that's what I was basing it off of. I've worked on cars for awhile and done the brakes on a few Honda's, so I know my way around the car for the most part. Hopefully I'll have some good results. Thanks a lot for the info and fast response.

Adam

The hardest part is the very limited access that you have to bolts holding the power steering fluid lines on the rack. Just take your time. Small hands would be an advantage.

I also recommend that you take a photo of the tie rod bolt adjustments or counts threads exposed on the tie rods so that you re-install them the same way to avoid needing a wheel alignment.

It will take you at least 3 hrs to do the job.

no problem dont be a stranger.

Yea, looking at haynes, I saw that there would be a tight spot or 2. Pics are a must whenever I do work on cars that aren't mine.

And trust me, I won't be a stranger. My brother just got pounded for $1200 from honda to replace his belts, so now he is coming to me with any other problems with his car.

And the install is pretty much the reverse of the removal, right?

Download the 92-95 Civic manual at the link in my signature.