Replacing Steering Rack Boots

[HCR32]

Ok, so we all have skylines which are 10+ years old...one thing on the car is bound to let go or rip apart are the steering rack boots. Constantly stretching in and out when we turn while we drive...its bound to happen sooner or later...

I will show you how i replaced mine (left hand side boot was torn) so you can change yours in the near future.

Its important you change the boots if you find a rip or tear other wise all sorts of crap end up in ur steering arm and if it gets real bad, you will be up for a new steering rack which is $$$!!!

Sorry about the photos, there not clear as they were taking by my phone...

I bought the boots from repco which cost me $13.50 each. The part number is RRB033.

Next you need to raise the car on the jack and take off the front wheels and you should have something that looks like this. You can see in this pic, my boot torn in two peices.

Here is a closer look..not good at all..hehe

These are the parts which need to be undone in order for us to take off the old boot.

1. Nut which has to be screwed clockwise

2. Dont know what this is called, i'll call it the End Arm, will need to be screwed Anti-clockwise

3. Pin, has to be straightened and pulled out

4. End arm Nut, which has to be undone so the End Arm will pop out below.

First i took out the pin(3) and unscrewed the End Arm Nut(4) Followed by the Nut(1) When you are unscrewing the End Arm make sure you count or mark how far up the thread you are or else when you put everything back together your front alighment will be out of wack, of course after you do all this you will need a front wheel alignment. I counted how many rotations it took to take mine off, which was about 19 turns (this is on my car, every car will be different).

Once you have done all that you will have this below, you can slide the old boot right off. If your steering arm has specs of dirt, try and clean it with a clean rag then apply some grease. My steering arm wasnt dirty so i left it as is. The pic below you can see i slid on the new boot.

Once the boot is on, get 2 cable ties and tie down the ends of the boot.

Thats basically it. Screw the Nut(1) back on then the End Arm(2) making sure you only go as far up the thread as marked or for me 19 revolutions. Then pop the End arm back into place behind the disc, Screw on the End Arm Nut(4) then insert the pin(1)

Before you put the tyre back on, turn the steering wheel and make sure the boot comes in and out nicely.

Last but not least, front wheel alignment. Even tho you might have the tyres facing straight the alignment will be off. This costs about 20~40 bucks

Thanks

Barny

[Baz]

Nice tutorial, I needed to replace the steering rack boots on my car when I was getting it complied. The only unfortunate thing is that I couldn't find a steering rack boot to match the one coming off, so I had to bite the bullet and buy a genuine steering boot. $62 the bloody thing cost me which I was not too impressed with, wish I had checked Repco beforehand.

[HCR32]

thanks man,

yeh genuine parts from nissan are $$ i saved heaps of money by getting it from repco and doing it my self.

[Duncan]

Great post, thanks....and added to list of tutorials.

One more thing though, often the ball joint is very hard to remove.

What you need in this case is a ball joint seperator, a big metal fork. You put the fork between the steering arm and the hub, and beat the fcuk out of it with a hammer until it pops out

If you don't have a ball joint seperator....get one....

If you can't get one, put the nut back on at least half of its thread and hit the nut until it pops. This will damage but hopefully not totally root the ball joint. So do it properly.

[Nozila]

duncan,

a question about the ball joint. You mentioned that you hammer it out until it pops. Do you do this from where the steering rod connects with the rod and in between you see like small holes where the pork would go? Reason i ask is becuase my rod with the ball joint connected is slightly bent and i cant get the damn thing off.

[Cubes]

Excellent.

I'll be off to grab a couple of boots. Thanks for the part number.

[Oosh]

Yeap, this'll be a weekend job for me, known i should do it for a while.

[predator]

why do you need to remove the ball joint to change just the boots?? :confused:

[Duncan]

Nozilla, the ball joint is the joint where the steering arm connects to the hub, its at the bottom of the second pic in the first post. The pork goes in between the hub and the steering arm

[Nozila]

thanks duncan got it off.

[HCR32]

Remember guys, if your boots are ripped, get them replaced asap, if sh|t gets in your steering rack it will get buckled and you will be up for a new rack.

didnt take me long to do both boots, bought the boots at 9am finished the job before 12pm with some bludging in between hehe

[groucho]

HCR32 - top tutorial mate! I'll be doing both of mine shortly.

[hazerb30]

This is excellent. My left boot is split and i have to get it fixed before getting it registered. Cheers !

[Grant]

The repco part number(RRB033) mentioned in the original post is not a very good fit, be warned.

[Bl4cK32]

The repco part number(RRB033) mentioned in the original post is not a very good fit, be warned.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

why not? what did you use, or recommend for a better fit?

[predator]

yeah, in the end I actually ended up swapping to the other ones.. as the suspension place i took my car to for some other work later said they were the wrong ones - but I think they were just trying to get more money out of me. All I noticed is that they just are a bit tighter seal down the rod end side.

When I thought about it later, I cannot really see how it would be a problem to be honest, as long as you have a tight seal on either end via the wire, or the zip tie that is provided. The idea of the boots is mainly to stop dust and grime getting in the joint, if everything is sealed to a good extent, I would have thought this wasn't going to happen?

[GTRsean]

Or what i did was leave the ball joint assy on the steering arm and undone the rackend, then removed the nut so that the boot can be replaced. Saves pulling off the ball joint.

Just undo the nut then unscrew the shaft out of the balljoint.(shaft should rotate)

Also changed a couple of CV boots myself, they also tend to crack up and crap gets into the joint and stuffs them.

[williamsf1]

anyone done this with the repco parts?

Im going to do it 2moro as I have found them split...

[grigor]

For those who don't understand tapers:

The tie rod end ball joint connects to the steering arm on a taper. If you use a forked ball joint removing tool, you will bugger the rubber dust seal and the ball joint. You could use a claw type of ball joint remover but they too usually bugger the thread. Most tools are designed to remove the old ball joint quickly and for you to replace it with a new one.

To remove a taper you need a large hammer, about 7lbs to act as a dolly, and a smaller ball-peen hammer, about 2lbs. Remove the split pin and loosen the ball joint nut but leave it on by a few threads. Right at the ball joint hold the 7lb dolly hard on one side of the steering arm and slog the opposite side with the 2lb hammer. The idea is to squeeze the taper from the sides of the steering arm.

One good solid slog will have the taper drop straight out, but the dolly must be hard against the arm to absorb the shock. Never hit a taper on the end or the nut, it only tightens the taper.

Regards.

[steve_gts4]

dear god.. dont ever hit anything related to the hub with a hammer.. its very soft and you will wreck it.

if you want to get the tie rod end off in one piece, do it like the service manual says, and use a pitman arm puller.