Power Steering PITA

[Jo6pak]

Bleh....just finished crawling around under the KJ on the cold, slushy, concrete floor of my garage looking for a leak in my power sterring system.

I found fluid inside the driver's side tie rod boot.

I'm assuming this means my rack is shot?

It's beyond my ability to fix this myself, and I definately can't do it in my small, unheated garage. The only shops open today are Sears and Goodyear, neither can get the part until at least tuesday, and frankly I would rather have my normal mech. or the dealership to do this work

I buttoned everything back up, hopefully I didnt make the leak worse by digging around under there.

With school and work, it could be midweek before I can get it into a shop. If I keep a close eye on the PS fluid level, will very limited driving (~30 miles city driving per day) for the next few days trash anything else?

How much can I expect to pay for the fix?

 

[yellocoyote]

All I can give you is the part cost as we changed mine in the driveway... IIRC, the part was somewhere in the neighborhood of $250, and it took a couple of hours to replace.

 

[crazyjeepkid]

for parts and labor, cost me 500. 200+ bucks for pump alone when it should be 80-100

 

[yellocoyote]

He's not talking about replacing the PS pump, but the steering rack.

 

[Jo6pak]

So I should be OK if I baby it til I get in into a shop?

 

[ridenby]

i have a used rack,less than 15,000mile on it. Think it has inner tie rods still on it,been awhile since laid eyes on it. $100-you pay shipping. I am at 40601.

 

[yellocoyote]

I'd say should be okay for awhile. Just watch your fluid levels pretty closely.

Do you notice any slop in the steering?

 

[tjkj2002]

Labor time for replacing the R&P is 5.5 hours so times that by how much your local labor rate per hour is and expect $200-$400 for a remaned rack,$1200+ for a new one.You also will need a alignment which is not part of the 5.5 hours of labor.

 

[Jo6pak]

Do you notice any slop in the steering?

No slop, steering seems to be same as always.
Anything else I should check tomorrow? Could it be just a seal or gasket?

 

[yellocoyote]

If your steering is still good, I'd think you still have some time. The steering in my KJ was getting a little sloppy by the time we replaced my steering rack.

 

[Jo6pak]

Cool.
I'm assuming the new rack will include the inner tie rods, should I go ahead and do the outer tie rods too? My KJ has ~113k and the tie rods are original as far as I know.

 

[yellocoyote]

Rack I bought included the inners. Outers aren't difficult to change, should you have to do it later... but I don't see how it could hurt doing it all at once.

 

[Jo6pak]

I've got an appointment at the stealership on thursday. Quote was about $1000 with a reman. rack, including alignment. ( I forgot to ask about doing the outer tie rods) It's a bit spendy, but the dealership is only about 1/2mi. from school. I can drop it off before classes and pick it up on my way to work.

Will they have to remove the shocks to swap the PS rack? I'm wondering if I need to mention the clevis lift or not. If they drop it back down then align it, it'll be all goofy when I raise it back up.

 

[JeepJeepster]

They shouldn't need to mess with that but you never know. They are going to look at you in an odd way if you say anything about a Clevis lift.