I got a chance to drive it a lot more tonight. Man, seriously guys, this is a great mod. The play in the rack must have been really bad.

Do it!

 

Make sure it's the joint or you're tossing your money away like I did. I replaced both driv./pass. inner tie rods because I thought it was the drivers side since when I grabbed the drivers side boot I felt it buckle. but mine is actually the rack (the shaft that slides inside the housing or Part #5 in my first posted schematic) that has the play in it. so make sure cause the inner tie rods are about $75-$100 each. a new reman'd rack assmebly is only about $250-$300.

 

Good point, I will make sure. Right now I am just so happy that the steering and tracking is straight, that I might live with it with this sound (that I can only hear when doing the test) for a while. Besides, I don't want to have to take that rack "off" again anytime soon!

 

Hey Christian,

Glad it made such big improvement! Mine is sitting on the bench, waiting to be installed. What was the toughest part, getting things in without tearing the bushings?

 

Well, on removal, just go to town on the horizontal stock bushing (use a razor blade, saw, whatever) and rip it out of there. As for the vertical bushing, do the same.

Once you get the stock ones out, you may have to use a floorjack and bend the stock "tab" that sandwiches the verticle bushing. The reason you will have to do this is because the poly verticle bushings are too tight, and the rack will not slide back into place without bending that tab upward.

Don't be afraid to get creative with this. I did some pretty strange things to get the rack back on. I had to lubricate the poly bushings with liquid wrench to get them in. I also used the grease that was supplied (not enough by the way) to push the brass sheaths into place.

So, to answer your question, the hardest part was probably getting the rack back into place and bolted in with such tight tolerances.

I went to town with the air tools, they really helped. Good luck David!

 

do you have pics of this tab? I didn't have to bend any tabs or anything. the biggest problem I ran into was the fact that I neglected to jack the front wheels off the ground and support on stands so when you pull the rack back away from the crosmember the wheels will turn (like \ / when looking from above the vehicle) and that gives you room to stick the bushing in from the front of the rack, between the crossmember and the rack that is.

 

What tab are you talking about? I was just looking to see if could see something.

I figured on cutting those old bushing out of there. How about using a C-clamp to press them back in the housing?

 

The verticle bushing (the red bushing you can see in the middle of this picture) is what I am talking about. Only problem is that you cannot see the "tab" I am talking about in this particular picture. The view is blocked by the rack. I had to wedge a flathead screwdriver between a floor jack and the tab, and slowly raise the floor jack - just enough to bend the tab slightly.

I also just realized something by looking at this picture...I never got the poly "bushing" for the mount on the far right! Should it have come with the kit?

 

I got all three.

I see what you're talking about now.

 

yes, it should have come with the kit. I got an all black kit from Mike and it had all three of the red ones you see above.

I'll have to go check that tab on mine, I don't thing I have a problem though.

 

OK thanks. I just PM'd Mike.

I am sure he will take care of me. That's what's nice about doing business with him - you just know it will get taken care of. Another good thing is that Daystar is based out of Phoenix (I am pretty sure).

Cool, so I get to remove the friggin rack again!

 

haha, at least he's right there in town. I need to get a new kit too, I ripped the drivers side bushing since I was too dense to jack the wheels up to move the rack. but that ain't where my clunk and play is though. I'll replace the bushings when I replace the rack.

 

fwiw... as of today, I'm in the same camp.

I thought it was a wheel bearing, but... it's only a worn rack end on the passenger side, and yes, my rack is shifting back and forth.


On to order bushings and ends!

I love this "hobby"!

 

Yeah no kidding!

Oh, and by the way, the Daystar kit does not come with the half doughnut piece - that's according to Mike and Daystar anyway. To be honest it doesn't really matter because the improvement of just the other "two" bushings is tremendous. I don't have much room to complain.

You will be amazed at the difference it makes.

 

huh... bummer on the 1/2 doughnut piece.

Okay.. back-tracking through the pic that you and Keisur are using, I found this write-up:
http://www.keystonekrawlers.com/Mods...eeringBush.htm

Which has a link to here:
http://www.suspension.com/toyotapickups.htm

And under "Pickup 4wd", it shows "FRONT RACK & PINION BUSHING SET, $13, Does all three positions". Ain't that them? And these are ES parts, so they ain't OEM. There's nothing listed in the 4Runner section for the rack, but I think they're the same...

 

Go with ES. Central can get them in no time flat.

 

Great, now you find this!

Guess I got ripped.

 

Sorry Christian... If my front end had started making noise a couple of weeks earlier I may have tripped over it sooner.

I just got off the phone with http://www.suspension.com. NICE guy - I think he was the owner.

fwiw, he said that Daystar has approached them to sell their products along side of ES and they won't do it. They've seen too may trucks come in with torn bushings after just a few months that have the "mo" part number on them. That's Daystar.

Obviously, he's selling ES and may not have good things to say about Daystar anyway, but he really has no reason to lie - he could be selling Daystar if he wanted to.


more info... Tie rod end from a stealer is $63.60, https://www.1sttoyotaparts.com/partscat.html wants $41.17. That should be here on Wednesday, about the same time as the bushings.


Thank you for all your help today Ben!

 

You are welcome

I will be off all next week so let me know if you want a hand.

 

Well, I should be tackling this project tomorrow. I notice with the stock rims/AT revo's back on the vehicle that I seem to get alot more bump steer than with the MT's. I'm wondering whether new bushing will help with this.