Ron - You're list makes me shiver. It seems like I still have some fun times ahead of me! By the way, Harbor Freight sells a pretty good tranny jack for about $45 or so. And if somebody wants to borrow mine, just stop on by!

Don't leave us hanging, Will. Did you jump back in and do the resistor?

I'm afraid the '92 244 needs new TABs. Ine side has that characteristic squeak. I may need to revise my list sooner than I'd hoped!

The problem was an overdrive shift problem that I simply could not fix. It wouldn't shift into OD until I hit 65 or sometimes higher. I did everything: flush & fill, dropped the pan and cleaned out the crud, new KD cable, swapped in a known good solenoid, even pulled the valve body. At that point I had enough. I bit the bullet, pulled the donor tranny from our parts car (a '91 244 with about 120k miles), and did the job. The replacement has worked perfectly for about a year, although I did have a few days of trouble with a short in the OD circuit.

Dreading the job of rack replacement, I have been "feeding" the leak for over a year. Nothing on the driver side of the engine bay is really dry of ATF.

The need to add ATF has gradually increased. Now I drive as little and as short as possible, with a mind to where to park so at to be able to add ATF without being either in the bushes or out in traffic. Aslo plan routes based on minumum number of short radius turns.

I carry 4 quarts of AutoZone Coastal brand Dexron Mercon III in the trunk, and one more up by the battery.

Now I have a rack, with the tie rod ends and pump attached, and the climate in my "shop" has become wet muddy and cold. But the job is next up after the harmonic balancer replacement. I intend to combine that job with motor mount replacements.

Pulling the rack at the boneyard, with the able assistance of brickboarder bcj, was not too bad, since the donor car was on top of another, and the u-joint was not too rusty. (Actually, I assisted him!)

Until spring, carry lotsa ATF. It makes adding easier if the AFT carried up by the battery is in two jugs, each half full. More accurate pouring.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

Good luck. This is one of those jobs that can save you a ton of money.Here are a few other tips:

- I needed to save the bottom u-joint. I did not have a replacement and new ones are very expensive. After removing the retaining pin, nut and bolt, I hammered a largish Craftsman screwdriver blade up into the expansion slit in the side of the bottom section of the u-joint. This spread it a bit. I then loosened (but did not remove) both of the u-bolt mounting the rack to the engine compartment cross member. I loosened the one near the rack input shaft to within a few turns of the bolt ends. This slack allowed me to rotate the rack so that the input shaft went from an angle of say, 45 deg, to about 60 deg (i.e., more horizontal. This allows the joint to slip relative to the splined input shaft without binding on the upper part of the steering column.

- I used a 1/2" Craftsman socket extension and a hammer to pound on the bottom of the joint (yeah, I know I use my Craftsman tools in ways Bib Villa never imagined!). After pounding on one side, rotate the spline (and steering wheel) 180 deg and pound on the other. You'll see when the u-joint begins to slip off. You will also be amazed by the amount of corrosion caused by the dissimilar metals.

- Use a wire brush to clean the splines on the new rack input shaft. Brush parallel to the splines so you remove the corrosion between the splines. I used a wire wheel on an angle grinder - makes 'em shine like new. The splined hole inside the u-joint is a big problem. It will be heavily corroded. The hole is small (1/2" - 5/8" in or so), making it impossible to clean with a normal wire brush. I fabricated a brush by taking a plastic-handled steel wire brush with 3 bristle rows, cutting off one row and part of the handle using a jig saw, and cutting the bristles to a length of 1/4" using a cold chisel. I was able to get this little brush up into the hole. Using strokes along the splines, I was able to get it very clean. A brass brush might work on the hole splines, and you just might be able to find one small enough.

- After lubing the mating surfaces, assembling the u-joint to the new rack was simple. The new rack needs to be loose in its u-bolts so that the spline can be rotated a bit. A bigger problem is aligning the male and female parts. They need to be positioned so that the bolt passes along a flat milled into the input shaft to provide it clearance. As the input shaft and u-joint come together, you can see this flat. Just align the u-joint expansion slot with the middle of the flat. You will be able to hit the middle to within +/- one spline! If you do, the bolt will go right in, and the steering wheel will be centered when the rack is centered (assuming the steering wheel hasn't been removed and reinstalled).

- If you're installing a used rack (as opposed to rebuilt or new), clean, inspect and lubricate the tie rods. Either replace or check the boots for leaks (I cover one end with a hand or finger and blow into the other - simple but effective). Use a wire brush to remove undercoating and road grime from the part of the rod outside of the boot. The big zip ties used on the newer racks are hard to find. I use a hose clamp cushioned by a strip of inner tube rubber to hold the boots to the rack cylinder. If the tie rod ends are still good, you can often remove the rubber boots to clean and lubricate them. Drain the new-used rack of old fluid while it is off the car.

- Spray some primer on the steel fluid lines on the outside of the rack. They tend to corrode.

- I twist paper towel plugs into the hose fittings and rack hose fitting holes during installation. They keep out dirt. Clean the hose fitting bolts and their copper washers while they are out. The outside edge of the washers tend to pick up a bit of corrosion.

That's about it. Like I said, my biggest mistake was assembling the joint before recentering the steering wheel. When it’s centered, you'll get about 2-3/4 turns each side.

- I gotta think that rear trailing are bushings have gotta be right up there.

Ditto. Perhaps not the absolute worst, as it's not extremely time consuming, but dealing with old parts that's possibly rusted in is never fun.

As for the heater core and having to separate the housing ... well, it looks like you've never had to do a blower motor replacement before. Step 1 is to remove the dashboard. 'nuff said.

-- Kane
--
Blossom II -'91 745Ti/M46 ... Bubbles -'74 144GL/BW35 ... Buttercup -'86 245GL/AW70
The Wayback Machine -'64 P220/M40 ... The ParaBox -'90 745GL/AW70L