Depower a Power Steering Rack for 2014

I've researched this one, and there are some previous threads of information:

Images of a depowered rack someone bought:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/depowered-steering-rack-assembly.483051/

Short thread with some pics and background info:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/de-powered-a-steering-rack-properly.432751/

But here's mine, done today on 10/11/14...

I won't go thru taking if off the car, so let's assume you've done that already. Let's also assume you've removed the outer tie rod ends and removed the boot on both sides. So you should have it in the vise like this:

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Don't be scared about the big nuts where the pinion is, they came out pretty easy. I found a big nut in the shop, and put that in the hole, which allowed me to throw an adjustable on it to loosen it:

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I think it was a 5/8" nut

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At any rate, loosen this, and behind it is a spring and half-moon piston thing. It applies pressure to the rack for steering feel, or some other technical term. Adjacent to this is another large nut, loosen that to get to the 17mm nut that holds the pinion in place. Once the 17mm nut is off, loosen the two 12mm bolts holding the pinion to the rack and remove the pinion.
Here you can see both the 'big' things you'll loosen in 1 picture:

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Next we'll work to get the rack out. Grab a flathead screwdriver and hammer, and tap this thing around clock-wise until a piece of wire magically pops out of the hole:

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You'll see what I mean when you're doing it. Once it (the wire) pops out, you then start tapping counter-clockwise. What you're doing is essentially loosening a retaining clip that only retains on one end:

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Now the clip is free:

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A couple taps of the rack from the pinion end, and the rack comes out:

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Above, you see a black ring and a white ring. The piece with the black ring just slides off, so that's fine. The piece with the white ring is what's on the rack pretty solid. This is also the piece that separates the fluid-side of the rack into 2 sides, so that's what you remove.

I placed the rack in the vise, and with an air cut-off wheel, cut a slit in each side of that thing:

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The camera focused on the end instead of the piece, but I made 2 cuts into that thing 180 degrees apart from each other, then tapped it with a chisel to break it off the rack.

Now here's when I ended my journey for today. I put my rack back in the assembly, packed the pinion area with grease, so much so that it came out the flanges when I tightened the 2 12mm bolts for the pinion back to the rack. A grease fitting on the long end of the rack will do nothing. There's a seal about halfway in the assembly that would not let grease get near the pinion area. A grease fitting in any of the 4 holes in the pinion would do nothing, as there are seals and bearings that wouldn't allow the grease to get near the pinion area. Then I thought about a grease fitting on the big thing we loosened with the 5/8" nut, but that's where the spring and half-cut piston thingy is, so no grease would get past that either.

There's really nowhere that's a good spot to put a grease fitting. The best place to grease it, would be at the pinion side boot. So I'm going to use a normal band clamp there, something I can easily unscrew and loosen, and pump grease into the rack where the grooves are.

I also didn't weld the pinion together as seen in the first link above. I didn't see a need for it. Sure there's a tiny bit of up/down play, but there's zero side-side play in this portion. If anything, the only play felt here would be the steering wheel moving closer or further away from you, but that's a whole different assembly. I guess if you want to weld that, go ahead, but I didn't. If you want to put grease fittings in the previously used hydraulic hose fittings, go ahead, fill your whole assembly up with grease if you want. Not sure if it'll do anything on the stagnant side of the rack or not.

Upon final assembly, I installed that big nut as loose as possible, to there was the least tension on the rack. That half-moon piston is really a brake of sorts, the more tight you make that big nut, the harder it pushes on the rack, which means more friction. So I made it the least tight I could, while still making sure it was thoroughly screwed in.

Run to NAPA and finish the install off with the proper clamps for the boots, and 6 m14x1.5 pipe plugs where the lines used to go (or weld them, or grind them down and weld the openings for a smooth finish, whatever's your pleasure).

My finished product:

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~t$

 

[tmoney20g]

Run to NAPA and finish the install off with the proper clamps for the boots, and 6 m14x1.5 pipe plugs where the lines used to go (or weld them, or grind them down and weld the openings for a smooth finish, whatever's your pleasure).
~t$

I went to put the 6 plugs in, turns out 5 are the size noted above, and there's one on the pinion that's the next size up, I think m16.

So you need 5 + 1.