I pulled a steering rack from a 1984 Fiero today to replace the one that is in my sisters fiero, which has 285,000 miles on it. Yes the one there is worn, it doesn't even straighten back out by itself going around a U-turn, etc, lol.

So the one I just pulled is from a very clean 70,000 mile SE. The original boots are still fully intact with no cracks or cuts. The inner tie rods ends still very snug, though the outers certainly require replacement during the swap. I understand the reasoning behind replacing the inner and outers, along with the damper while its apart, but I'm trying to do this fairly quickly and cheaply for her (which may be more expensive in the long run?).

The rack feels very solid and I'd be comfortable using it as is. The only thing I'm unsure about is that if I push and pull on the tie rods, the rack makes a sort of 'click' as each tooth engages on the rack. Is this normal? Should the rack slide from side to side very smoothly? I'm trying to avoid a rebuild if possible, but if these are signs of a bad rack, I guess I'll just have to tear into it.

Thoughts?

You'll be fine. It is normal for a Fiero rack to have a somewhat clunky or noisy feel to it when moving the rack gear back and forth. This is normal on a Fiero's rack because of the lack of power steering necessitating a high steering ratio. To get this gearing, they had to use a *Tiny* pinion, and that makes it somewhat clunky. Fortunately they used a helical pinion to make it at least relatively smooth.

If the rack gear is rust free. Grease it, add new boots and possibly add a rack bushing from Rodney Dickman, although the bushing is less needed for 84-87 racks. Then you should be good to go.

A few major things happen to Fiero steering racks; Rust, center wear and pinion wear. 88's have additional issues of broken pinion bearings, and a worn passenger side bushing, (plastic on most 88's) I'm not sure if pinion bearings are vulnerable on the 84-87's. You can check the pinion bearings by wiggling the pinion shaft with a decent force.

Center wear is always proportional to mileage. This is where the steering wheel is straight and the rack is naturally being forced back and forth by the wheels under normal driving. This beats up the rack gear in that one spot. The wheel will only be a little loose when in the center position.

Pinion wear is when the wheel feels slightly loose in all positions, however this is indistinguishable from any suspension looseness unless you can visibly isolate it. You're not going to be able to check these two issues till its installed.

Rust is the most common issue. If the boots tear, the rack will rust, the rust Is abrasive and will damage all sliding surfaces. At this point the rack should be rebuilt.

Thanks for the very thorough reply. I got the rack over to the shop and started looking at it in more detail. Despite having fully in-tact boots, there is a very slight click when I hold the body and move the pass side tie rod up and down, or side to side. I'm assuming this is play in the pass side bushing, and requires rodney's replacement. I was hoping to not have to cut the boots off, but it looks like that won't be the case.

Any one have a diagram of where to drill/tap for the zerk fittings during a rebuild?

Edit: Just saw rodney recommends pulling the boots to check the play. I'll do that first.

[This message has been edited by Jncomutt (edited 03-31-2012).]

Well bringing this thread back up, as I finally got around to tearing the rack apart today. The bellows were in great shape, with no rips or cracks. I pulled the rack apart, and the main shaft looks good, with only minimal discoloration. The whole rack came apart very easily, unlike some horror stories I've heard about having to beat on the thing to get it apart. I noticed the bushings in the rack were all steel, and in pretty decent shape (to the eye). I have rodneys bronze bushing that I'll be installing after I get this all cleaned up. I was happily surprised how easy and simple it was to do this job so far. I wish I hadn't put it off for so long.