Steering Rack Issues

[Compton74]

1987 1JZ car. Bought the car from a fellow supra enthusiast, with a rack issue. He told me had another rack that needed to be rebuilt, took his word on it. I rebuilt the rack and put it in the car. Went to get it aligned and they say there is no adjustment left. Heres the kicker, car is a 1987 but i'm not positive if the subframe is 89+. Im thinking it is, its got round motor mounts, but i have no other determiner in how to tell if the subframe is pre 89 or post.

What i need help figuring out:
Need to know what subframe is in my car so i can get the correct rack and pinion. The rack in it now, has a special bracket on the front passenger side, which i honestly dont know what is for, and the rack that came off the car did not have this. Luckily i took photos of the new vs the old rack out of the car can anyone help me out? Thanks in advance for the help.




Obviously the dirty rack came out of the car, one thats in the car now is the clean one.

 

[jesse_rc1991]

I have a 1991 turbo and I don't have that bracket on my passenger side of my rack. I believe that bracket is for the steering damper which I hear some mk3's have, not sure what years though. wouldn't hurt if you don't have it though most ppl take it off for more steering angle. what do you mean that the alignment shop say there's no adjustment?

 

[Dan_Gyoba]

Went to get it aligned and they say there is no adjustment.

Go to a different shop, dude, these guys have NFI.

AFAIK, there are only 2 different rack styles, and those are '90+ for PPS or non-PPS. The steering damper is usually found on pre'89 models, and can be connected. I have one on my '89 subframe (Square mounts) though I believe that it wasn't there from factory. It came with the rack from my '87 parts car. There is none on my '90, but it's non-PPS, and I haven't checked if the provision is still there. It can be safely ignored though. (Mind you, I have fewer issues with bump steer in the '89. I always chalked that up to the targa on the '90 vs hardtop on the '89, but it could be the damper, too.)

 

[Poodles]

No adjustment? :rofl:

Find a new shop, preferably with an ASE certified tech in suspension.

 

[Compton74]

Now i usually do my research as I don't want to ask a question if I don't have to. This is the second alignment shop (both ASE certified) that has told me that there is no adjustment left. This shop pulled me under the car and showed me what they were talking about. The tie rid ends are all the way down on the inner tie rods and the toe is still out a great amount. So there is no thread left to bring the toe in. Makes me think the outer tie rods are incorrect, but I remember measuring them to the old ones off the old rack. I'm kind of between a rock and a hard place. Go buy a new rack or figure this one out. I've done a little research on places like rock auto, the 87 rack is a different part number than the 92 rack. Another issues that I've had is the car dead heads one turn more to the left than it does to the right. So I'm starting to think maybe the rack was rebuilt incorrectly or I put it in incorrectly. Just trying to figure out the issues.

 

[Backlash2032]

No adjustment left is different than no adjustment. Get a tape measure out and figure out what's wider than it should be lol

Sent from my HTC Droid DNA

 

[Compton74]

That would be easy if I had something to go off of, but unfortunately the old rack is gone.

 

[Poodles]

Hmm... looking at the pictures it looks like the inner tire rods might be longer than normal. If that was the case you could cut them down to the right length so long as there's still enough thread to use.

Outside of that, no idea what's going on...