How to Replace Power Steering Rack 2005-15 Toyota Tacoma

So, one of the first things you need to do when you're doing your power steering rack is, of course, to flush the power steering system. You wanna make sure you have clean fluid inside there so when you put in your new rack, you know it's gonna last a very long time. Once you've gone ahead and done that, you're gonna get inside the vehicle and make sure you tie off the steering wheel so there's no way it can spin. I use a little bungee cord and it works great. And once you've done the flush, you're gonna wanna make sure that you have your key in the on position, and then you're gonna come over here and disconnect your negative battery terminal. Get that off of there. Now, you're gonna leave that for approximately 10 to 15 minutes that way there you don't disturb any of your airbag system with any other service we're gonna be completing now. Once your vehicle is raised and supported safely, you're gonna remove all six lug nuts.

All right. So, now that the wheel is off, we have a clear view of our jam nut. Go ahead and spray that down with some penetrant. Once you've let it sit for a little while, break the jam nut free. The next thing we're gonna do is get this cotter pin out of here. This one is obviously very rotted. I'm just gonna cut it. It's not coming out. I'm gonna grab the socket and just put it over the top of this, it's gonna peen down on that cotter pin, and then we'll just take the nut off. I'm just gonna start that nut on just a couple threads here just so it can't fall, spray down this area. Now we're gonna hit right here on the knuckle and try to break the outer tie rod end from the knuckle. Okay. Time to get the outer tie rod end off, just go ahead and spin it. And while you spin it to the left, count those threads. One, two, and so on. Just take note of that number and write it down somewhere. Now, we're just gonna do the same on the other side of the vehicle.

The next thing we wanna do is remove the skid shields. Generally speaking, there should be one here and one a little bit further back. Obviously, our rearward one is missing already. Use a 12-millimeter and get them out of the way. So, now we're gonna spray down the areas that we're gonna take off. If you look up inside here, you're gonna see where the lines are. Hit those with a little bit of penetrant. We're gonna keep moving along. You're gonna see this bracket that holds these lines but follow it a little bit further to the area where it leads onto the rack, and go ahead and spray that down as well. If you were to continue on, you're gonna feel right here. This is a mounting bolt that comes through from the bottom, it has a nut on top. Go ahead and give that a spray. And then right over here, same thing. I'm gonna grab some long nose pliers, get right in here, try to grab that clamp, slide this right up here. Awesome. See if you can wiggle that around, it should wanna pry up. Just gonna grab on to it carefully with my pliers and see if I can lift it a little bit, and then I'm gonna keep drawing up by hand. You wanna be careful not to damage this hose in any way. A little bit of fluid is gonna come out, so make sure you have your collection bucket. Come on. There it is. Use your 17-millimeter and go ahead and get this line off of here. Nice. Sometimes the hardest part is just breaking it free. Looks like it's getting pretty loose here. There it is. Awesome. The next thing we need to do is get this bracket off of here. So, use your 12-millimeter and take out the bolt. Nice.

So, now we're gonna go ahead and get off that lower bolt for the steering shaft that leads down to the rack. Put a 12-millimeter on there, break it free, and just pay attention to make sure that the rack shaft doesn't turn. If it turns a little bit, that's okay, but we want it to be as straight as possible. There's our bolt. I'm gonna use a pry bar but you could also use a chisel. Come right up in between these two ears where the bolt was and just try to wedge it in there. That's gonna spread the ears. We're gonna hit it with some more penetrant and we'll get the shaft right off of here.

Now, I'm gonna take out the two bolts that are holding this in. I have a 17-millimeter nut up top and then right underneath I'll find a 17-millimeter bolt head. We'll get both of these out of here. We're gonna take off the bracket that's holding these lines, that way there we can move these around. Just use your 10-millimeter, take off the bolt. Just grab that bracket, we'll get it right out of the way. Now we can grab this. If you have to wiggle the power steering rack around, it might be helpful. The world's longest bolt. So, now that the rack is out, we know we have that lower bolt out, let's just go ahead and get the shaft off of here. Pull on the rack a little bit. Awesome. Let's use our 12-millimeter and get this bracket off as well. Cover your hose ends with something and then just set them so they're gonna be out of your way here.
The next thing we're gonna do is get jam nut off of here. Find your clamp, take that off with some long nose pliers. We're gonna remove the inner clamp. Just take a look and see how it's mounted on here. Mine is just a little squeeze clamp. It's a single-time use, so I'm gonna break it off and then I'll have to replace it with another clamp or a wire tie. Go ahead and grab onto that boot and remove it. Now, I'm just gonna clean off this area on the inner tie rod end right up along here. At this point, there's multiple ways of doing it. You can use a tool that looks like this. They also sell a tool that's a big long pipe, you slide it over with an adapter. I like to go with just big old pliers. Can grab onto it, break it free, turn it right off of there. If you have a hard time reaching to this because it's too far in, just grab your inner and tug it out. That'll bring it out to where you need it. There it is. Let's do the same to the other side.

Now, we're gonna remove these brackets that you can see up front. We're gonna use 17-millimeter on all 4 and then we'll do the same to this one as well. Do the same to the other one. So, now Just be careful with those lines. You wanna make sure that once we get this sway bar down, they're not gonna come falling down and get fluid all over you or potentially in your eyes. So, just figure out a place that you can put them that will make it so they won't leak.

The next thing we're gonna do is remove the sway bar from the front area here. You'll notice that the front of these brackets is slotted so you can loosen up the front bolt quite a bit and then remove the rear bolt completely. I'm gonna leave this one in a few good threads, remove that rearward one. Do the same on the other side. Hold your bar. This is great. Now we have a nice clear view. I'm just gonna take one of those mounting bolts, put it back through the rack a little bit just like this. Once you have it so the rack can't move around too much on you, we're gonna remove the little tip that's on the rack there that the hose goes on to. Use your 17-millimeter and break this free. Make sure you clean this up, we're gonna be reusing it. Just get this bolt back out of here now. Awesome. Now, we're just gonna use a jack and support this nice and lightly, then you're gonna remove these two bolts right here. Use your 19-millimeter wrench up top and your 22-millimeter socket down here. Do the same to the other side. Now we have a nice clear area here, let's try to get the rack out. There it is, friends.

So, now it's gonna be time to center the power steering rack. And when I say centering the power steering rack, I don't necessarily mean measuring from this end to right here, and then this end to right here. It's not about that at all. It's about measuring the internals of this. So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna grab onto this. I'm gonna turn it all the way to one end. That's gonna be my starting point. At that point, I'll turn it all the way to the other side, and then I'll count those threads. As I went, I'm gonna divide that by two, and then I'll turn it back to the left to get to that divisible point, and then we'll know where to go from there.

The next thing I wanna do is loosen these up a little bit. Use your locking pliers, go up on the smooth area. Go all the way to one side nice and slow, it's not a race. Okay. So, what we need to do is just make sure we're at the very end, which we are. Now, I'm gonna line these pliers up with my 6:00 position and I'm gonna count all the way till it gets to the other side. One, two, three, three and a half. Perfect. Divide that in half, and then that'll be where the rack is gonna be centered internally. So, I'm gonna turn this back one and three-quarters. One, half, three-quarters. Now, we're at approximately the center position. So, now I'm just gonna clean this off, make sure that there's no oil on this area, and then I'm gonna mark the rack so I know approximately where this needs to be. And that's gonna help us for when we put this in the vehicle because we're gonna have to spin this rack a little bit. Let's go ahead and push this power steering rack all the way to the right. Let's line this up in here. Turn that inner. Just try to walk it over. The differential is gonna be what's hanging you up mostly. Awesome. So, go ahead and grab one of these rack bolts. We're gonna start it through the passenger side. Start on that nut, but you don't have to tighten it up because we're not getting to that point yet. We just want to hold the rack so it can't move in this direction.

So, at this point, we're just gonna push the rack all the way to the passenger side as far as it'll go. I can see where my line is. I'm just gonna pay attention because now I'm gonna go ahead and turn this, the one and three-quarters turns heading back towards the driver side. Once we do our one and three-quarters turns back in the other direction, our two lines should line up perfectly. So, now we're just gonna pull on the left front inner tie rod and watch that shaft spin around. We want it to turn one and three-quarters turns. That's pretty close. Go back and try to line this up. I'd say that that's pretty much it right there. So, now we're just gonna take a look at this. You can see the areas that we need to clean which is the threaded area. We're also gonna get this little rubber seal off of here. Once you have it off, you can inspect it. Generally speaking, it's a great idea to replace it though. Once you have it all nice and cleaned up, go ahead and put on your brand new O-ring, and then you're gonna coat that with a little bit of that power steering fluid. Let's go ahead and get off that far rearward cap, the one closest to the steering shaft, install this back in there. Go ahead and snug it up now. Okay. It's bottomed out. Teeny bit more. Great.

So, now it's gonna be time to get the steering shaft onto the rack. Before you go ahead and put it on though, make sure that that steering wheel is still nice and straight. So, we can move the rack around still. We're just gonna go ahead and put the steering shaft right up on it, and then slide the two together. Make sure that your lines are still lined up on the rack where you centered it. Awesome. I'm gonna go ahead and start in this lower bolt here. I like to use the tiny bit of thread locker on my pinch bolt. We'll call it your prerogative. Go ahead and put it through there. I'm just gonna snug it up, and then we'll torque it to manufacturer's specifications. Okay. So, it's snug. That feels good.

So, now we're just gonna make sure that the steering wheel is nice and straight, and we're gonna double-check those lines to make sure we're lined up the way we should be. Now, it's time to get the rack mounting bolts in. So, we're just going to turn this back around to the right direction. There it is. Start that nut on there. Do the same to the other side. Let's go ahead and bottom these out. Torque these to 68 foot-pounds. Now, we're just gonna try to turn this so we can get to that bolt. Twenty-six foot-pounds. There it is. Let's make sure we re-secure this line that was over that steering rack bolt. Grab the bracket, put it back up over, then start in your bolt. Go ahead and snug it up. Go ahead and grab those lines. Now, you wanna clean this down the same way you cleaned down that other line. Get your little gasket off of there, clean down these threads, replace the gasket, and then add a little bit of lubricant. Let's go ahead and get the cap off of there. Save that for the other rack. Grab your lines, put them up in here. Okay. The one that screws into the rack directly is the pressure line and the one that has the little clamp that holds it to that extra piece is the return line. Make sure that's nice and tight. That looks great. I'm gonna grab my hose, slide it right down as far as it can go. Now, we're gonna make sure we put the clamp on and make sure it's just below that barb. Beautiful.

Let's go ahead and get this bracket bolt back in here. Make sure you snug it up so the lines are nice and secure. Let's get these bolts back through. Bottomed out, little more. Bottomed out, little more. So, now go ahead and grab your bolts that are gonna hold the sway bar bracket to the frame. If you want to add a little bit of copper never seize, now is the time. So, now you wanna just push your inner tie rod so it's up against this shock here. Do the same on the other side and then go ahead and grab your bar, slide it, and then get the inner tie rod so it's underneath the bar. Let's get the bracket up and over that bolt. Do the same on the other side, of course, at the same time. Start in those rearward bolts. Let's go ahead and snug these up. Start with the rearward bolt. Go ahead and torque all these bolts to 30 foot-pounds.

So, now what we're gonna do is get these up on here. We've got our four bolts for the driver side and then, of course, we're gonna put in the bolts for the other side. All right. Let's snug them up. Let's go ahead and clean down our work area. You wanna make sure it's good and clean with no leftover fluid. Let's put our shield up on here. You have your mounting areas on these plates. If you wanna hit them with some copper never seize, it's not a bad idea. Let's snug them up. Let's get this back in here. Let's go ahead and spray down the inner tie rod end area with some copper never seize. All right. Now, let's go ahead and put on our outer tie rod end. Make sure that you count back to the original number when you took it off. Go ahead and bring that jam nut down to the outer tie rod end. We're not gonna snug it up yet because we need to start it into the knuckle. So, now we're gonna take our castle nut and we're gonna start it on the outer tie rod end. After that, we're gonna bottom it out and then we'll torque it to manufacturer's specifications. Let's go ahead and bottom this out. Now, torque it to 67 foot-pounds.

Once you have your castle nut torqued down to the manufacturer's specifications, you wanna pay attention to where the cotter pin is gonna go through the stud on the tie rod and line it up with the closest slot on the slotted nut. When you do that, you need to continue tightening. If it doesn't line up, tighten it just a little bit more until it does. Do not loosen it. Let's go ahead and make sure you get that cotter pin in there. Super important. Now, let's tighten up the jam nut. That's nice and snug. Perfect. Do the same on the other side of the vehicle.

Okay. We're cruising. Let's get the wheel back up on here. And of course, get all your lug nuts on and started. Let's go ahead and bottom out all the lug nuts. Okay. Now, we're gonna do the same to the other side and then we're gonna torque them to manufacturer's specifications. All right. Let's go ahead and torque the wheel in a crisscross pattern to 83 foot-pounds. Torqued. Let's go ahead and reconnect that negative battery terminal. Make sure you tighten it up. Needs to be super tight. Awesome. All right. Let's go ahead and grab that. All right. Let's top it off. Okay. So, now that we have that topped off, we're just gonna go inside the vehicle and we're gonna turn the wheel very slowly to the stop position all the way to the left, and then turn it very slowly all the way to the right and do that several times.

So, now we're just gonna start up the vehicle for only a couple seconds and watch for air bubbles. That's good. Now, let's check for air bubbles and check our level. I'm gonna wait for all those little air bubbles to go away, and then I'm gonna restart it again. Just clean down that area, make sure it's nice and clean. We should be able to check our level. All right. Let's close the hood and then we'll take it for a good road test.