Power steering line to rack and pinion connection

I installed a reman OEM power steering rack in my truck at the start of the year. I actually changed a bunch of front end parts at the same time. Everything came out and went back in much easier than the videos made the work look, no leaks, all good except the steering wheel was fighting on turns. After bleeding and rebleeding, it turns out, the OEM reman rack was bad (lesson learned) and was warrantied out through Toyota. So, I got to do the work again.

This time, the pressurized power steering line keeps leaking at the rack. The threads don't feel right. The non pressurized side goes in by hand very easily, and seats to where I only need a couple of turns of the wrench to snug it up. But the pressurized side isn't so friendly.

I changed the pressurized line just in case, and still leaking. I am now pretty sure the female threads in the rack are bad or chewed up or something.

Can I tap new threads? or clean up the old threads in the rack? What size tap will I need? Please tell me I don't have to get a whole new rack and do this again...

 

Did you remember the little o-ring

 

Lol, yes I remembered the little o-ring.

 

Anyone happen to have a part number or a link to order that little o-ring? Can't find it for the life of me and I have a small leak at the same spot

 

I used an o-ring from an o-ring assortment kit I had gotten from Autozone, mine doesn't leak. You might just go that route.

 

If your old line is still around, I'd cut the treaded part of that off and take it to the store and use their thread gauge to figure out the thread. Some tap and die sets will also have tools to measure the thread pitch and you can use a pair of calipers to measure the bolt size.

Problem with using a tap is the final threaded portion of the tap isn't going to go anywhere deep enough into the rack to actually thread it, so you'd have to blind tap it. I've done this before with standard taps by running the tap into the hole as much as it will go, taking it out and cutting some off the tap and then threading it back into the hole and repeating this process until the full threaded portion of the tap is in the hole I needed to tap. All that said, if you think the threads in your rack are pretty chewed up, cutting new threads that are the same size may not fix anything for you because you'd be moving / removing some metal when you rethread the hole and it may not hold the same pressure. Depending on how bad the hole is you might not be able to re-tap it at all. If you do go this route, be careful to make sure the tap threads into the existing threads.

My concern with going to a bigger size is then dealing with a different sized fitting on the steering lines.

Probably the best bet is another rack...

 

Bad news Kentucky...

I guess I will contact Toyota and see whether they will warranty this thing, or if I am buying a new one. If they won't warranty the rack, I will try to ream/rethread the problem side prior to buying another one.
Definitely going with a new one the next time, either this week or in 20 yrs.

 

For what it's worth, I put a cheap Detroit Axle steering rack on my truck, and it's been fine. I kept my old rack though in case I ever need to get it rebuilt and swap back in.

 

You don’t want to rebuild it yourself now for fun?

It definitely would be useful to a lot of members here including myself.

 

That actually is the kind of thing I would find fun, but time is scarce these days.

 

90080-30046