Where are people getting steering rack from these days?

Long time no see y'all. Time to do some maintenance on the Tundra. I was out of the country for 3 months and came back to my rack leaking at the input shaft seal.

Looks like Toyota reman is like $650. Rockauto has lots of options. I bet at least one of these is a good choice (any ideas?):


Please share your thoughts.

Then I can get back to diagnosing my permanent EVAP leak. Been doing every FSM test in the book on the canister and replaced every line with new ones at this point, plus smoke testing (guess what, there's no leak). That's another thread.

 

Before I replaced the rack, I'd try plopping 1/3 bottle of

$20 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205 in it. You can get at most auto parts stores for around $20 or on scAmazon for under $25. It's not a "miracle fix", but it will rejuvenate seals, it takes 200-300 miles of driving for full effectiveness. Seals shrink with time. That stuff will help replenish the seal, hopefully get it sealing again.

That said, careful which brand you pick. I don't see any brands on that list I'd trust. I know @bmf4069 went with Detroit Axle and has apparently had good luck up to now, a couple years in? I'd personally just buy OEM if ATP treatment won't fix, your OEM lasted how long now? Why buy something that may last 3-5 years and do the job 2-3 times when OEM is a buy-once/cry-once solution to get another 15-20 out of it?

RE:EVAP leak, did you smoke test at the filler neck? I'm pretty sure your year of truck had the TSB on it for cracked filler neck issues. There's a link to that TSB in the megathread sticky "so you just bought a 1st gen" thread.

 

Thanks, I'll try that. And yeah, $200-300 more for not doing the job twice seems like a good idea. That said, I think I just want another year or two out of this thing before I find a rust-free example in the southwest.

RE: EVAP: so the first time I tested it, I didn't block off the vents at the filler neck and had smoke coming out of them. Thought "woo-hoo, it is the neck!". Smoke was only coming out of the plastic holes visible when looking up at the filler neck assembly underneath the truck. Then I read about the vent line and blocked that off.

The second time I tested it, I blocked those lines and the pressure from the smoke machine attached at the front of the truck started pushing fuel up my filler neck (but no smoke). Which makes me think that I think I'm pretty well-sealed at the neck. Replacing that is where I drew the line at throwing parts at the problem.

 

3 years so far, and 2 offroad beatings still going strong.

 

And just for curiosity, no smoke anywhere on the rubber lines under the hood when using the service port w/smoke?

I'd be tempted to hit a JY and find a used evap can, and swap out the assembly just for shits n giggles. There's not much other stuff it could be. Gas cap, cracked hose/tube, hole in the tank (which is a legit thing, just had someone on here get theirs drilled last week), cracked EVAP canister, faulty purge/vent valve (I'd expect a code, and I believe that's embedded into the evap can), or a faulty pressure sensor (which I don't know if these trucks have, but many of my older GM trucks had one).

 

I guess I k ow where I'm getting my next rack

 

I did replace the assembly years ago. Just bench tested this one and it holds air great and lets air through.

I also replaced both valves (one came with the canister), but not with new Toyota ones. I just actually went back to my original purge valve because upon testing the “new” one I had put in while shooting parts at it 2 yrs ago, I noticed that I could barely blow air through it. So we will see if going back to the one that tests correctly does something for me.

The trucks do have a pressure sensor on top of the fuel tank. I swapped that out when I first got the truck, which got rid of a bad sensor code and introduced bad evap system codes.

For all I know, replacing all the hoses this go around did the trick. I made a rookie mistake and tested after replacing the hoses but not before. Fun stuff.