Hi, all. I am in serious need of help. I am attempting to change the steering rack on my
2005 Dodge Durango 4x4 with 5.7 liter hemi.

I have everything disconnected, and have turned the steering gear to the full right as my manual describes. But I cannot figure out how to maneuver the gear out of the car. I think I am supposed to move it to the left and then drop the right side tie rod down and pull it out to the right. But I can't move it far enough that I can get the tie rod past the torsion bar/spring.

Any ideas?

Chris

 

are the outer tie rod ends removed

 

The outer tie rod ends are not removed. It didn't look to me like removing them would make enough difference, but I will certainly give that a try if you think it might work.

Chris

 

After doing some more research and thinking about it overnight, I think I may have been mis-interpretting the instructions. When it says "move the steering gear all the way to the right", I was steering to the right which moves the gear to the left. I suspect I need to go the other way and then the left tie rod comes down and out first instead of the right one.

Can anyone confirm? In any case, I will try that today and update this post.

Thanks,
Chris

 

right is passenger side as if sitting in the vehicle.

 

That solved it. I was indeed going the wrong way. Correct maneuver is as follows:
Turn the steering gear to the maximum position to the right. That is, so the right tie rod extends the farthest out and the left tie rod is pulled in as far as possible.
Then lift up the right end of the steering gear and while twisting the gear rear words for clearance, maneuver the rack to the right until the left tie rod can be slipped below the torsion bar/spring.
Then you can move the gear out to the left.


Note I did not have to remove the outer tie rod to make this happen.

Chris

 

just make sure the steering wheel i-shaft and rack are matched. if they are connected offcenter you could snap the clockspring. that is why i prefer to remove the tie rod ends rather than turning the rack from center.
you will need a wheel alignment after rack replacement.

 

Chris fries how many miles does your Durango have?
What symptoms did you experience to lead to rack replacement?

Mine has 188k and a fair bit of slop in the steering wheel.

 

typically, play comes from inner or outer tie rod ends not the rack itself.