Hey. OK so i failed my inspection today. Guy said my power steering rack is leaking by the boot. He said that the resivour is nearly full, it seems like it just started leaking not to long ago.

So I don't know if anyone remembers a year back when I had to get my Trailmaster leveling kit removed because I had the exact same issue?

I really hope this is irony.

So I am going on my Third power steering rack, I have 35,000 miles on the truck. I am JUST out of my warranty, its been 3 years and a couple of days, but they say they will cover it because its linked to a related issue.

What's going on here? My new power steering rack was fine, i checked it often, now 3 weeks after my leveling kit, boom I need a new one?

And rewind to 1 year ago, I started having steering issues with my trailmaster kit installed and was told my rack was leaking at the boot and needed to be replaced.

I have tried several times to look for a link between leveling this truck and the power steering rack failing, and could find nothing about it. I did find however that the power steering racks on dodge trucks are not all that great.

It seems like I am the only guy having steering issues over and over.

Anyone want to shed light on the subject?

The truck see's no abuse, it see's 95% pavement, town and highway, and 5% trails, or light offroading to hit fishing spots or do some household project, a few times a year.

The tires I am running cannot be much heavier then the 265/70s that run from the factory. Stock rims.

What's causing me to chew threw power steering racks? Bad Luck? Are they that poor of a rack that it can't handle a 2" leveling kit and slightly larger tires?

HOPEFULLY they are not going to blame the kit, because I don't have it in me to remove that F*cker. It goes in to dodge tommorow.

 

That sucks, I have a hard time blaming the leveling kits though as I've had mine installed for over a year now and no steering issues.

 

What's going on here? My new power steering rack was fine, i checked it often, now 3 weeks after my leveling kit, boom I need a new one?

You're scaring me...

 

Don't get scared, I have had steering problems since very early on with my truck. Everyone else on here with a leveling kit has never had to replace a steering rack. I just don't know what the deal is with my truck and the whole situation. All i know is it JUST started leaking, and I JUST installed the kit. And with the trailmaster kit I had a year ago, I had the kit in for like 1 year and I took it out when I needed to have my first steering rack replaced, and never got around to installing a new kit until 3 weeks ago. Now all of a sudden I need a rack, it SEEMS like its related but no one else with a leveling kit has had the problem.

I dont have the energy to take the kit out this time for the warranty work, so hopefully they wont care. My dealership has been excellent so I doubt they will give me trouble about it. When I had my first rack replaced the alignment guy took special care to make sure it was aligned right with the bigger tires and never said anything about the larger tires possibly straining the rack so, I doubt they will care about this if they even notice it.

I am just getting tired of my Dodge truck much earlier then I thought I would. I am going to have a THIRD rack put in, THIRD. In my whole life I havn't replaced 3 racks with all my other cars and trucks added up together! lol

 

If they dont cover it check out moparpartsamerica, they have great prices on all their parts.

 

could it because it is 2 wheel drive? might have a different rack than those with the 4 x 4

 

I think its the same rack, can't seem to find 2 diff part #s. It's probablly just a hose leak or somthing.

Theres a huge thread on the 3rd gen ram section about factory hose clamps being junk on the rams and dakotas, and how to fix with better clamps. I will mention it to the dealer. Hopefully its somthing small.

 

Are you supposed to flip the tie-rod end to the top when installing these kits? That places them higher and closer to stock level on bigger lifts, not sure about these spacers. I can see how the angles would be different, but not much. I think the racks on these trucks suck anyway, you might just be unlucky....and on St. Pats day. No luck of the Irish for you

 

if you flip the tie rod you must ream the top with a 7 degree ball joint/tie rod reamer. this reamer alone cost 80 dollars!!! Then you must get an alignment due to the shorter lengths on the tie rods after making them parallel. I plan on doing this but the reamer is just not worth it to buy once.

If you just flip the tie rod and use the bolt it will be scary to see what happens when the bolt comes off that sucker. The tie rod must have the cone shaped seat securely pressed and fitted into the nuckle or you Will see tie rod failure.

You dont need to flip it on a 2 inch lift by the way, mine has plenty of clearance and no boot is getting pinched. See my write up for pics.