so my rack was leaking badly on dr side, and rack gear was moving forward/backward atleast 1/4 inch while shacking wheel side to side....and an obvious knock....i changed with a reman rack from cardone, and it is better but still clunks, and appears to still have same front to back movement and a loud clunk when under it that can be felt in the floor....i called advance and they sent me another one and are giving me a full refund but i don't want to waste another 4 hrs and 20 bucks worth fluid if they are a known issue.....i was skepitcal when i opened the box to see used half a$$ washed ineer tie rods ends on the rack but through it in anyway cuz figured it would be fine....i was wrong.....i am still getting the slight shake on the highway and under hi speed braking that my other one did, also indicating there is movement in the steering somewhere....i checked ball joints, and control arm bushings for play but didn't find any movement at all....are these cardone rack junk or did i just get a lemon that should have been sleeved to eliminate the play???
02 grand caravan 3.8 es with about 120000 miles....200000 kms

thanks

 

Not sure if you have a service manual for reference, but the following shows the steps for steering gear bolt up torque. Did you make sure the 14mm bolt was torqued to 135 ft. lbs. ? It may be what is causing the side slip and clunk.

(4) Install steering gear on the front suspension
cradle. Install the 3 steering gear mounting bolts and
nuts (Fig. 8). Tighten the 3 mounting bolts to the following
torque values:
² 14 mm bolt – 183 N·m (135 ft. lbs.) torque
² 12 mm bolt – 95 N·m (70 ft. lbs.) torque
(5) Attach the power steering fluid pressure and
return hoses to the correct ports on the power steering
gear (Fig. 7). Tighten the hose tube nuts at the
gear to a torque of 31 N·m (275 in. lbs.).
(6) If the vehicle is equipped with All-Wheel-Drive,
install the power transfer unit as necessary (Refer to
21 - TRANSMISSION/TRANSAXLE/POWER
TRANSFER UNIT).
CAUTION: Proper torque on the cradle reinforcement
to suspension cradle mounting bolts is very
important.

 

they new reman front to back play is about 1/8 inch and is in between rack cylinder and linear gear inside rack....not sure what its really called....not actual movement of the rack itself....on my old rack i had removed the boot to visibly watch play but on reman rack i can see it with boot installed and hear it...i will be under van dropping tank tonight to change cracked p;lastic sending unit causing fuel leak and evap code and i will double check but 99% sure it is bad rebuild on this rack too....i can also double check torque too but they should def be tight


thanks

 

A good rack should have no play there. Just too bad you have to do the job 3 times due to defective parts.

 

Mopar racks are just as bad.

 

so 2nd rack in and same bit of play...brutal, going away on vacation early sat and so off to alignment shop it went, allot of the hi speed braking shake is gone but there is still a slight bit, so now i changed driver side outer tie rod end, rearward control arm bushing, rack, sway bar bushings, and still have a slight shake in the wheel when high speed breaking....just in wheel and not in pedal.......could it be warped rotors that are two years old???....i am gonna change the passenger side rearward bushing too when we get back but movement is very tiny in that bushing, driverside was more obvious and now is *******ly none....I just hate throwing parts at this thing!.....any ideas??