WoR473

My 93 3.8 Taurus has a scary problem. When you turn the wheel to the left, it acts like it is catching on something and doesn't want to turn, you have to give it a good nudge (temperature dependant, really bad when cold out, but sometimes seems not a problem when warm out). It never does it turning right. It will catch right when you start turning left, and if you get past the catch, turn back to the right just slightly (but still turning left, just moving the steering wheel back to the right slightly) it will lock again.

I really hope its not the rack itself because the car is really not worth the work, but at the same time i really need it but i don't want to die in it either lol.

I see from looking around there are alot of steering issues with these it seems but i can't find a case such as mine. Does the rack bolt to the body or to the frame on these? I didn't know if there is a possibility there are bushings that mount the rack and are worn out bad enough to cause a catch in the U-Joint where the steering column connects to the rack.

I hope someone has had this issue and knows a fix (hopefully cheap and easy lol, or at least cheap).

Thanks!!!!

Bert

Raise it up on stands and see what you can see. Can you do it with the engine off?

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Bert

WoR473

Will for sure have to do that as soon as i can, still working on this dang forester rear end, having a nightmare with it.

When its off its just very hard to turn (obviously without the PS), but it doesn't seem to have the catch.

I guess i also should have noted that when it does "catch" you can hear the PS pump whine and bog the motor down so its trying to push it but its not moving. I wish i had a better idea how these racks work. Is it possible its still trying to apply pressure to the right while trying to turn left or is my thinking all wrong lol

jwko

Sounds to me like the rack & pinion (steering rack) is bad.

WoR473

Yeah i guess if i would have researched how power assisted rack and pinion work i would have figured that out. Will have to jack it up and make sure theres nothing physically contacting any steering parts which i doubt but would be better than a new rack.

Its like it doesn't send fluid to the right side of the rack to push it left when until you put alot of force on it. At an idle i've actually killed the motor with the power steering pump trying to get it to turn.

I hope i can drain the fluid out, find some "magic" fluid to hopefully clean/recondition the rack if such a product exists and try that out. Anyone know of a product like this?

Thanks!

R.S.LOGAN

Would suggest having a good check on steering column intermediate shaft coupling .Have had similar fault on a few other cars caused by this .

jwko

The comment they made about the power steering pump while and motor bogging down would pretty much rule out the shaft coupling.

R.S.LOGAN

Quite correct , I should have taken more time reading post .

jwko