Power Steering Rack Rebuild - Part 2 of 3

This is phase two of the power steering rack rebuild. Here is a follow up from part one to get everyone caught up. Valhalla sent me his power steering rack all the way from California to Mississippi because we have become friends and he trusts me after seeing us work on my rack.

I will list pictures and show progress of the repairs in this thread. Part 3 will be Valhalla's reinstallation and his opinions about our service.

After a good cleaning....looks like were ready to get started. Thanks Valhalla for trusting me with this. I wont let you down.

before the cleaning


After (yes, I realized that I looked like I was getting into the Christmas spirit early....fixed)












Here we go :biggrin:

For my sake and valhalla's, I will not disclose what was damaged nor will I discuss pricing here. You are welcome to pm me though.

Completely broken down.....yes its a bit scary:



This is not for the faint of heart:



A bearing nearly worn out:



We will be replacing his bearings while we are in there. We will do this to every EPS rack that we rebuild. Also, it will be cleaned and everything that needs it, will be lubricated.

hi D1Guy,

Can you indicate to the lesser initiated like me what the tell tail signs for the worn bearing in your photo above.

Great job BTW.

SS

Silver Surfer said:

hi D1Guy,

Can you indicate to the lesser initiated like me what the tell tail signs for the worn bearing in your photo above.

Great job BTW.

SS

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PM sent

Hello everyone, just an update. I have refurbished Valhalla's commutator and it is now ready to be go back inside its magnetic field. I will be installing the bearings (all three), by the end of the week. With a little luck, we could be finished with it in a few days. I hope you guys are as excited as I am about seeing that little red light go off :biggrin:Thanks everyone for following.

Hey just a thought- in the other thread you said that you were going to fabricate the new bushings to replace the OEM ones. Will these be the same rubber type or will there be an option to use poly or delrin bushings? Would that be too stiff and increase frequency of rebuild or will it just increase road feedback and steering feel?

This is still undecided. My original plan was to use the rubber just like factory. The poly urethane is more durable but I'm afraid you would get a negative effect. This only applies to the manual rack. The eps rack has bearings and a metal bushing internally.

There will be some testing involved and will probably try the poly urethane later.

Definitely not for the faint of heart. Takes a little gumption to crawl under your car and pull out the rack and send it half way over the country. Then to see her internals displayed like that for all to see.

But the hardest part is waiting. must......get.....my......car.....back.:tongue:

so what kind of paper did you use to polish the copper.

I have used 3200 grit.

and it looks like a bigger version of any electric motor they use them in remote control cars LOL.

did you take pics of the sanding process?

looks good. great job. but more pics. LOL we love pics.

Thanks shawn for following the thread. Here are a couple of pictures after the polish and clean up:





We found slack in one of the three bearings. The one with the major scratch in it has a lot of play (the bigger one to the right):



If that doesnt fix it, were going into the torque sensor. These racks occasionally fail inside there. All you have to do is spend about 20 hours on the torque sensor alone You have to test everything on both boards. The torque sensor was what was wrong with my car's eps. Here are a few pics of how much fun we had:















NOT A GOOD TIME



THANKS HONDA









We repaired the board, put it back together, and it worked. So, if you are having power steering problems, send your rack to me It may not be easy, but we can handle it.

Thanks everyone for following the thread. Welook forward to helping you if we can.

Following this thread. I wonder what Part 3 of 3 will entail? Valhalla's install?

If you need a test subject for a manual rack let me know. I think i'm courageous enough to send it thru

Be careful what you volunteer for Regan! I haven't driven the car since "The Last Drive of the Year" and it's killing me:frown:

Valhalla said:

Be careful what you volunteer for Regan! I haven't driven the car since "The Last Drive of the Year" and it's killing me:frown:

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I know and Im sorry. I had enough bearings made to do ten EPS racks. I am just waiting for the bearings to arrive here. Everything is ready to go back together, just waiting on those bearings to arrive. The next 9 EPS racks that I do will go much quicker

I already beat you to it ryu

Valhalla said:

Be careful what you volunteer for Regan! I haven't driven the car since "The Last Drive of the Year" and it's killing me:frown:

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Time well spent seems like!

d1 guy said:

I know and Im sorry. I had enough bearings made to do ten EPS racks. I am just waiting for the bearings to arrive here. Everything is ready to go back together, just waiting on those bearings to arrive. The next 9 EPS racks that I do will go much quicker

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I'll have about 2-3wks of being out of the country so the downtime should coincide perfectly I think.

Nero Tenebre said:

I already beat you to it ryu

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I can run faster than you! lol jk.. I'm supportive of any NSX getting a new rack! Yea..., buddy...!

The previous and original owner of my 91 Automatic paid around $7000.00 to have the dealership install a new rack, I've heard the rack is different for an Automatic is that true? Also what is the jelly like substance in the photos of the circuit boards, is that some sort of suspensiongel to protect the electronics?

Edresh said:

I've heard the rack is different for an Automatic is that true?

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Yes. I learned that the hard way and now have an auto trans EPS rack laying around as a result... You can tell the difference by looking at the electrical connectors. The MT racks have 2 plugs and the AT racks have just one (plus a single wire which I assume is a ground lug).

Yes, the automatic transmission EPS racks are most definitely different as Mcnice said. I have yet to see one in person, so I cant give any details on it. I would love to have one to work on and study.

Just to add that I am not at all dissatisfied with D1Guy's work or speed. I know I'm the first rack to be rebuilt (besides his) and that with discovery and searching for new parts to rebuild this, it might run into some delays. I'm all good here as it gives me time to work on some other projects I had lined up. We're all good.

I've just never been a patient person and don't see a New Year's resolution fixing that trait!

Hopefully mine will stay healthy for quite some time, it should it was new in 2007. What was that gel substance in around the circuits?

It's just a gel to keep it protected. Honda did that so it would definitely be unserviceable......unless you're crazy like us.

Yes we even replaced the gel. I used green mint jelly....the same stuff I put on lamb before I eat it......kidding....but we did replace the gel

Man this is great news from Folks like me, that have an EPS equipped NSX and hopes that is does not fail. Now we have someone that is capable of repairing these EPS Rack this is just wonderful.

Please keep updating the thread. LOVE IT.


Bram

Here's a quick question.. if the EPS ground wire by the battery in the front is not grounded.. and you drive the car, could that damage or wear it down more? Or is it just that you don't have the electronic power assisted motor support..

Nah, if no ground, the eps will not function. It wont hurt it....you just wont have power steering. Now, on the other hand, my 98 had some corroded ground wires that caused mine to malfunction. If the brain isnt getting the proper current, it can cause damage in the EPS control unit and in the torque sensor.

Soooooo.... I have all the bearings here finally. I had have one custom made. I have enough to do several more EPS racks.

I had to buy a press so that delayed me a bit. So far, I have two of the three bearings installed into Valhalla's rack. It's looking so good.

Thanks Nero and Ryu for agreeing to send me your manual racks. I look forward to getting them here. You won't be disappointed. I am getting a vendor page together for Prime I appreciate all of you guys.

I am confident that Valhallas rack will put back together by Saturday and tested on Tuesday.....hopefully. Its looking great.