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EPS (Electric Power Steering) & Manual Rack Refurb Service For All NSXs - By - D1 Guy

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EPS (Electric Power Steering) & Manual Rack Refurb Service For All NSXs - By - D1 Guy



Hello everyone, my name is Matt. A lot of you already know me by word of mouth, but I recently became an official vendor here on Prime, so this is my official introduction to you all as a vendor. I am grateful to be a part of this family and the camaraderie amongst Prime members is like none other I've experienced. Charles Brown and I (Matt Lindsey) developed a repair service for the NSX EPS units a few years ago, when I had my 98 NA2 (VIN 000001). We quickly noticed that there were several others in need of this service, so we decided to offer it to the public. Valhalla (JC) was the first one to send his rack in to be diagnosed/repaired and this unique refurbishment service spawned from there.

I'll try my best to explain what to look for and what you can expect from me. I'd like to start by saying that if you didn't buy your NSX new, then you probably don't know what its supposed to feel like. See, Honda designed these racks to have aluminum bushings with rubber between them. The technology wasn't there back then to have a non-compliance self lubricating bushing, so the only way they had to build these racks, was ultimately flawed from the beginning. These EPS units were designed to provide the same road feedback, handling, and feel as a manual rack at speeds above 18mph. The rubber inside the factory bushings dry rot and break down over time and not necessarily with the mileage of the car. Basically, every rack in existence needs to be refurbished with updated parts considering some of these cars are already 25 years old. My colleague (Charles) and I rebuild/refurb these racks in our spare time strictly for the NSX community. I've had 5 of these cars in the past and they are my favorite automobile. We started noticing that every NSX needed the same few things......window repair thingies, climate control rebuilds, Bose amp repairs, and the EPS units.

For the longest time, all the issues mentioned above were addressed and could easily be fixed by purchasing a specific aftermarket part.....except for the EPS racks themselves. Basically, what we do for the NSX community is a full refurbishment of the mechanics inside the rack itself. The bushings are replaced with an oil impregnated bronze that self lubricates. This doesn't wear down over time like the factory ones do. This is a permanent fix for these bushings. All of the bearings are checked ( I have to source them from Turkey and it wasn't easy getting them). If a bearing is bad, it gets replaced, but if it isn't, then we don't risk knocking them out. We've only seen bad bearings in a few units and all of those were either accident units, flood units, or fire damaged units. We remove the com, polish it and the brushes, we completely disassemble everything piece by piece, so everything can be checked thoroughly, then we relube everything before we reassemble it for testing. Once everything is back up to spec, we bench test it to make sure that all the tolerances are correct and we make sure there are no bumps/loose spots/rough spots/dead spots in the steering rack. Basically when you receive your rack back from me, your NSX will feel incredible, provide better road feedback, and handle better than you ever dreamt possible from a stock setup. The more suspension modifications you have, the better my system feels. I also give a full year warranty on my service. This warranty is for the mechanically portion of the rack only. If there is an electrical issue with the rack, it has to be addressed on a case by case basis and almost always, I will need your complete car here instead of just the rack. I've done over 120 of these units and have yet to have an unhappy client. I have clients all over the world that have been very happy with my work......Tokyo, Dubai, Australia, Canada, and of course the US, just to name a few. If I can help, please let me know.

My name is Matt Lindsey and I live in the northeast corner of Mississippi. Turn around time is about 10 days or less. Occasionally, I can get them done in 5 days, but sometimes it takes a little longer because this is something I do on the side. It is very tedious and very time consuming. We fabricate all of the parts (except for the bearings) and test everything individually, so quality control comes first. The standard rate is $1,600 for the NA1 and $1,500 for the NA2. The NA1 requires the extra gear as seen in the pics below where as the NA2 just has a sensor inside the torque sensor.

We offer a Rebuild + service that replaces the end bushing as well. This is $300 extra and is highly recommended on track applications and on NSXs with high mileage because of the excess wear that occurs on this bushing after a lot of miles.

If you have a shop, I do offer a shop rate for businesses that intend on sending out multiple racks for repair. I already work with a few shops now including Ben (redbird92) at Daisy Auto in Woodbine, MD, Barney Demonbreun (BARNMAN) in Nashville, TN, Brian at Source One, Nabil Armally at First Class, Autowave, and John Zahn at Zahntech in Redmond, WA. If you decide to do this, you wont be disappointed, I assure you of that. Also, please note that we have purchased the domain name listed in our logo, but it is not fully operational yet, but it will be shortly. The best place to find out more info is here on Prime, or on our Facebook page. Thanks again and if I can help, please let me know.

My cell is 662-416-0900 and my email is [email protected]. Feel free to call, text, or email me if you are interested in having your EPS rack addressed.


Check out a few of these reviews about our work that were graciously posted here on Prime:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205669752975674&set=o.952907684729712&type=3

http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/198674-D1-Guy-Another-Great-EPS-Rack-Repair

http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/195669-D1-Guy-s-EPS-Repair

http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/195066-D1-Guy-on-Power-Steering-Rack-Rebuild

http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...ng-Rack-rebuild-service?p=1892088#post1892088

http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/183234-D1-Guy-EPS-Steering-Rack-Repair-on-my-95

The picture below is a great example of a perfectly clean and freshly refurbished EPS unit just before we shipped it back to its owner. Please note that this is what you would send in to us. Some choose to leave the inner tie rod ends attached (which is fine), but that adds about 10" to the shipping box, so shipping it without them saves us time and saves you money on shipping charges.



The torque sensor on 1991-1996 automatic NSXs and the 95-96 manual NSXs has a gear cog inside it that transmits data to the EPS brain. These were made of plastic from the factory. It's very common to find several broken teeth on these cogs, so we fabricate our own cogs that eliminates the chances of this happening again. As you can imagine, broken teeth results in incorrect data which results in erratic electric power steering function. All 91-96 units receive our cog hence the price difference in the 1991-1996 vs 1997-2005 units.







This NA1 belongs to one of our clients who received our EPS service along with some very sticky tires:



This is our advertisement that was in NSX Driver magazine just before attending NSXPO 2015 and 2016:



Lastly, here is a pic of two more beautiful racks just before they were shipped back to their rightful owners:

 
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NSX Manual Refurbishment Service

As of a few days ago, we finalized the development of our manual rack end bushing and received our very large order of new bearings. I ordered enough to rebuild 10 manual racks just to cover the initial interest. We rebuild 2-4 eps racks a week now and were hoping that our manual rack rebuild service will be much more popular. As most of you know, the end bushing is the culprit for causing the "knock" or "bump" in the manual rack. Well, not only that, but the bearings and the input shaft bushing also plays a part in the sloppiness. I guess to simplify things, we can say that the wear on the end bushing causes the knock and the bearings and input shaft bushing attributes to the sloppiness in the steering that occurs on higher mileage cars, tracked cars, and other performance oriented drivers. As a lot of you know, there is another bushing offered that is a small insert called the knock busing. This one will temporarily disguise the symptoms of the knock, but the main bushing is still worn out and all of the pressure of the steering is riding on a bushing less than half the size of the original. Our bushing is 50% longer than the original and will fill this void and will be better than new. It is a total replacement. I have had our rebuild service in my 1992 for the past 4 months and it has made an astonishing difference. I'll post some pics of the manual rack this weekend. I'm rebuilding another manual rack Saturday for a client, and will post pics of it when finished. Here is a few pics of the end bushing that we developed that fixes these manual racks:





Grease grooves (just like the oem one) for helping with lubrication


Notice the step up that is required to fill the extra space......yeah, it took some time to get it all perfectly into spec.




 
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Great service for the NSX community
 
Manual Rack Update

Hi guys. Were getting ready to rock and roll here. Rebuilding two manual racks and two EPS racks this week. Here are some teaser pics of the manual racks and their progress:














This is our end bushing vs OEM (notice that ours is 50% longer):









New bushing fitment:







New bottom bearing installation:







 
Hi Matt. What are the symptoms/noises/sounds that indicate a steering rack/EPS repair is needed? The "knock" you speak of, is it a metal sounding knock or a duller sounding knock?
 
The EPS rack is a little more subtle at first than the manual rack. You'll first notice sort of a "dead" spot at top dead center of the steering wheel position. Then you'll start noticing some play. You can move the wheel back and forth, instead of the rack responding immediately by moving the wheels, there is a few inches of play where the wheels don't move at all. Most people think this is normal because literally every nsx with EPS is experiencing some form of bushing failure. Whether it's slightly or full blown destruction, there is always a bushing issue if we haven't replaced them. They dry rot with age and the rubbe surrounding them just falls out little by little. The best way to test for knock and play is by parking on tarmac or concrete and with the key on, but without starting the car, move the wheel back and forth. You'll know then just how bad the play is. After my rebuild, there is no delay on the steering. There is no play and the response is immediate. Not only that, but with the "plus" option, you'll notice more precise feel and more sensitive feedback/responsiveness. Thanks and sorry it took so long to respond. I respond to my Facebook page, texts, and emails immediately, but since Prime can't send push notifications, I sometimes forget to check it for a few days. Thanks for the interest brother.
 
Update 6-12-17

Hello everyone. I thought I'd give everyone a quick update. Finished up 3 racks this week for our NSX family. It's always an absolute pleasure working with you guys.
I've mentioned this before, but we now stock all the oem Honda bits that attach the rack to the outer hub. We offer the inner/outer tie rod ends, boots, bellows, straps, and hardware with each rack we rebuild. It's always the clients choice, but they typically choose to go with the full package because our prices are better than Acura parts for less.
Thanks so much for believing in us. Charles Brown and I are always glad to answer any questions you might have and look forward to working with you.
We offer attractive shop rates as well and are currently working with several NSX only shops around the US. All of our rebuilds come with a year warranty on all the mechanical bits inside.
Here are some pics of the attachment package:










 
Hello everyone. I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. The new end bushings that we've developed have really caught on. Everyone who has them installed has been able to notice a huge difference over stock. We recommend these to anyone who tracks their car or has over 100-120k miles on their NSX. Usually, thats the point where the wear becomes the most noticeable. With that said,
Charles and I would like to thank everyone for their continued support. We currently have two clients NSXs here and three EPS racks in line for repair. We look forward to helping our entire NSX family with their manual or EPS steering system. Thanks again everyone.
 
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Had my EPS rack done back in March 2017. The complete package. Matt is awesome. Great communication and quick turnaround time. The knocking sound is now gone and steering feels a lot better.

-Renault
 
I have a 97 NSX-T and like all of them had developed problems with the EPS slowly worsening feel. I had been in contact with Matt for awhile about using his services. He answered my endless questions.

Most times you have to send your unit in and wait for Matt and Charles to work their magic. Even though they have a quick turnaround it still takes time to setup the swap and for the garage to allow the car to seat for a week or so. While reading Matt’s response to another NSX owner he mentioned he had a few reworked units in stock. This is pretty rare so I asked Matt if he had one that would work in my 97. He had a rebuilt 99 unit so after thinking about it I pulled the trigger.

Unit arrived and I had it swapped out yesterday. Wow the steering feels great. This car was so advanced for its time and still turns heads. So if your on the fence I’d say it is a must do. The car deserves it and I think it will add value to the car to say it’s had the EPS Steering Rack Repair done on it. FYI my 97 EPS core will be shipped back to Matt soon so they’ll have another replacement in stock. Thanks guys for all you’ve done for the NSX community!
 
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My experience with Matt (@d1 guy) and NSXRackRepair supports that they are a top-tier vendor. After everything else said in multiple threads on Prime, that should surprise nobody, but the level of service they provide warrants recognition.

I sent my rack a couple years ago to be rebuilt. That was done quickly and solved the on-center looseness. I was happy. A couple years now down the road, I have been looking for a rattle in the front of my car for quite some time. Eventually, spending a little time with a rubber mallet under the car, I realize it's coming from the rack. Though one could look at that as a bad sign, I do not. No system is immune to failure, including recently rebuilt ones. What matters to me is the way a company responds to issues. This was well beyond the one-year warranty for Matt's work, albeit only 2500 miles after the repair. I've very rarely dealt with a company that took responsibility so readily and smoothly. Barely two weeks after raising the issue, my rack has been back and forth and my car is rattle free. I couldn't be happier and couldn't more highly recommend Matt and NSX Rack Repair.

-jason
 
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