Power Steering Rack Rebuild - Part 1 of 3

[Valhalla]

As some of you know, I have been on a quest to get my EPS working again. It's not that I'm a wimp, in fact my wife loves my new beefy look that manual steering has given me. But damn it, I bought a car with working EPS and it should just, well, WORK. Not being anal about this but aggravating as hell when something doesn't work and it should.

I have tried everything I can possibly think of inclusive of getting my EPS brain box rebuilt, buying a working EPS unit from Shawn to no avail. I pulled codes, took it to the dealership and several specialty shops in SoCal and everyone pointed to a faulty torque sensor. I traced the entire circuit for current and came to the same conclusion, faulty torque sensor in the steering rack.

So here were the options that I had;

1. Just live with it and the EPS light on the dash
2. Unplug the brain. This still left me with no EPS but at least I didn't have that annoying light to look at. It really was an evil yellow light!
3. Buy a new rack from Acura. They started at $7k and finally got the price down to $4k but that was just a little too rich for my blood.
4. Buy a used manual or EPS rack and throw the dice that I would get a good unit that would work. I've had some good and not so good luck with used parts.
5. A refurbished unit. I found a place in SoCal who rebuilds the majority of all the used steering racks in the country. Problem was they don't repair these racks either as they are sealed units. And they wouldn't offer a warranty on any used rack they would sell me. All other racks they sell, they guarantee 100%.
6. Carry on until I could find the answer.

Ladies and gentlemen, that day has arrived. I had the pleasure of hooking up with another Primer who shared in my same problem and frustration. he also felt that there should be a way to repair the rack, even if every Acura dealer said that it could be done. Well guess what? He succeeded.

I have just pulled out my rack and sent it to him for a tear down, inspection, fix and test. Upon completion, he'll send it back for me to reinstall. I'll document here, how to pull the rack. Part 2 will be what ever my new found BFFL wants to put out there. He's contemplating doing these repairs on the side if he successful with mine. But that is totally up to him. Part 3 will be the reinstall with the last picture a very happy Mr. Valhalla smiling ear to ear. So I present Part 1.

 

[RYU]

Nice progress so far! I can certainly feel your pain having gone through similar diagnosis in the past. Unfortunately, these hickups occur and are a small price to pay to have the priviledge of driving such an awesome ride!

Any word on if he'll be changing internal bushings and other wear items? Not sure on the EPS racks but on the manual racks they will incur some mild play over time. I'd like to get mine refreshed if I can find someone expert enough to do it.

Good Luck!

btw.. the light on the dash would drive me up the wall

 

[Valhalla]

Part One - the Disemboweling of Layla

Pretty standard stuff really. I knew that I would be under the car and it would be laid up a while so I got some other parts as well. Not that I have horrible gremlins but I figured let's be proactive if I have her this ripped apart. So I ordered new battery cables and a tube of Ox-Guard. I got new boots and clips for the tie rods. Ready to go. So up she goes.

Next is to remove the battery.

Off come the spare tire pan and tunnel cover.

Now to clean stuff up so I disconnect the terminals, ground and anything else that can get in my way.

Back inside the car and under the dash to disconnect the steering linkage from the rack. This picture shows the two bolts that need to be removed so that You can shift the linkage up and disconnect it from the rack.

Next thing is to disconnect the tie rod ends from the links. This one had me a bit confused at first as you would need to use a special tool to break apart the ball joints and then you would have to buy new ones. So I just marked the tie rod end, the nut and link and then unscrewed the tie rod completely out of the link. Easy.

So now it's time to drop the rack. But you must drop the cross-member with it. There are six bolts and some of them are a bit difficult to get to. I took out two completely on each side and loosened the other two. Slid the jack under the rack to support it, undid the remaining 2 bolts and lowered it to the ground.

Put the rack on the bench and pulled the clips and boots off the tire rod ends. The boots were in great shape and I probably could use them again but I got new ones and new clips too. I wanted to inspect the tie rods and seals on the unit. Also inspected the bushings and they are in great shape as you can see here.

So there you have it. Took me about 4 hours. Cool thing is the box that Acura of Peoria sent me the battery cable in fits the rack perfectly. Dropped it in with some peanuts and taped it up. She is rolling across the country as I type this.

Hope this helps and when I get the rack back I'll post the reinstall too.

 

[Valhalla]

The bushing all look brand new. I was debating just getting new SOS bushings but decided to wait until I could see what I had. They are in amazing shape so I will just clean them and reinstall.

 

[Nero Tenebre]

Valhalla for president! Going through the same bs right now and cursing Honda for their ridiculousness. Sure makes me wish I would have bought a newer car every time something like this comes up. Ugh.

 

[Valhalla]

Hang in there! The Calvary is coming, they are just over the hill.

What I am doing is just to fix my car. I have talked and blogged with many Primers who have the very same problem and came to the same dead end. I just refused to take NO as an answer.

I documented this so that if you felt up to the task, you could do this same thing. If your not up to it, take it to your local shop and they can pull the rack. I just went by the shop manual. No big thing really. the hardest part was getting to those two bolts in the steering linkage under the dash.

 

[d.n]

Good idea to just unscrew the rod ends from the rack and leave the BJ's alone. Nice work!

 

[RYU]

The bushing all look brand new. I was debating just getting new SOS bushings but decided to wait until I could see what I had. They are in amazing shape so I will just clean them and reinstall.

I'm talking about the internal bushings. I believe SOS only sells the bushings for the mounting points.

Actually, I have an extra set of the SOS bushings. Hit me up if you want them.

 

[Valhalla]

Won't know about the internal bushings until we open the rack. I've seen pictures of the inside of the rack and the sensor panel. Probably only a handful of people in the country have seen this. It is an amazing piece of technology and was probably the inspiration for the S2K an Prius. Not easy to work on but somethings are fixable. The torque sensor is one of those items.

As to the external bushing, thanks for the offer. But mine are still perfect 14 years later. What an amazing machine.

 

[Bram]

Excellent thread, keep the pictures coming. I'm guessing that we'll see more of this type of problems on 95+ car and earlier Automatics.


Bram

 

[d1 guy]

Hello everyone and thanks for the support. A special thanks to Valhalla. I will be working on his rack at my shop.

I doubt the rack needs a rebuild. It is likely electrical. Whether it be in the torque sensor (which is a pain btw) or something else internally, I don't think it will need to be rebuilt totally. Probably some electronics will need to be reconditioned. If it is infact the internals needing to be rebuilt.......I think I can handle that as well. This issue occured in my car and drove me crazy. A close friend of mine who is fantastic with electronics and soldering came by my shop to help me with mine. After a ton of research and torment, we finally repaired mine. We were all the way to the end of the EPS section of the service manual and it said to replace the faulty steering rack. This was unacceptable. Who wants to pay 4.5k-7k for a new rack anyways???? I will keep Valhalla updated and he can post his feelings and thoughts here. I will post pics of my progress in another thread as we move forward.

My car was an adventure. I am looking forward to starting another one. It's perfect since I have a car to test everything on

 

[Valhalla]

And so Part Duex begins! Welcome and everyone say hello and thank you to D1Guy. I am pleased and am thankful to call him a friend.

D1, the thread is now yours....

 

[Nero Tenebre]

I talked with a local shop about the eps rack and they said they couldn't rebuild any racks mainly bc they couldn't get the bushings anymore from Honda. I have a manual rack w 31k miles waiting to go in, do you think it is worth rebuilding it prior to install or is it u used enough that I can just install it as is and not deal w the headache?

 

[Valhalla]

I'm slightly confused. Which rack has worn bushings? Are they internal or external? Do I understand that you have an EPS rack that doesn't work & you want to replace it with a used manual rack that needs bushings?

 

[funkynsx]

anybody know if Na1 has the same Eps rack as the Na2?

 

[RYU]

The EPS Rack is different than the earlier manual steering cars. The manual steering units are expensive and due to age and wear tend to need internal bushing replacement.

The process is best described in this thread.
http://nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php?t=145979

SOS and other vendors sell bushings #11 and #17. However, what goes bad or wears out is in the "non-serviceable" (as Honda states it) assembly #1.

In my opinion, if someone is opening that bad boy it would be a shame not to replace the bushings. It's a lot of work.

 

[McNice]

anybody know if Na1 has the same Eps rack as the Na2?

Yes, they are the same. BUT the manual trans cars had a slightly different one than auto trans cars so be sure the rack's previous car had the same trans as the one you want to put it in.

 

[Nero Tenebre]

I'm slightly confused. Which rack has worn busings. Are thy internal or external? Do I understand you that you have an EPS rack that doesn't work &the you want to replace it with a used manual rack that needs bushings?

My EPS rack has a slight "hop" on center when turning it left or right which wasn't that big a deal but now it feels looser too. I do need to replace my outer tie rods but I am not sure if that is responsible for the looseness (I doubt it). I replaced the external bushings awhile back but I don't know that I am having problems with internal bushings, just that the shop said they can't get the bushings (meaning internal). I know other owners who have developed this same hop problem with their EPS, and like you, I found that no one would touch them so it will become a problem for all of us owners sooner or later. However, I do think people will rebuild the manual racks and I think I am going to switch out to the manual rack due to the low mileage on it and weight reduction... but, I would like to know if the EPS rack can be fixed either for sale or just to have options from which to choose.

RYU, I think the manual steering racks are less expensive than the EPS units by far.. aren't they??

 

[RYU]

RYU, I think the manual steering racks are less expensive than the EPS units by far.. aren't they??

Apologies... I reread what I wrote and I didn't mean to make it sound like manual cost more than EPS. I got dibs on your manual rack if you decide to sell it :biggrin:

Unlike you EPS guys.. us manual guys can't easily convert to an EPS rack as I think you can vice versa.

I've actually been pondering picking up a Rock Auto unit. It was about $600 or so a while back when i checked.

EDIT TO ADD: This is interesting. I wonder what a rebuild entails... This is from Rockauto.com

 

[d1 guy]

Hmmm. This thead is getting very confusing. I am trying to work out the problems with the EPS racks when they "die". We are repairing the problems where the racks become totally unresponsive.

The goal here is to fix/repair whatever is causing the problem whether its the Torque Sensor, the EPS brain (we can totally rebuild these, not just the relays), the pulse sensor, speed sensor, grounding issue, or anything else it might be that causes the EPS light to come on inside the cabin and the power steering to be disengaged.

At this point, I dont want to speculate, nor do I want to try and diagnose problems in this thread. If you have specific questions regarding what we are doing, feel free to PM me. I'll be glad give out my cell number in a PM. This has been a long process on my car and am happy to report that we were successful. I will certainly be willing to help others, but I will most likely need your components in hand.


Also, Im still awaiting the arrival of Valhalla's rack. I will know more after it arrives and we begin diagnosing it.

 

[NSX91]

Don't want to confuse the thread but it sounds like there are a couple of different issues being discussed...if you have an EPS rack with excessive play, a clunk when steering back and forth quickly, there is an internal bushing located in the bridge between the rack and worm drive gear that wears out...looks easily replaceable if someone would manufacture it. I have this issue and looking for that bushing...will let you know as I get info.

 

[d1 guy]

Don't want to confuse the thread but it sounds like there are a couple of different issues being discussed...if you have an EPS rack with excessive play, a clunk when steering back and forth quickly, there is an internal bushing located in the bridge between the rack and worm drive gear that wears out...looks easily replaceable if someone would manufacture it. I have this issue and looking for that bushing...will let you know as I get info.

I would be able to replace that bushing. I have a great source for fabbing up rubber and other types of bushings. I will eventually be able to do a complete service job on these racks and test them before they leave here.

 

[RYU]

I would be able to replace that bushing. I have a great source for fabbing up rubber and other types of bushings. I will eventually be able to do a complete service job on these racks and test them before they leave here.

At the risk of further derailing this thread (sorry Valhalla, it's a GREAT topic) If the price is reasonable there will be a lot of customers for that internal bushing swap rebuild service. I'm on the list for sure.

 

[d1 guy]

I have confirmation that we can provide the bushing service. Valhalla's rack will have a replacement bushing. There is no point in taking it apart and not replacing a wareable part. I will keep you all updated. I'll know more about pricing soon.

 

[Nero Tenebre]

And me... And everyone else who has an NSX that doesn't want to pay 6k for a new EPS rack, and the manual racks are discontinued so.. Yeah. This is and the evaporator have been the two things that have bitten me in the ass that I didn't count on from my reliability research, and each fix for these is in the thousands. Oh well I guess, at least it's not near 10k like the dealer would bend you over for!