Today I undertook replacing the original steering rack in my 1998 Tacoma! I had the help of my wonderful 4Runner bf (u/JRPGPD) as well as our amazing retired mechanical engineer friend and his cozy garage. 

Process was largely smooth. We took the truck over Friday night, took off the skid plate and soaked all the relevant/accessible steering rack bolts & nuts with PB Blaster. Came back Saturday morning and got to work — a couple parts were sticky but we only ran into real trouble with one thing:

The high pressure feed line -> steering rack connection! The nut had seized onto the tube, and it was difficult to get to get the line detached from the old rack and even more difficult to attach it to the new rack. Essentially, we couldn’t rotate the nut without rotating the entire pressure line, complicated by not wanting to use pliers on the tube itself or risk crossthreading the new rack. We hit it with a butane torch for about two minutes, then a hammer, then an electric wrench just to get it rotating freely. Added about an hour and a half to the job overall. 

Only other tip I’d say is make sure to preemptively purchase a replacement for the lower part of the rag joint (45230-35090 “flexible coupling assembly”) as it’s basically impossible to get off the old rack and it’s a critical part that a lot of dealerships don’t keep in stock.

Long project, long day, but I learned a lot and am feeling proud and glad it’s done!

Steering rack✅