I know I need to replace these, I have been hearing various noises from the front end over the last couple weeks. We looked at it today and found lots of movement in the rack and the bushings look bad. Also, the noise is coming from that general area when we turned the steering wheel back and forth. I checked my Haynes manual, it tells how to remove the rack and replace it, and I am wondering if all of that is necessary. Also, it does not address the bushings at all.

Does anyone have a "how-to" or step-by-step on how to replace just the bushings? I saw lots of people on various posts saying it only took them an hour. I am planning on buying the bushings from the Ford dealer. Any help is much appreciated, I can't locate it anywhere else. Thanks.

 

cliffy has a write up on this i think.

 

1. do not buy the bushings from ford...theyre rubber and one of them sits right under the oil filter and gets leaked on during oil changes...this causes the rubber to go bad....go to autozone or advances and order energy suspension poly bushings...theyre like $12

2. its very easy... no removal of the rack is required.... lift the front of the car, put jack stands under it to hold it up.... crawl under it and undo the bolts where the rack mounts to the k member... slide rack off, you will have enough room to get the bushings out without disconnecting the tie rods or anything... the shafts can be a little hard to get out, some light prying with a flathead will help... replace bushings, slide rack back on, torque down and youre good to go

thats just going out of memory, it was over a year ago that i did mine, but i know theres like nothing at all required...you will spend more time jacking the car up than you will switching the bushings lol

 

see what the oil did to mine

 

Thanks guys, that helped a lot. I searched using the word "cliffy", found one called Steering Box Grind, all the info is in there. Plus, there was a video that sounded and looked like my car earlier today. Also, thanks for the tip on not getting rubber ones. I guess I have something to do tomorrow now...

 

Oops, I meant Steering Rack (not box) Grind

 

off topic...im looking at the pic of my bushing....what is the background of that pic? my car was sitting on the ground, it may have been jacked up but i doubt it...but the black area behind the pic looks like concrete or something...confusing *** picture...


wheel well liner maybe?

 

Here's my write-up...

I use a piece of aluminum foil when changing the filter to keep oil off the rubber parts...

 

easier to just put poly bushings in, IMO...but to each their own i suppose

guess that doesnt help much with the boot though lol

 

i have a set of poly bushings ready to go in but finding a deep 18mm socket around here is harder than it should be