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Description:
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Fitting the bits
1. Jack the car up as high as possible & use some nice, solid jackstands. My front wheels were dangling with about 6 inches of clear air. This gives you enough room to wield a breaker bad & work on the bushes with at least a modicum of clearance. If you have access to a hoist, this would make it even easier.
2. Pull off the plastic panel under the engine. I won't need to tell you how to do this...I'm sure you've had it off before.
3. Now remove the small panel bolted to the front cross-member that covers the middle section of the steering rack & front sway bar. You will absolutely need a breakerbar here - those 14mm bolts are done up tight. The awkward access makes it even more difficult...but they all loosened in the end.
4. Now you have full access to the steering rack. Again, using the breaker bar, go around all six bolts (four on the driver's side, two on the other) and crack them loose. At this stage, I removed the passenger side bracket & loosened the driver's side bolts. It was easy to remove the passenger side wrap-around bush...and at this stage I realised a little Dremelling was needed.
5. Now onto the drivers side. Once you remove all the bolts, you will find that the rack doesn't really drop all that much at all. The pipes & universal joint up top see to that. Mark the position of & loosen the lower universal joint bolt (12mm). This can be done from below. No need to take the bolt out or anything - you will now see that the rack has moved a little more & you can squeeze the "bush remover tool" nut behind the old bush.
6. Using the uber-fancy "bush remover tool", pop the two OEM bushes out. Once you stop the goddam nut from turning the nut bites into the rubber & the bush pops out.
7. Now squeeze the top-half of each WL bush into place. You will have just enough room to do this - again, the steering rack pipes stop the rack from dropping down very far.
8. Pop the lower WL bush halves in. It will look like this!
http://photos.all.id.au/SJ_Whiteline_Control/IMG_6316
9. Now add a little grease to the inside of the WL bushes & whack the metal sleeves into place.
10. Align the steering rack over the drivers side bolt holes as good as you can & put everything back together. Judging on the factory tightness, I'd estimate the torque measurement to be "bloody heaps".
11. Now re-torque the lower universal joint bolt. You will find nothing actually separated here, so marking the relative positions was unnecessary. I'd mark it anyway, just in case!
12. Double-check that all bolts are now tight & restore order down below.
13. Go for a drive. Probably a good idea to do some low-speed maneouvering before hitting the highway, just in case something's awry.
Driving impressions
Well, first thing was that the wheel was off to the left a little. Obviously, the new bushes placed the rack in a slightly different position. I'd estimate the maximum difference would be less than 2mm, but that's enough to put your wheel a bit wrong.
The second thing I noticed was more subtle. The steering is more direct, and the wheel is more stable. The steering seems at once both calmer & more precise. I found myself turning in a little more than necessary until I became used to it. The car was always a bit "steer with your fingertips", but now even more so.
On my private test-track (read Royal National Park) the steering calmness was welcome. The wheel feedback is more solid, & corrections (for crosswinds or camber changes) are smaller. The difference is subtle, but it is noticable.
When I arrived back home, I fixed the steering wheel straightness with a little "ghetto alignment" {lengthen the LHS steering arm & shorten the RHS steering arms an identical amount} & all is now perfect.
I will report back if I find any other behaviour, but as far as I can tell there are NO NVH tradeoffs & a subtle, welcome firming feel to the steering feedback.
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Keywords:
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Whiteline Steering rack bushes
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