Rebuilt steering rack?

Hey guys I have a 1996 Riviera and the rack and pinion steering assembly is failing. I was curious if anyone has used a rebuilt complete assembly from any of the online vendors in your riv, or any other car. I've seen a couple online and wanted to get some opinions from here on the quality and if any of you have experience with using the remanufactured ones. The one I am looking comes with a 12 month, 12000 mile warranty. I realize getting new is usually always better, but they are not cheap. Any opinions, advice? Thanks everyone.

Ask Bill Boost,he should have some answers for you.

i bought a reman for my corsica worked fine no problems after 2 years

Okay thanks so far guys. I will ask Bill Boost when I have more time. Anybody else?

Give this guy a try. He has a few Riv parts now and then, always fairly priced. Not located too far from you, either:

http://www.moradpartscompany.com/

96rivi wrote:

Hey guys I have a 1996 Riviera and the rack and pinion steering assembly is failing. I was curious if anyone has used a rebuilt complete assembly from any of the online vendors in your riv, or any other car. I've seen a couple online and wanted to get some opinions from here on the quality and if any of you have experience with using the remanufactured ones. The one I am looking comes with a 12 month, 12000 mile warranty. I realize getting new is usually always better, but they are not cheap. Any opinions, advice? Thanks everyone.

I'd get an A-1 Cardone remanufactured unit, or as AA said, try Ed Morad. HOWEVER a used rack is a good bet - think through this with me.

People tend to junk their cars when something big goes wrong. On the Riv, that might be that they blow the engine, or that the air ride goes bad and they get a price from a dealer for repair (sometimes over $1,000) instead of fixing it themselves (about $80 and an hour or so to install direct-fit Monroe MA-822s, with *hand tools* and no spring compressors or any of that rot). Or they trade the car on a new model and the dealer is rich enough on the deal or the car is unattractive enough or has over 100,000 miles so that he/she prefers to dump/junk the car instead of dolling it up and sending it to a local auction, curbstoner friend or local buddy's used-car-only lot.

So certain parts from recyclers tend to be just fine. That would include steering racks - that is, if the rack is bad/good an experienced recycler can usually tell by just looking. On the Riv that can be important, because a remanufactured rack is even kind of pricey, costing twice as much as one for a Ford Taurus for instance, or a Lincoln even (go figure). Someone like Ed Morad who sees a whole bunch of junked cars should be able to spot a good rack very easily and his business depends on sending people good pulled stuff. Lately there is an issue with Morad's company sending one of the list members a wiring harness with the ICM connector cut (it's kind of difficult to remove, admittedly) but we have not heard the last of that and I reckon Ed will make it right. Anyway - I have purchased parts from Ed in the past and intend to again if needed and it makes sense at the time; you should consider it, you'll save a pile of cash and in all likelihood get a perfectly good rack.

Just FYI, other parts that tend to be good from pick-n-pulls and recyclers tend to be body parts (you can tell by looking if they are good or not), alternators (people almost always put in new/reman ones and don't scrap cars over that), glass except the windshield (windshields tend to be OK but that's all, usually OK means not broken but pitted from road gravel or scratched from wipers), relays/thermal breakers (these can be bad but from a scrapyard they are so cheap you merely buy 2 to guarantee getting 1). With certain cars, the electronic modules are also good bets from scrapyard (and with other cars they are poison). Things like belt tensioners are also a crapshoot. If the tensioner has obviously been replaced it's probably good. If it's the original, unless the car is a very low mileage wreck it's probably tired so get a new one instead. Idler pullies are a maybe - you can turn them by hand to get an idea if they are good but new ones are cheap so unless you are at the pick-n-pull on other business, I would not make a special trip to one to get an idler pulley.

All that said - if you're having someone else do the work, your best bet for a rack is probably a remanufactured one with warranty. I replaced my rack earlier this year with an A-1 Cardone remanufactured unit. When first installed it was very tight and made funny noises, but quieted down nicely after a few days of driving. By the way, if you are replacing the rack yourself, splurge and get a set of Moog tie rod ends to put on it. A rack from GM comes with new tie rod ends but the reman racks don't and on the junkyard racks it's a crapshoot and you can't really test the ends anyway so just get new ones and skip the potential headache.

Albertj

AA- I will have a look at that website, thanks.
AlbertJ- The one that I am looking at is in fact an A-1 Cardone reman. I will be staying away from scrapyards for a part like this though. I thought the reman racks came with new tierods? Here is the one I am looking at anyway. copy and paste:http://www.thepartsbin.com/catalog/?N=1585+9809+4294963369+4294963310

i got mine from pepboys about 2 months ago and it works fine. cost about 275.00 with 225 core charge.

A1 Cardone is best that comes to my mind. Cardone part # 22-156.

96rivi wrote:

AA- I will have a look at that website, thanks.
AlbertJ- The one that I am looking at is in fact an A-1 Cardone reman. I will be staying away from scrapyards for a part like this though. I thought the reman racks came with new tierods? Here is the one I am looking at anyway. copy and paste:http://www.thepartsbin.com/catalog/?N=1585+9809+4294963369+4294963310

The Cardone remans come with new inners, for outers you are on your own. The GM remans come with new outers but are *way* more money. As I said, I got an A-1 Cardone.

Albertj

hey albertj where about are you in the finger lakes? I live in rochester. send me a pm if you want.

95rivy wrote:

hey albertj where about are you in the finger lakes? I live in rochester. send me a pm if you want.

About 2 hours south of you, in the countryside past the end of I-390.

As for your rack you might want to call WIlberts Buick. Wilbert's Buick & GM Parts is located at 1272 Salt Rd Webster, NY. Phone: 585-872-1540. http://wilbertsinc.com/. They specialize in providing parts to shops BUT I've always had excellent service from them. They dismantle and inventory parts after testing them, odds are they have a good rack or three. They grade the parts (a, b, c) in inventory and prices are not bad. A rack from them ought to run $130 or less.

Albertj