steering rack replacement

[Danny]

Whats up. Replaced the turbo coolant hose, or what was left of it, the other day and also installed a new rack. Im having trouble attaching the tierods to the rack though. I have a couple of questions.

1) Does the car have to be on the floor? I know the bentley says that the when tightening the rods, the wheels should be on the floor. Does it also mean when i first attach them.

2) Is it possible that the tie rod bracket from my old rack is a different size then the reman one that i got?

3) Do i have to put the rubber boot of the rack over the nipples on the bracket, or does this happen when i tighten it down?

The reason that im asking these is because it seems that one side is off by a slight fraction. It doesnt matter which side, if i bolt in the ds, then the pass side is off, and vice versa. For the hell of it, i tried to just tighten down the bracket without any of the tie rods and it was the same situation. Any ideas?
 Thanks
 Danny