Subject: what is causing leak in steering rack? Anybody rebuilt

[Christopher Ritchie]

Konstantin Bogach wrote:
What is the main reason for steering rack leak?
How difficult to rebuild it by myself?  Do I need special tools
to do
that? Does it make sense to do it by myself rather to send it to
Jorgen?

I have wierd problem:
There is no leak in the rack (small leak in high pressure hose
though).
After changing high pressure hose from pump to bomb (rebuild by
Aeroequip dealer) and bleeding the system power assist was lost.
There
is little assist when turning to left and no assist when turning
to
right.  Brakes have power assist.  Pump gives 2100 psi max - in
spec.

I already removed the rack. Now I am staring at it and
scratching head:
what to do? A tech from Jorgen was very nice talking to me 10min
but he
said that sympthoms are not common and it is hard to imagine the
cause.

I don't know whether or when the rack was changed. Let's imagine
that I
found a piece of rubber stuck in the valve which caused the
problme and
I fixed it: does it make sense to rebuild the rack if it does
not have a
leak but is out of car?


The only failure mode I have ever heard of is leaking.  If you are getting
pressure out of the pump, wouldn't the rack have to work?  It seems to me
that it could either work (provide assist) or leak.

Audi does offer a reseal kit for these things.

Jorgen's claim to fame is that they resleeve these things.  The failure mode
is leaking because the shaft gets scored.  Jorgen resleeves them in
stainless steel to eliminate the scoring and allowing a good resealing.
Because of this, they offer a lifetime warranty.

The hard work is getting the rack in and out.  You just did almost 1/2 of
that effort, so you can judge for yourself how hard this job is.  There is a
difficulty in getting one of the hoses to attach when you go to put the rack
back in.


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