Rebuilding my Hicas S13 Steering Rack.

[z3us]

After the local quote of $425 for a reman with core trade and can not guarantee my hicas rack in return i ripped mine it out and put seals in it myself. After all the negative thoughts of how hard everyone said it was, i was a little scared but it was worth it and not bad after all.
You can see both boots and the bushings was toast.

Before: Boots was shot!!! And tons of gravel type gunk inside! the seals was falling out lol.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Y1q-eOv6kTc/TxIaf5evTgI/AAAAAAAAAOw/xuEDp8FS95c/s912/IMAG0048.jpg

After: Feels much better already before i even installed it back in the car.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ifnRcABMTCg/TxIbMHAYyQI/AAAAAAAAAPI/f3qOA9E2GWM/s912/IMAG0051.jpg

[onehundredoctane]

Um... where the pics of the rebuild? Just before and after? Come on man! I'm giving ya a hard time, only because I'm planning on doing this myself and want some incite! Cool that you did it yourself!

[z3us]

My hands was way too greasy to mess with my phone to get pics.
It's not real bad at all, just a few seals are tricky to get into place, just take your time
It's about a 2 - 3 hour job.

[hartig]

..so how much did it end up costing?

[z3us]

About $85.

[crunkride]

I learned absolutely nothing!

[z3us]

I learned absolutely nothing!

What do you want to know/learn?

[onehundredoctane]

if you're going to post pics, why not step by step or something HALFWAY detailed?

Before and after pics don't tell us how you did it, or how to do it ourselves if we wanted to. . .

[z3us]

oh, i was just contributing to the forums, did not think i was gonna get hassled over not teaching or a walk-through. i replied before why i did not have more pics and that was that my hands was a mess. But i would be happy to help if you plan on rebuilding your rack.

[Jtuned_andy]

Where did you buy the seals? I just tested my Hicas rack last night and its pissing fluid from the most unusual place. I seem to have a leak coming from up top in the splined input shaft area, did you only replace the lateral seals for the side to side?

[z3us]

Rockauto has the seal kit, and it replaces all the seals including the upper spline gears.

[crunkride]

What do you want to know/learn?

The part left out. I am doing mine soon and I was looking for insight, but I will post another DIY.

[crunkride]

I checked out Rock auto and could not find anything. Can you give us a link maybe?

Nvm: I found S13 stuff, which is what you had I suppose, but they don't have any S14....

I am going to try ordering this (s14): http://www.pskits.com/catalog/rackkits240sx9498coupe294698-p-1492.html

[z3us]

Yeah, mine is a s13 hicas.

[Jtuned_andy]

what part number did you use at rockauto? it says the kit is $42 where did you get $89

[z3us]

i bought rack boots too.

[Jtuned_andy]

WHAT PART NUMBER DID YOU ORDER FOR THE KIT

i tried ordering the rack and pinion seal kit from rockauto.com and they say its no longer available.

[h2v7]

why would you want hicas?

[onehundredoctane]

why would you want hicas?


Hicas racks require less turns lock to lock. So you don't have to put as many turns in to get as much steering angle as you would with a normal rack.

[jvega]

did your rebuild work good? any new leaks?

[z3us]

I'll look at my paper they sent for the part number. It leaked after I got it back in for about a day then the seals got settled in and it stopped. It was a little tedious work that I'm not sure if id do over, but mine seems to be better now.

[Jtuned_andy]

I've been looking around and its becoming painfully obvious these rebuild kits are no longer available. Rockauto's two manufactures (Gates and another) were not able to be ordered. I found an ebay seller with a Gates listing and they refunded my cash after I paid, saying no longer available.

[Insanity240]

i deleted my hicas rack. anyone wanna buy it lol? pm me

[pcrossley93]

I have been trying to remove the rack and pinion from my steering rack. For a normal s13 steering rack it looks as if when you pull the end cap of the passenger side of the rack it should just slide out, but on mine there seems to be a machined ring built into the body preventing me from pulling it out past the dividers in the middle of the shaft. any help would be appreciated.