Cuda's Cars, v2.0

[Godson]

I'm a Moog guy. Only because they are supposedly forged and about as good as you'll get. That all could be hearsay though.

[JoshInKC]

Yeah, I'm a fan of Moog. When I was selling and delivering parts, we pretty much never needed to replace them under waranty. Brand-wise, they might have had the lowest failure rate of anything in the store.

[thesameguy]

Not as big of a Moog fan as I used to be, as it seems they've somewhat given up competing on quality and have started to compete on price. I've gotten some shady-ass Moog parts in recent times - the LBJs on the Fiero were an embarrassment - indistinguishable from the Raybestos LBJs I hated so much I ordered Moog ones. Doh! Turns out LBJs for shitty old GM cars are just shitty. Who'd have thunk it?

Still, of the brands you listed Moog is most likely to be a good part. You might check out rockauto.com as they also carry the Raybestos Professional Grade line, which is IME also very good - a different quality (and price) than their Service Grade stuff. I'd look into it. Are you doing just outers or inners & outers? Don't forget bellows/boots, too.

[CudaMan]

The Raybestos Pro Grade part is comparable in price to the others I mentioned before. Could be a good way to go, depending on how fast RockAuto could get them to me (I'm thinking I'll inspect the old ones first at my friends' place with the lift).

I thought inner tie rods were integral to the rack. Never done steering work before. I'm still also having that power steering problem where the steering is heavy for 5-10 seconds the first time I use it (regardless of how long the car's been idling). A reman pump is not as crazy expensive as I once thought, so I might just replace that if the labor won't kill me. Hoses are not leaking but my old pump is - from the center where the two halves meet. That's a new one.

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From the "I can stop anytime I want to" files...









It's a bit of work keeping them all clean...

[thesameguy]

Turning Japanese?

There are some cars that have integral inner tie rods, but not many that have been made since the, ugh, 70s? Maybe? I'm sure the Miata has discrete inners & outers. To remove the inners on virtually every car, you remove the bellows and put a big wrench on a flat spot on them. On some cars there isn't much access and they are frequently difficult to remove. But inners add $40-$80 to the job (including replacement bellows) and mean you only need to get it re-aligned once, so my reluctant advice is to always do both at the same time, save $$$ on alignments... especially on a higher mileage car where it's quite possible the inners have never been done, anyway.

I'll mention just for the sake of mentioning that I'd look at the cost of replacing the whole rack just to know what it costs. On the XR4Ti, inner tie rods + bellows were $75, remanufactured rack including new tie rods and bellows was $125. Doh! That is literally the only time I've ever seen that, and it was partly of function of a big ol' % off coupon from Advance Auto Parts (~$200 rack - 30%) but it's worth looking into, IMHO. And, seriously, look at Advance Auto Parts. It's a rare day they don't have a 30% off coupon in effect. For most stuff, AAP is a total ripoff, but if you happen to catch something they have at only a slightly higher price PLUS one of those coupons, it's awesome! (eg, O2 sensor for the Benz is $70-something on Amazon and $80 something at AAP. But $80-something - 30% = ~$60. )

[thesameguy]

Oh, and the heavy steering could be the pump or it could be the seals in the rack. You might try some Lucas goop, or you might ignore it til it gets worse. Probably once it warms up some more you won't even notice.

[CudaMan]

Rack and tie rod questions are for the Z, not the Miata. I'll tackle that one later!

Racks for the Z are $300+, although I did find one for $190 on eBay... http://www.ebay.com/itm/1989-1996-Ni...-/171128996476

[CudaMan]

Oh and every car I've ever owned, save for the Cuda way back when for a couple years, has been Japanese. Just how it happens. German car upkeep scares me. Not very many American cars appeal to me. A C5 Corvette would be fun if the interior was better.

[thesameguy]

Rockauto lists reman racks for $150... there's a $100+ core, but you get that back. I imagine shipping a rack is probably $30 or so? Somewhere in there, so you get $70+ of that $100+ core back. Maybe not worth doing at nearly $200 vs. just replacing the inner tie rods... unless your morning sickness is the rack, in which case just buying the inners would be not worth doing! DOH!

[CudaMan]

Car problems eh?