Steering Rack Replacement

(The story with pictures is located at:
http://www.corvetteforum.net/c4/marcho/rack/rack_replace.html
The
following is the text from that link)
This will attempt to guide
you through replacing the rack & pinion unit on your Corvette.
Step
1: Jack up front end and place on jackstands. Remove two front tires. (oh,
yeah, the hood is up, too. That’s something you might want to do also!)
Step 2: To make things easy, you have to remove alot of stuff. Look at
the top of the motor area…. take off the MAF sensor, and the air filter
box. Also remove the cooling fan. See the two pictures to the side for a
before and after.
Step 3: Next, we need to remove the swaybar. The
brackets holding it on the frame are 15mm and a socket with extension is
fine. The end link bushings are also 15mm, you’ll need a socket and
wrench to hold the backside. Remove the two frame mounts and two end
links, then slide the swaybar out one side.
Step 4: Time to remove
the tie rod ends. There is a cotter pin in the castle nut. Remove it. Then
use an 18mm Socket on these. Loosen the big nut at the end of the tie rod
end (there’s an arrow pointing to this) so that you can unscrew the tie
rod end after you remove the castle nut. You can either use a special tool
to pry these out, or do like I did and leave the castle nut on at the top
of the threads and use a hammer to bang it down. My tie rod ends could use
replacing, but I didn’t have the funds to do them, so they’ll have
to wait.
Step 5: Once you have the tie rod ends out, it’s time to
start working on the rack mounts. The passenger side has two bolts and
nuts, and the drivers side has one long bolt and nut. The first image is
the passenger side, which uses a 13mm socket/wrench. You’ll need small
fingers for this one. From the wheel well area, you’ll need to put the
box end of a 13mm wrench inside to hold the bolt while you come in from
the top with a 13mm socket and a bunch of extensions.
Look at the
left image (this is the dirtiest shot, much grease!) to see a wrench from
the left area underneath the bracket, and another wrench on the nut on
top…. This was before I realized this helpful tip: When you remove the
swaybar, you can reach both nuts from the top with a bunch of extensions
on your ratchet!!! The nut in the first picture is not reachable from the
top with the swaybar in place. See the right image for a view from the top
with the ratchet
Step 6: Once the mounts are loose, then you need to
remove the intermediate shaft. This is the part that connects the rack to
the steering column. I think I forgot to take a picture of that. There is
a 12mm bolt on each end on ’84 and ’85 cars, I’m not sure how
later cars are connected. Once this is removed, all that’s left is the
fluid lines.
Step 7: You’ll need an 18mm wrench and patience to
remove the two power steering lines that feed into the rack. Before doing
this part, it would be a good idea to get a turkey baster from the grocery
store and suck all the power steering fluid from the reservoir. This will
help minimize mess when you unhook the lines at the rack. The left picture
shows where the two lines run into the rack. The right picture is
attempting to show these lines on the car.
Step 8: Now that you have
everything off, you have to work the rack out the drivers’ side. These
images show the rack
Once you have the rack out, just put the new
one in and as the books say, ’installation is the reverse of removal
steps!’