1987 Corolla SR5 steering repair--need help from experienced mechanic

Last Tuesday, my 1987 Corolla SR5 finally had the accident I was fearing
would eventually come to it. With all the traveling I've been doing for
work between Philadelphia and places like Pottstown and Reading, it
seemed bound to happen eventually. It put a knife in my heart, but it
turned out the damage wasn't too bad: one fender trashed, side marker
lamp broken, and one steering tie rod broken, all on the left side. The
frame is appears 99% unscathed. I now suspect that the tie rod had
already been slightly bent and weakened by a very bad pot hole I hit at
about 45 MPH on City Avenue in Philly a month or two ago. Anyway, on
Tuesday, the tie rod buckled forward and broke, and I had to have the
car towed home, as it was unsteerable.

I bought a new outer tie rod from the dealer ($90), and today I removed
the remnant of the old one from the inner tie rod (after three doses of
penetrating oil), only to discover that the inner tie rod (the ball and
threaded rod that attach directly to the rack) is also bent at the stem
where the rod meets the ball. A small notch in the stem made by the
ball's collar shows how it got that way. I know never to try to fix
steering and suspension parts when bent, so I ordered that part from the
dealer today (another $75). But now I have another problem: I'm having
trouble disassembling the ball joint on the end of the rack, so that I
can remove the old part and be ready to install the new one when it
comes. I've bent back the locking washer which wraps over the flats on
the sleeve surrounding the ball, and I've tried to turn the sleeve by
those flats, against a back-up wrench on the flats at the end of the
rack, adjacent to the sleeve. Being careful not to twist the rack
itself, I repeatedly used my maximum hand force between the two wrenches
with about 10 inches of leverage, but the sleeve still wouldn't move.
This assembly was inside the intact rubber boot and looks clean (well
greased and no rust), so I'm surprised I'm getting so much resistance.
Am I correct in expecting the sleeve to unscrew counterclockwise? Could
it have reverse (left hand) threads? (I can't see any purpose for
that.) My main question is, am I on the right track, or is this not
supposed to turn the way I'm trying to turn it? I do NOT want to just
blindly brute force it and wreck the steering rack! However, if more
torque is what is needed, I will arrange to get more leverage. If not,
how does it come apart?

More on what I've done: I put penetrating oil on the sleeve a couple of
times, so far to no avail; there's more soaking in tonight. The collar
appears to take a 30 mm open-end wrench, which I don't have, so I was
using channel-lock pliers on it. After that failed to yield results, I
went shopping for a 30 mm wrench at Sears, but the flats on the sleeve
are only about 7 mm wide, and the only 30 mm wrench I found at Sears had
jaws about 10 mm wide (thick), so it wouldn't fit. I was also looking
for a longer 20 mm fixed wrench to use as the back-up wrench on the rack
(what I used today was an adjustable wrench which was not ideal), but
the flats there are only about 7 mm wide also, vs. 9 mm on the wrench I
found in the store. I could buy the wrenches and grind them down, but
they run $12 each, which is a lot for tools you're going to modify to do
one job only. I was thinking of buying a piece of 2 inch wide by 1/4
inch thick steel stock, cutting two lengths of it, and cutting a notch
out of each to make 30 mm and 20 mm wrenches with long handles. (They
only have to work twice.) I have the car up on jack stands in the back
yard, and the part--the inner tie rod--is expected by Friday, so by then
I'd like to have this assembly apart and the bent old part removed.

While we're at it, I noticed that the grease on the rack teeth looks
like regular gray lithium grease, the same as used for suspension ball
joints and general chassis lubrication, but the steering ball joint on
the end of the rack (that I'm trying to disassemble) has an orange-brown
colored grease in it. Is that difference important, or when I get the
joint apart, can I use gray lithium grease to install the new part?

Thanks a lot to everyone for any help you can provide. By the way, I
know I'll need a shop to do a front end alignment when this repair is
done.

Stephen

"Stephen Bendzick" <stephenb@catholicexchange.com> wrote in message
news:443B38FB.948BBF74@catholicexchange.com...[color=blue]
> Last Tuesday, my 1987 Corolla SR5 finally had the accident I was fearing
> would eventually come to it. With all the traveling I've been doing for
> work between Philadelphia and places like Pottstown and Reading, it
> seemed bound to happen eventually. It put a knife in my heart, but it
> turned out the damage wasn't too bad: one fender trashed, side marker
> lamp broken, and one steering tie rod broken, all on the left side. The
> frame is appears 99% unscathed. I now suspect that the tie rod had
> already been slightly bent and weakened by a very bad pot hole I hit at
> about 45 MPH on City Avenue in Philly a month or two ago. Anyway, on
> Tuesday, the tie rod buckled forward and broke, and I had to have the
> car towed home, as it was unsteerable.
>
> I bought a new outer tie rod from the dealer ($90), and today I removed
> the remnant of the old one from the inner tie rod (after three doses of
> penetrating oil), only to discover that the inner tie rod (the ball and
> threaded rod that attach directly to the rack) is also bent at the stem
> where the rod meets the ball. A small notch in the stem made by the
> ball's collar shows how it got that way. I know never to try to fix
> steering and suspension parts when bent, so I ordered that part from the
> dealer today (another $75). But now I have another problem: I'm having
> trouble disassembling the ball joint on the end of the rack, so that I
> can remove the old part and be ready to install the new one when it
> comes. I've bent back the locking washer which wraps over the flats on
> the sleeve surrounding the ball, and I've tried to turn the sleeve by
> those flats, against a back-up wrench on the flats at the end of the
> rack, adjacent to the sleeve. Being careful not to twist the rack
> itself, I repeatedly used my maximum hand force between the two wrenches
> with about 10 inches of leverage, but the sleeve still wouldn't move.
> This assembly was inside the intact rubber boot and looks clean (well
> greased and no rust), so I'm surprised I'm getting so much resistance.
> Am I correct in expecting the sleeve to unscrew counterclockwise? Could
> it have reverse (left hand) threads? (I can't see any purpose for
> that.) My main question is, am I on the right track, or is this not
> supposed to turn the way I'm trying to turn it? I do NOT want to just
> blindly brute force it and wreck the steering rack! However, if more
> torque is what is needed, I will arrange to get more leverage. If not,
> how does it come apart?
>[/color]

The ball joint at the end of the rack is called a rack end. The washer that
you had to bend back is called a stake washer. I believe that it is bent
over on both sides of the flats so check the enderside. The stake washer is
not a re-useable part so you should get a new one.

The rack end is attached to the stopper at the end of the rack with 65
foot-pounds and should be normal threads, i.e., counter-clockwise to loosen.

There is a special service tool that is basically a crow foot wrench for use
on the flats for the rack end and the stopper on the rack. When you're on
your hunt for tools, take a look to see if there is a crow foot wrench in
the size you're looking for. A crow foot wrench is basically the end of an
open end wrench with a square hole for a square drive. That size is
probably going to be at least 1/2 inch drive. The manual for the Previa
recommends assembly of torque to 65 ft-lbs using a torque wrench with a
handle that is at least 13 inches long.

[color=blue]
> More on what I've done: I put penetrating oil on the sleeve a couple of
> times, so far to no avail; there's more soaking in tonight. The collar
> appears to take a 30 mm open-end wrench, which I don't have, so I was
> using channel-lock pliers on it. After that failed to yield results, I
> went shopping for a 30 mm wrench at Sears, but the flats on the sleeve
> are only about 7 mm wide, and the only 30 mm wrench I found at Sears had
> jaws about 10 mm wide (thick), so it wouldn't fit. I was also looking
> for a longer 20 mm fixed wrench to use as the back-up wrench on the rack
> (what I used today was an adjustable wrench which was not ideal), but
> the flats there are only about 7 mm wide also, vs. 9 mm on the wrench I
> found in the store. I could buy the wrenches and grind them down, but
> they run $12 each, which is a lot for tools you're going to modify to do
> one job only. I was thinking of buying a piece of 2 inch wide by 1/4
> inch thick steel stock, cutting two lengths of it, and cutting a notch
> out of each to make 30 mm and 20 mm wrenches with long handles. (They
> only have to work twice.) I have the car up on jack stands in the back
> yard, and the part--the inner tie rod--is expected by Friday, so by then
> I'd like to have this assembly apart and the bent old part removed.
>
> While we're at it, I noticed that the grease on the rack teeth looks
> like regular gray lithium grease, the same as used for suspension ball
> joints and general chassis lubrication, but the steering ball joint on
> the end of the rack (that I'm trying to disassemble) has an orange-brown
> colored grease in it. Is that difference important, or when I get the
> joint apart, can I use gray lithium grease to install the new part?[/color]

Lithium grease is fine.
[color=blue]
>
> Thanks a lot to everyone for any help you can provide. By the way, I
> know I'll need a shop to do a front end alignment when this repair is
> done.
>
> Stephen[/color]

good luck!
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

Ray O wrote:[color=blue]
>
> "Stephen Bendzick" <stephenb@catholicexchange.com> wrote in message
> news:443B38FB.948BBF74@catholicexchange.com...[color=green]
> > Last Tuesday, my 1987 Corolla SR5 finally had the accident I was fearing
> > would eventually come to it. With all the traveling I've been doing for
> > work between Philadelphia and places like Pottstown and Reading, it
> > seemed bound to happen eventually. It put a knife in my heart, but it
> > turned out the damage wasn't too bad: one fender trashed, side marker
> > lamp broken, and one steering tie rod broken, all on the left side. The
> > frame is appears 99% unscathed. I now suspect that the tie rod had
> > already been slightly bent and weakened by a very bad pot hole I hit at
> > about 45 MPH on City Avenue in Philly a month or two ago. Anyway, on
> > Tuesday, the tie rod buckled forward and broke, and I had to have the
> > car towed home, as it was unsteerable.
> >
> > I bought a new outer tie rod from the dealer ($90), and today I removed
> > the remnant of the old one from the inner tie rod (after three doses of
> > penetrating oil), only to discover that the inner tie rod (the ball and
> > threaded rod that attach directly to the rack) is also bent at the stem
> > where the rod meets the ball. A small notch in the stem made by the
> > ball's collar shows how it got that way. I know never to try to fix
> > steering and suspension parts when bent, so I ordered that part from the
> > dealer today (another $75). But now I have another problem: I'm having
> > trouble disassembling the ball joint on the end of the rack, so that I
> > can remove the old part and be ready to install the new one when it
> > comes. I've bent back the locking washer which wraps over the flats on
> > the sleeve surrounding the ball, and I've tried to turn the sleeve by
> > those flats, against a back-up wrench on the flats at the end of the
> > rack, adjacent to the sleeve. Being careful not to twist the rack
> > itself, I repeatedly used my maximum hand force between the two wrenches
> > with about 10 inches of leverage, but the sleeve still wouldn't move.
> > This assembly was inside the intact rubber boot and looks clean (well
> > greased and no rust), so I'm surprised I'm getting so much resistance.
> > Am I correct in expecting the sleeve to unscrew counterclockwise? Could
> > it have reverse (left hand) threads? (I can't see any purpose for
> > that.) My main question is, am I on the right track, or is this not
> > supposed to turn the way I'm trying to turn it? I do NOT want to just
> > blindly brute force it and wreck the steering rack! However, if more
> > torque is what is needed, I will arrange to get more leverage. If not,
> > how does it come apart?
> >[/color]
>
> The ball joint at the end of the rack is called a rack end. The washer that
> you had to bend back is called a stake washer. I believe that it is bent
> over on both sides of the flats so check the enderside. The stake washer is
> not a re-useable part so you should get a new one.[/color]

Ray, first of all, thank you very much for responding. Your sharing
your expertise is intensely appreciated (by me, for one, but I think
also in general by many others here).

Ah, stake washer, yes; the name makes sense. It was bent over on both
sides. I knew it was not reusable, and I did get a new one--it came
with the rack end (which the dealer parts dept. called the "inner tie
rod"). But I asked about the washer when ordering the rack end.
[color=blue]
> The rack end is attached to the stopper at the end of the rack with 65
> foot-pounds and should be normal threads, i.e., counter-clockwise to loosen.[/color]

Once I got the new rack end, the threading became clear. I hadn't
realized the ball joint was a sealed unit; I thought the back of the
ball socket was the end of the rack, that the flats would screw off the
outer part of the ball socket as a sleeve (with inner threads in it at
the rack end), and that the one-piece machined ball with its threaded
stem was the part I would get from the dealer parts dept. (BTW, for the
archives, that thread between the rack end and tie rod end is M14 x
1.25 mm pitch; I measured the thread crests at 13.97 mm diameter.)
Finding the rack end ball joint a sealed unit also nullified the
question about the differing grease; the assembled rack end came
pre-greased (of course).

When you say "stopper", you just mean the end of the rack, right? The
rack on this car is basically just a one-piece polished solid steel rod
about 2 to 2.5 cm in diameter with teeth cut into one side.
[color=blue]
> There is a special service tool that is basically a crow foot wrench for use
> on the flats for the rack end and the stopper on the rack. When you're on
> your hunt for tools, take a look to see if there is a crow foot wrench in
> the size you're looking for. A crow foot wrench is basically the end of an
> open end wrench with a square hole for a square drive. That size is
> probably going to be at least 1/2 inch drive. The manual for the Previa
> recommends assembly of torque to 65 ft-lbs using a torque wrench with a
> handle that is at least 13 inches long.[/color]

Ah, I understand--a crow foot wrench allows you to use a square drive
torque wrench where an open end wrench is required.

The flats on the rack end (a.k.a. inner tie rod) take a 30 mm wrench. I
couldn't find one slim enough to fit the width of the flats (despite
trying several stores), so I used a large pair of Vise-Grip pliers to
remove the old (junk) part, and I used channel lock pliers on the flats
to install the new one.

The flats on the rack "stopper" (the actual end of the rack) take a 22
mm wrench. I couldn't find one of those quite slim enough either, so I
bought a cheap forged 22 mm wrench at Autozone (for $6 US) and filed
down
one side about 0.5 mm to make it fit. That worked very well.

Using the channel lock pliers, I probably only tightened the rack end
into the rack about 15 to 20 ft-lbs. The handles were about 10" long,
and I did turn until the thread was tight enough it wouldn't turn any
further (without extreme force), and re-checked it twice. Once I got
the right tools (and penetrating oil), the old part didn't take too much
force to remove; I don't think it could have been more than 30 ft-lbs.
After removing it, I did thoroughly clean the oil from the rack's inner
threads with detergent and water, rinse them with water, and allow them
to dry fully before installing the new part. Unfortunately, I couldn't
read your reply before doing the work last Saturday (April 15).

It took me hours to get the stake washer folded down perfectly flat on
both sides of the rack end without making a mess of it or
marring/deforming the rack end, using a combination of wood blocks,
Vise-Grip pliers, clamps, pry bars/rods, and a rubber mallet. With
careful, patient effort, I achieved a result that is nearly as perfect
as the factory original work. (I assume there's a SST for this, maybe a
die that fits into the socket at the end of the rack housing and forces
the stake washer to fold over neatly as you draw in the rack by turning
the steering wheel.) I'm pretty confident in my stake washer's holding
power, and I don't want to undo all that effort, but now I must ask you
a critical question: Did I under-torque the rack end to the point that
it's unsafe, so that I should take it apart and reassemble it with a new
stake washer? Though I'd obviously rather not have to do that, I'd even
more rather not be in doubt about the safety and reliability of my
steering repair. (Note that I will not hold you or anyone else
responsible if you say it's OK and it later fails; I'm doing the work,
so it's my responsibility.)

I do have a beam type torque wrench with a handle about 13" long (and
3/8" drive). I used it to tighten the castle nut on the tie rod end to
43 ft-lbs. (actually 45, to line up the castle notches with the hole).
In the future, I'll look for metric crow-foot wrenches, but in this
region (Philadelphia suburbs) I've so far found very little in the way
of metric wrenches larger than 19 mm. I'll also look on the web.
[color=blue]
>[color=green]
> > More on what I've done: I put penetrating oil on the sleeve a couple of[/color][/color]

[. . . snipped my own previous text . . .]
[color=blue][color=green]
> > joints and general chassis lubrication, but the steering ball joint on
> > the end of the rack (that I'm trying to disassemble) has an orange-brown
> > colored grease in it. Is that difference important, or when I get the
> > joint apart, can I use gray lithium grease to install the new part?[/color]
>
> Lithium grease is fine.[/color]

Thanks. If it ever needs re-greasing, I won't worry about the color
difference.
[color=blue]
>[color=green]
> >
> > Thanks a lot to everyone for any help you can provide. By the way, I
> > know I'll need a shop to do a front end alignment when this repair is
> > done.
> >
> > Stephen[/color]
>
> good luck!
> --
>
> Ray O
> (correct punctuation to reply)[/color]

Thanks again for all your advice and information. I really appreciate
it.

I now have new information and some new problems, which I intend to
repair, as much by myself as possible. I also have some repair projects
that have been pending through the winter, waiting for the summer. I
plan to read and post in this newsgroup frequently as I proceed; I am
starting a new thread named "1987 Corolla SR5 front suspension repair"
for the next step. Ray, I hope you will follow me to this new thread.
Please be assured that any help you continue to provide will be greatly
appreciated, while any assistance that you choose not to offer later on
will not lessen my appreciation for your previous help.

Stephen

"Stephen Bendzick" <stephenb@catholicexchange.com> wrote in message
news:444BAE74.3BAC2ACA@catholicexchange.com...[color=blue]
> Ray O wrote:[color=green]
>>
>> "Stephen Bendzick" <stephenb@catholicexchange.com> wrote in message
>> news:443B38FB.948BBF74@catholicexchange.com...[color=darkred]
>> > Last Tuesday, my 1987 Corolla SR5 finally had the accident I was
>> > fearing
>> > would eventually come to it. With all the traveling I've been doing
>> > for
>> > work between Philadelphia and places like Pottstown and Reading, it
>> > seemed bound to happen eventually. It put a knife in my heart, but it
>> > turned out the damage wasn't too bad: one fender trashed, side marker
>> > lamp broken, and one steering tie rod broken, all on the left side.
>> > The
>> > frame is appears 99% unscathed. I now suspect that the tie rod had
>> > already been slightly bent and weakened by a very bad pot hole I hit at
>> > about 45 MPH on City Avenue in Philly a month or two ago. Anyway, on
>> > Tuesday, the tie rod buckled forward and broke, and I had to have the
>> > car towed home, as it was unsteerable.
>> >
>> > I bought a new outer tie rod from the dealer ($90), and today I removed
>> > the remnant of the old one from the inner tie rod (after three doses of
>> > penetrating oil), only to discover that the inner tie rod (the ball and
>> > threaded rod that attach directly to the rack) is also bent at the stem
>> > where the rod meets the ball. A small notch in the stem made by the
>> > ball's collar shows how it got that way. I know never to try to fix
>> > steering and suspension parts when bent, so I ordered that part from
>> > the
>> > dealer today (another $75). But now I have another problem: I'm having
>> > trouble disassembling the ball joint on the end of the rack, so that I
>> > can remove the old part and be ready to install the new one when it
>> > comes. I've bent back the locking washer which wraps over the flats on
>> > the sleeve surrounding the ball, and I've tried to turn the sleeve by
>> > those flats, against a back-up wrench on the flats at the end of the
>> > rack, adjacent to the sleeve. Being careful not to twist the rack
>> > itself, I repeatedly used my maximum hand force between the two
>> > wrenches
>> > with about 10 inches of leverage, but the sleeve still wouldn't move.
>> > This assembly was inside the intact rubber boot and looks clean (well
>> > greased and no rust), so I'm surprised I'm getting so much resistance.
>> > Am I correct in expecting the sleeve to unscrew counterclockwise?
>> > Could
>> > it have reverse (left hand) threads? (I can't see any purpose for
>> > that.) My main question is, am I on the right track, or is this not
>> > supposed to turn the way I'm trying to turn it? I do NOT want to just
>> > blindly brute force it and wreck the steering rack! However, if more
>> > torque is what is needed, I will arrange to get more leverage. If not,
>> > how does it come apart?
>> >[/color]
>>
>> The ball joint at the end of the rack is called a rack end. The washer
>> that
>> you had to bend back is called a stake washer. I believe that it is bent
>> over on both sides of the flats so check the enderside. The stake washer
>> is
>> not a re-useable part so you should get a new one.[/color]
>
> Ray, first of all, thank you very much for responding. Your sharing
> your expertise is intensely appreciated (by me, for one, but I think
> also in general by many others here).[/color]

You're very welcome!
[color=blue]
>
> Ah, stake washer, yes; the name makes sense. It was bent over on both
> sides. I knew it was not reusable, and I did get a new one--it came
> with the rack end (which the dealer parts dept. called the "inner tie
> rod"). But I asked about the washer when ordering the rack end.
>[/color]

I'm a tighwad so I would have re-used the stake washer if one didn't come
with the new part, but when I give advice, I try to conform to the factory's
instructions ;-) "Inner tie rod" is the generic term for that part - Toyota
calls it a rack end, and some parts departments use generic terms instead of
Toyota terms.
[color=blue][color=green]
>> The rack end is attached to the stopper at the end of the rack with 65
>> foot-pounds and should be normal threads, i.e., counter-clockwise to
>> loosen.[/color]
>
> Once I got the new rack end, the threading became clear. I hadn't
> realized the ball joint was a sealed unit; I thought the back of the
> ball socket was the end of the rack, that the flats would screw off the
> outer part of the ball socket as a sleeve (with inner threads in it at
> the rack end), and that the one-piece machined ball with its threaded
> stem was the part I would get from the dealer parts dept. (BTW, for the
> archives, that thread between the rack end and tie rod end is M14 x
> 1.25 mm pitch; I measured the thread crests at 13.97 mm diameter.)
> Finding the rack end ball joint a sealed unit also nullified the
> question about the differing grease; the assembled rack end came
> pre-greased (of course).
>
> When you say "stopper", you just mean the end of the rack, right? The
> rack on this car is basically just a one-piece polished solid steel rod
> about 2 to 2.5 cm in diameter with teeth cut into one side.[/color]

Yup, what I call the "stopper" is just the end of the rack. I forget what
the correct term is.
[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>> There is a special service tool that is basically a crow foot wrench for
>> use
>> on the flats for the rack end and the stopper on the rack. When you're
>> on
>> your hunt for tools, take a look to see if there is a crow foot wrench in
>> the size you're looking for. A crow foot wrench is basically the end of
>> an
>> open end wrench with a square hole for a square drive. That size is
>> probably going to be at least 1/2 inch drive. The manual for the Previa
>> recommends assembly of torque to 65 ft-lbs using a torque wrench with a
>> handle that is at least 13 inches long.[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> Ah, I understand--a crow foot wrench allows you to use a square drive
> torque wrench where an open end wrench is required.[/color]

Besides being able to use a square drive torque wrench where an open end
wrench is desired, a crow foot wrench can also allow you to put a wrench
where access is difficult. For example, on an older car, instead of using a
distributor wrench where the handle is offset, you might be able to use a
crowfoot with an extension and the ratchet at the top of the extension.

One of the nice things about Toyotas is relative ease of service. If you
have 10, 12, and 14 mm wrenches and a phillips screwdriver, you can take
apart 90% of the car. I don't have a crow foot wrench set because I have
never needed one.
[color=blue]
>
> The flats on the rack end (a.k.a. inner tie rod) take a 30 mm wrench. I
> couldn't find one slim enough to fit the width of the flats (despite
> trying several stores), so I used a large pair of Vise-Grip pliers to
> remove the old (junk) part, and I used channel lock pliers on the flats
> to install the new one.
>
> The flats on the rack "stopper" (the actual end of the rack) take a 22
> mm wrench. I couldn't find one of those quite slim enough either, so I
> bought a cheap forged 22 mm wrench at Autozone (for $6 US) and filed
> down
> one side about 0.5 mm to make it fit. That worked very well.[/color]

Great idea!
[color=blue]
>
> Using the channel lock pliers, I probably only tightened the rack end
> into the rack about 15 to 20 ft-lbs. The handles were about 10" long,
> and I did turn until the thread was tight enough it wouldn't turn any
> further (without extreme force), and re-checked it twice. Once I got
> the right tools (and penetrating oil), the old part didn't take too much
> force to remove; I don't think it could have been more than 30 ft-lbs.
> After removing it, I did thoroughly clean the oil from the rack's inner
> threads with detergent and water, rinse them with water, and allow them
> to dry fully before installing the new part. Unfortunately, I couldn't
> read your reply before doing the work last Saturday (April 15).
>
> It took me hours to get the stake washer folded down perfectly flat on
> both sides of the rack end without making a mess of it or
> marring/deforming the rack end, using a combination of wood blocks,
> Vise-Grip pliers, clamps, pry bars/rods, and a rubber mallet. With
> careful, patient effort, I achieved a result that is nearly as perfect
> as the factory original work. (I assume there's a SST for this, maybe a
> die that fits into the socket at the end of the rack housing and forces
> the stake washer to fold over neatly as you draw in the rack by turning
> the steering wheel.) I'm pretty confident in my stake washer's holding
> power, and I don't want to undo all that effort, but now I must ask you
> a critical question: Did I under-torque the rack end to the point that
> it's unsafe, so that I should take it apart and reassemble it with a new
> stake washer? Though I'd obviously rather not have to do that, I'd even
> more rather not be in doubt about the safety and reliability of my
> steering repair. (Note that I will not hold you or anyone else
> responsible if you say it's OK and it later fails; I'm doing the work,
> so it's my responsibility.)
>[/color]

As far as folding over the stake washer, the manual suggests a brass chisel
to bend it over. I wouldn't worry too much about the washer - it only keeps
things from coming loose. The big thing is to not hit the rack itself
because the seals may leak.

Regarding the torque on the rack end, I wouldn't worry too much. The rack
itself is secured to the chassis so it is not going to rotate, and the the
lock nut on the outer tie rod should keep the rack end from rotating. I
don't see it coming apart.
[color=blue]
> I do have a beam type torque wrench with a handle about 13" long (and
> 3/8" drive). I used it to tighten the castle nut on the tie rod end to
> 43 ft-lbs. (actually 45, to line up the castle notches with the hole).
> In the future, I'll look for metric crow-foot wrenches, but in this
> region (Philadelphia suburbs) I've so far found very little in the way
>of metric wrenches larger than 19 mm. I'll also look on the web.[/color]

I wouldn't invest in a crow foot wrench set unless you intend to do a lot of
work on cars. I've done my fair share of work on Toyotas, and have never
used a crow foot wrench.
[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>>[color=darkred]
>> > More on what I've done: I put penetrating oil on the sleeve a couple
>> > of[/color][/color]
>
> [. . . snipped my own previous text . . .]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>> > joints and general chassis lubrication, but the steering ball joint on
>> > the end of the rack (that I'm trying to disassemble) has an
>> > orange-brown
>> > colored grease in it. Is that difference important, or when I get the
>> > joint apart, can I use gray lithium grease to install the new part?[/color]
>>
>> Lithium grease is fine.[/color]
>
> Thanks. If it ever needs re-greasing, I won't worry about the color
> difference.
>[color=green]
>>[color=darkred]
>> >
>> > Thanks a lot to everyone for any help you can provide. By the way, I
>> > know I'll need a shop to do a front end alignment when this repair is
>> > done.
>> >
>> > Stephen[/color]
>>
>> good luck!
>> --
>>
>> Ray O
>> (correct punctuation to reply)[/color]
>
> Thanks again for all your advice and information. I really appreciate
> it.
>
> I now have new information and some new problems, which I intend to
> repair, as much by myself as possible. I also have some repair projects
> that have been pending through the winter, waiting for the summer. I
> plan to read and post in this newsgroup frequently as I proceed; I am
> starting a new thread named "1987 Corolla SR5 front suspension repair"
> for the next step. Ray, I hope you will follow me to this new thread.
> Please be assured that any help you continue to provide will be greatly
> appreciated, while any assistance that you choose not to offer later on
> will not lessen my appreciation for your previous help.
>
> Stephen[/color]

I'll provide what help I can. It has been a long time since I took any
Toyota classes and I have not bothered to renew my ASE certifications so I'm
a little rusty. My automotive experience is a bit unusual in that I only
looked at problem cars and so I don't have as much experience in routine
work, other than what I've done on my personal cars or for friends. Another
frequent poster in this group, qslm, is a current Toyota Master Diagnostic
Technician and has much more practical experience than me. To become a
Toyota MDT, a technician has to work a minimum of 5 years at a franchised
Toyota dealership (it may be more now, it was 5 years when I called on
dealerships); have taken and passed every current technical class offered by
Toyota to dealership technicians, and have current certifications in every
automotive area by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence
(ASE).

Thanks for the vote of confidence!
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)