Steering knock cause?

[aeidian]

99 GTP. Has about 188k on it. Steering has developed a clunk or knock. I've read about the intermediate steering shift causing a clunk, I don't know if that's what this is. I've replaced both wheel hubs, both inner and outer tie rods, and the sway bar and bushings and links. If I lock the steering wheel, with the car in the air, I can grab the tire at 3 and 6 and it has play. I can hear the rack knocking when I do it. If I'm sitting still when the car is on the ground and I rock the steering wheel back and forth quickly to say like 10 to 2 I can feel the knock consistently. When I first accelerate, I usually feel a knock, and when braking quickly. At first I thought it was bad bushings on the sway bar and the bar was knocking back and forth in the bracket, but it's unchanged with a new bar and bushings. When I changed out the passenger inner tie rod there was a fair amount of fluid in the boot. I know it's been leaking and my power steering pump is as well. I'm just wondering what component inside the rack is causing this knock.

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[osiris94ej]

Is the rack moving around when you move the wheels back and forth with your clunk? If you had the car aligned and it aligned correctly there SHOULDN'T be anything bad. Is the movement in the LCA? If you say you feel play in it then have someone shake the front end down and watch for the movement's. Sounds like the rack or rack bushings are shot.

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[SJAndrew]

Has the mount of the PS rack itself come loose? Also, the rack itself is held with bolts that go thru a bushing (on the rack) - it's possible those bushings are shot. The PS rack itself could also just be shot (the internal rack).

You should not have any fluid at all coming from the rack.

For what it's worth, replacing the rack is not all that hard (having just done it). Just make sure to drop the subframe for additional clearance.

[aeidian]

Haven't checked the bushings, have to look at that. I've read the rack change out, seems the hardest part is paying 200 bucks for a new rack.

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[aeidian]

The rear passenger side took about 3/4s to a full turn, as it was loose. I wouldn't think that it being that little bit loose could cause such a noticeable clunk, but it seems like that was the clunk on take off and stop. The bushings on the cradle look old, so might be time to swap them out. All the other bolts took a 1/8 or 1/4 turn, but they may have been fine. I read other posts about loose cradle bolts causing similar issues, but I imagined it would have to be pretty loose to make a noise, guess I was wrong.

I checked the bushings on the rack and they seem intact, despite the wobble on the wheels when the steering is locked. Unfortunately I don't really have someone readily available to shake the wheel while I look. I know the rack is going bad because of the leak, the car has 190k on it. Seems if I'm gonna go through the hassle to change out the bushings just to see if that's the cause, doing the whole rack would be better. Couldn't see anyway to get the rack bolts and bushings out without at least dropping the rear of the cradle. At that point I might as well rip the whole damn thing out.

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