I need to replace the steering rack on my 1988 T-Bird base model with the 3.8L V6. The 8th Vin is 4
I see they have two different versions one with the performance suspension and one without. Which one do I need?
I know that the steering ratio is on the tight side, if that helps.
There are two ratios which are 20:1 (standard) and 15:1 (performance). This simply means that for every 20 degrees or 15 degrees of steering wheel turn you will get 1 degree of wheel turn. So you will basically get about 2.25 to 2.5 turns lock to lock on a 15:1 and 3.0 turns or a little more lock to lock on a 20:1. A lot of folks say you have to match the power steering pump to the ratio of the pump but being that they only offer one pump at the parts stores now a days that is complete BS. The pump does not give a shiznit as to which rack you have in the car.
I would highly recommend that you flush your pump and lines prior to hooking them back up to a new rack and read up on how to properly install the Teflon seals on the hard lines that attach to the rack. I would also recommend that you replace the low pressure side rubber line from the rack hard line up to the pump reservoir as it is cheap bulk hose at the parts store and often over looked.