Steering Rack Replacement Gilly, Ron, Anyone Please help!

[nick_russo]

I’ve done some searching but it seems that I’m the first to change the steering rack on the ML. Here is the story.

Noticed a small puddle of oil (looked just like motor oil, not red like traditional power steering fluid) in my driveway the other day. I put the car up on the jack stands searching for the leak only to find that it was my steering rack. I removed the dust boot from the driver’s side of the rack to have the fluid poor out. Great, I found the problem.

I called a local repair shop that specializes in Mercedes but they would not give me a repair quote without seeing the vehicle. They said the seals may be replaced but the need me to make an appointment to look at the car. I asked for a worst case scenario for replacing the rack but they said they would be happy to after they saw the problem.

I understand there need to protect themselves from under quoting a job but as a customer I need to have an idea of what I’ll be in for before I grab my ankles.

I called another import repair shop that my in-laws have been pleased with but they recommended me to the place I originally called.

So here is what I did.
1. Ordered a new rack (Benz Bin $657.02 with a refundable core charge of $150.00) not too bad
2. Started to remove the old rack.

This looks like a straight forward job. First removed the two hydraulic lines, no problem. Then the tie rod ends, all I did there was loosen the lock down nuts and then turn the rod on the steering rack so I didn’t even have to remove the tie rods from the spindles. Finally I need to disconnect the steering column from the rack. I loosened both the upper and lower nut and bolt on the u-joint but no luck. I then unbolted the rack to see if I could slide it off but no dice. Does anyone know the trick in removing it and once it’s off, will I have the clearance to remove the rack or do I need to remove something else?

Thanks for your help,
Nick in SC