How To Guide - E36 Steering Rack Swap

[JinormusJ]

How To Guide - E36 Steering Rack Swap

BMW racks are self bleeding as long as you have enough fluid. (At least, the e30 system is)

Have the reservoir full then steer to lock; refill, steer to center, refill, steer to opposite lock, refill, steer to center again, fill to indicated volume, cap off. For added measure, you can steer lock to lock a couple times after with it uncapped to make absolute sure all the air has been bled out.


Should be good unless you have a blown rack or leaks in the system.

[brads2002]

Thank you , good to know on the quantity. I only put 2 reservoirs in so maybe there is a big air gap. No whining at all. I will let it sit overnight and check again in the morning.

[kwseattle]

So I just finished this, took her for a drive and the power steering is not there. Filled it up and started the car. Went lock to lock and added another reservoir full of fluid. It must be pumping as it pulled the fluid in. Could there be something wrong with the rack itself? Did I screw up the hoses? Not sure if that's even possible.

Thanks

Is it whining like there's air in the system? I would just keep adding more until it doesn't drop anymore. Mine took about three full reservoirs of fluid I think.

If this doesn't work then I'd say that you may have hooked up the hoses incorrectly but I don't think that's really possible without major leaking and/or seriously screwing up the rack. There's one high pressure hose that attaches to the pump and the rack, and two low pressure. One from the reservoir to the pump, and one from rack to reservoir.



As an aside I have an update:

About 1000 miles in with the AAE 3111N and it has stiffened up quite a bit, and what used to be a quite light and numb (but laughably fast, I kind of miss it) experience is now well weighted and very communicative. The texture of the road surface is translated pretty significantly to the wheel.

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[brads2002]

No power steering

So I just finished this, took her for a drive and the power steering is not there. Filled it up and started the car. Went lock to lock and added another reservoir full of fluid. It must be pumping as it pulled the fluid in. Could there be something wrong with the rack itself? Did I screw up the hoses? Not sure if that's even possible.

Thanks

Disregard.....just went out to try it again and works fine. Very strange. Maybe a little air pocket although fluid was at the correct level.

[jalopi]

The new reservoir I got on ebay says 'use ATF' on the cap.

but hey, if you feel like paying 3x as much for what's pretty much the same stuff... go right ahead :)

[FLG]

Just grab atf fluid from wherever... It's just automatic transmission fluid.

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[ascendotuum]

So I've read through almost every page in this thread and I just have one more question.

The site I'm getting the parts from comes up with Pentosin CHF202 Hydraulic/Power Steering fluid instead of regular ATF. Is this OK to use? Or should I try to find ATF?

[ascendotuum]

Question - will a 98 M3 rack work? Or only the 95 M3 rack?

EDIT - nevermind. Someone asked this question earlier in the thread. The search function is my friend.

[jalopi]

So I wasn't 100% sure what the problem was, but turns out I was right. Someone didn't install the pinion shaft seal properly during assembly. The worst part was that it's so obvious the guy/gal was either completely oblivious or they didn't give. a. fuck. at all. Should've pulled the dust cap off before I installed the rack... oh well, lesson learned. Got a regular e36 rack at a local part store (for some reason they couldn't order e46 racks) and installed. Not as quick as I'd like it to be, but goddamn is it nice to have power steering again.

[jalopi]

Top tip of the day: spend the extra money and get a decent rack. The z3 AAE brand rack I bought made it 10 feet out of my driveway before completely blowing out the (input shaft?) seal.

Couldn't expect too much out of a $250, no core charge rack, eh?

[jalopi]

I could swear there's a post somewhere in this thread about some dude that put his car on an alignment rack so he could see the toe change as the suspension was loaded up. He said it was getting roughly 1.5* of toe changes when the spacers were on the bottom, and less than .5* with the spacers up top.

However, that was just one post - I'm assuming it isn't too bad for you with the spacers on the bottom? I guess I can give it a try, not exactly hard to change the spacer location.

[KVF]

So how horrendous is the bump steer supposed to be after this swap is done? I did align (string method, did the same when I put my tie rod spacers in and it turned out fine) here's what I did:

1. e46 shafts cut to length
2. z3 rack, it's something under 3 turns lock to lock
3. Used approximately 50mm of washers on top of the rack as a spacer (rough measurement of the height difference between the two racks)
4. IE camber plates (the ones with the urethane)
5. IE delrin CABs
6. e46 lower control arms
7. Stock e30 tie rods

Still haven't finished the PS bracket and lines, so it was unassisted at the time I did my shakedown. Camber is set to max positive (still probably -1.5 to -2* or so)

It's got a very, very slight pull but otherwise drives fairly straight, so either the toe is a bit off or the camber is a bit off. Regardless, as long as the road is smooth I'm good... but as soon as I touch a pebble on the road it's almost as if the car tries to throw me into the nearest tree. Is this something that'll get better once the PS is installed and running? Because it didn't seem to make much of a difference with the e30 rack, though that was progressive, not linear.

Bump steer does feel more pronounced without the ps hooked up. Also, sounds like you placed the washers/spacers on top of the rack. To most minimize bump steer you'd want them on the bottom (moving rack upward). Having said that, I can't imagine 1.5-2 inches is going to make a world of difference...

[FLG]

Get your toe dialed in first. Bad toe will do just that.

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[jalopi]

So how horrendous is the bump steer supposed to be after this swap is done? I did align (string method, did the same when I put my tie rod spacers in and it turned out fine) here's what I did:

1. e46 shafts cut to length
2. z3 rack, it's something under 3 turns lock to lock
3. Used approximately 50mm of washers on top of the rack as a spacer (rough measurement of the height difference between the two racks)
4. IE camber plates (the ones with the urethane)
5. IE delrin CABs
6. e46 lower control arms
7. Stock e30 tie rods

Still haven't finished the PS bracket and lines, so it was unassisted at the time I did my shakedown. Camber is set to max positive (still probably -1.5 to -2* or so)

It's got a very, very slight pull but otherwise drives fairly straight, so either the toe is a bit off or the camber is a bit off. Regardless, as long as the road is smooth I'm good... but as soon as I touch a pebble on the road it's almost as if the car tries to throw me into the nearest tree. Is this something that'll get better once the PS is installed and running? Because it didn't seem to make much of a difference with the e30 rack, though that was progressive, not linear.

[kwseattle]

I just finished reconnecting my power steering, and man do I agree with that. It's a whole different car now, I could barely turn the wheel before.

On the first drive I was sitting in my car laughing at how crazy fast the steering is now!

It's unbelievable. I definitely recommend the Z3 rack.

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