Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Steering rack heads-up

I's at the boneyard today, pulling some parts off of a '95 stick Contour, 4 cyl. Made a couple of months later than mine.

(you definitely have to drop the cradle to get a tranny out. I don't care what Hayne's says. )

I loosened the steering column to steering rack joint, (inside the car)and noticed a wooble. The flexible coupling was falling apart! There are two rivets woobling on it, that probably gave a really crappy steering feel.

The wheels were off the car, so I don't know if there were big skins on it at one time, but it was an eye-opener. I've seen rubber parts fail in the couplers but not the actual bolts or attachments. Never. I'll be inspecting things as I do my clutch.
I might get a pic, I didn't have my camera with me. Looks like I 'm going to pull my inner fenders too. A fair amount of crap in tha back sides of them.

The coupler wore out on my sister's 1995 Mystique. The rivets were moving around, the rubber had failed. Slight knock/squawk to it. Hard to replace, had to wait until the rack needed a new line (frame dropped then) at a shop for $$$. I think the rivets are the safety parts. Her car has the tiny P195/65R14 stock tires (until they wear out )

Rager: Thanks for the excellent info on steering rack. I've noticed the steering in my 97 Contour v6/auto has become very sloppy over the last year or so. I've had wider tires on it much of the time. Are you saying that the wider tires put too much stress on the rack, causing it to develop extra slop prematurely? Should I be concerned? I am very interested in any pics you can provide. Thanks for helping a fellow 'Tour owner!

http://tinypic.com/j8hddt.jpg and http://tinypic.com/j8heus.jpg
The bottom of one rivet is visible. The coupler is held with one Torx head bolt.

Thanks for the pic, gonna save it for reference. Come springtime I'm gonna take a close look at my rack. As far as the tire size discussion: I have a theory that wider tires will magnify the long-term damaging effects of having a very bad alignment. When I had the car aligned this fall, the settings were WAY off. Had been driving it that way for years.