I have a 94 camry which needs a steering column to steering rack
coupler (looks like a small ujoint, visible from under hood) My local
toy dealer wants $265; can find it on-line for about $40. Must I lower
the steering rack to replace the coupler? That is a pain. Has anyone
ever replaced one?
Dan

"dan" <1.Dan.Thomas (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

You should be able to replace the steering shaft u-joint without lowering or
disturbing the rack.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

Is it squeaking? Just put some grease on it.


"dan" <1.Dan.Thomas (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

"Art" <begunaNOSPAMPLEASE (AT) mindspring (DOT) com> wrote

Those couplers generally do not squeak. The complaint is usually difficult
steering.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

Thanks for the responses

My complaint is difficult steering, not lock to lock. Just at
sometimes in the turn and not all turns. I had one go bad on an old
tercel with the same symptoms as my Camry. I sprayed wd40 under the
rubbers and got out a lot of rusty looking lube. I just forced grease
under the rubbers with a needle nose grease gun. Probable is easier
to just change the coupler instead of trying different solutions.

Will let you know what finally happens.

Dan




On Mon, 21 Aug 2006 10:08:18 -0500, "Ray O"
<rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote:

My solution so far.

I was unable to find the source of the coupler on line again.

The 4 local (within 50 miles) used auto parts stores (junk yards)
would only sell me an entire steering wheel assembly for $120. This
would still be cheap compared to the $250 for a new coupler from Toy.
This was much more than I wanted to spend on a Camry with 171K+ miles
on it. None of the local auto parts stores (Auto Zone, etc) had a
coupler.

I had to try something else. I used a needle point on my grease gun,
forced it under the rubber seals on each joint and injected as much
grease as I believed it could hold. This seems to have fixed it for
now, hopefully another 30K miles. Maybe the car will last that long.

The intermittent difficult turning of the steering wheel has gone away
and the steering wheel does return to center without effort.

Hope this info helps someone at sometime.

Dan