I've been away a long, long time, but the time has come to get my c900t back up and running.

The first big thing on my hit list is addressing the steering rack leak. It's had an on and off leak from the boots as long as I've owned it.

Today I began the process of getting it road worthy again after years of storage. It went really well except for the fact that it pissed all its steering fluid in the first five minutes of idling in the driveway.

Since it's been an intermittent problem in the past, I'd like to think it only needs seals on the rack gear.

Is this something that I can do without special tools or equipment? Rockauto does have seal kits listed, and I work with hydraulics professionally, so I suspect it's worth trying.

I've never attempted it so take it with my usual truckload of salt... however my guess is its probably not terribly physically demanding but may take doing a few times to get perfect, which is a pain given how difficult it is to remove the rack with the engine still in the car. I'd be real tempted to splurge for a rebuilt one, however you sound like you know what you're doing so it may be a good project. Here is a thread with some pictures of the basic process, doesn't look too terrible but certainly not fun

http://www.saablink.net/forum/general-c ... /67465.htm

It's not hard to remove the rack with the engine in.. On a lift you have it out in no time at all. On jackstands it's also doable but you will feel it the next morning.

Krizzie wrote:It's not hard to remove the rack with the engine in.. On a lift you have it out in no time at all. On jackstands it's also doable but you will feel it the next morning.

I did it on my '85 C900 by myself when my husband was out of town. Way long ago in 1991. I only had jackstands, no lift. The whole process wasn't hard or memorable EXCEPT for the part where I had to lay under the car and get it back into place. My cat was trying to "help" and I had a miserable time. I'm pretty weak so if I can do it probably anybody can.

The replacement seals, boots, and all lasted a little over 10 years before it started leaking again. Original was leaking at 5 years, OTOH, so I musta done it right and my original rack musta been sitting on a shelf a while before installed in the '85 new.