Steering problem - 92 Jetta ecodiesel

oakfield · Post by **oakfield** » Wed May 23, 2007 7:56 pm

Steering is kaput. The steering wheel turns but the road wheels do not. I noticed the rack & pinion unit shifts left and right as steering wheel is turned. The motor does not need to be running for the steering wheel to turn more or less freely. Is this normal? I can see that the r & p unit is sliding back and forth through the big C clamp that secures the right side. Shouldn't the r & p be stationary?

A1-2-A3 · Post by **A1-2-A3** » Wed May 23, 2007 8:15 pm

If the rack is bypassing internally it would cause the steering wheel to shift around with the engine running.

busguy71 · Post by **busguy71** » Thu May 24, 2007 7:53 am

that happened to me too, but it happened while I was driving it (thankfully at slow speeds) Either the rack was jumping teeth or the u-jpint splines were stripped, but something was shot so I just replaced everything. File that under NOT SAFE TO DRIVE!!!

duffer · Post by **duffer** » Thu May 24, 2007 11:03 am

There are different steering gear
assemblies, but I believe they
are all bolted to the subframe with
two bolts on the driver's side and
two bolts throught the big C clamp
on the pass. side rubber mount.

If the whole steering gear is sliding
back and forth, "through the big C clamp"
it sounds like the two bolts, on the
driver's side are missing or sheared off.

Check to see whether those two bolts are intact.

VWCaddy · Post by **VWCaddy** » Thu May 24, 2007 12:59 pm

Could be the bushings inside the rack clamps have fallen apart. I put poly bushings in mine.

tylernt · Post by **tylernt** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:10 pm

IIRC, the power steering rack has only 1 clamp. The manual rack has two.

I agree with duffer and VWCaddy, either the bolts or the bushings are probably gone.