FixVault

Steering Gear: Disassembly

  1. Place steering gear in a soft-jawed vise. Mark threaded portion of tie rod ends for reassembly reference. Remove boot bands and boots. Turn gear all way to left. Remove tie rod end lock nut.
  2. Remove tie rod ends after securing toothed part in soft-jawed vise. Remove roll pins from pin holes with a pair of pliers. Remove oil seal by threading rack bushing assembly 2 or 3 turns onto gear housing.
  3. Plug return line with a finger. Blow compressed air in from pressure line, forcing oil seal to end of rack bushing assembly.
  4. Remove rack assembly and oil seal together. Remove snap ring with snap ring pliers. Remove gear from vise and place it on a press. See Fig 1 and Fig 2 .
  5. Push on pinion to remove control valve assembly from housing. Attach Protector (49 G030 595 ) to rack in order to cover teeth. Remove rack.
    CAUTION: If protector is not used, oil seal within housing will be damaged.
  6. On all models, remove seal and "O" ring. Fit new "O" ring into groove and seal ring into ring groove by hand. Remove bearing.
Fig 1: Exploded View of MX-6 & 626 Rack & Pinion Steering Gear
G41899Courtesy of MAZDA MOTORS CORP.
Fig 2: Removing MX-6 and 626 Control Valve Assembly
G50546Courtesy of MAZDA MOTORS CORP.