Part number 04445-24051 contains the seals for the steering rack, plus for the gear housing, plus the special rings (they're white and I can't remember the name of the material they're made from) for the power valve. I stripped down my rack a few weeks ago because it was leaking a bit of fluid from the left hand side (longer side of the rack)
To get the outer seals out you have to strip down the entire rack so I decided to buy the complete seal kit. But in the event I found all the power rings were fine so I ended up just changing the oil seals in the tube itself, and the little one at the top of the power valve.
It's not a hard job if you're careful and print out the exploded diagram from the Soarer Bible. Good idea to measure the exposed length of the threads on the tie rods before removing them so you can get them back roughly correctly - obviously you need to get your toe-in adjusted later.
The only adjustment which you really need a special tool for is that of the rack guide - a small spring loaded cushion which holds the shaft true in the tube. I suspect my guide had become loose and this caused the shaft to wobble and that in turn caused the oil seal furthest from the guide to fail. I don't have the tool to measure the very small torque which is specified, but I just gently tightened the guide until I could no longer feel any lateral movement in the shaft - it's very easy to overtighten the seat and then the shaft would not slide easily in the tube.
Before you remove the guide, turn the power piston with your fingers backwards and forwards so you get an idea of how much torque there should be there for when you refit it. This probably sounds terribly complicated, but once you've read the bible and you've got the assembly off the car, it'll all make sense. And be ready for a mucky time when bleeding the power steering later - all that air in the steering tube has to come out and Toyota did not make the power steering reservoir with plenty of space around it to put a receptacle for the air filled fluid!
If you can find a nice long tube to somehow connect to the return hose you'll make your life a lot easier!
Previous
