89 se, engine problem fixed, need info on steering & suspension

Before you condemn the power steering rack you may want to check a few other things first like...

Power steering rack mounting bushings lower ball joints transverse link bushings upper strut insulators outer tie rod ends

Nisstech... The steering gear is leaking fluid & one of the boots is torn & one of the mount bushings is worn.

I intend to replace it but don't want to pay high price for a new one. I have never had to buy a steering gear before and I'm looking for advice on where to shop for a properly rebuilt unit.

I also intend to replace all the other wearable parts & would like to use urethane bushings. Courtesy Nissan does not have a source for all of the bushings for the 89-94 Maxima. They do have them for the 95 & higher.

I found a site '

' that hopefully has most of the bushings.

Do you know of any good providers of steering gears & urethane bushings? Also any comments on brand of shocks & springs that have been shown to be good quality?

Thanks

If the power steering rack is leaking then it should be replced along with noth rack mounting bushings, you will probably find the after replacement to the rack and mounting bushings the thing will feel pretty good.

I would check some of your local parts houses, like NAPA and Car Quest. the OEM part is almost 900 bucks !!

You can go with urethane if you want to , no harm there

Sorry but I really don't have any suggestions on where to buy aftermarket parts

I looked at several sites that 'rebuild' steering gears, called 3 & visited

2 rebuilders in Dallas. I bought two gear units from the 2nd location. I don't really feel very secure with the quality of workmanship since you can't look inside the rebuilt unit. I don't even feel secure that it is even the same spec's as the bad one on my car. The dealers show two available for the 89 model year. One for the SE & one for the GLX. All the rebuilders (about 10) that I looked at only had one part # for the 89-94 model years. The dealer parts guys did not know what the differences are between the two types. Do you know?

2nd, I checked on the Australian urethane bushings the total cost would have been just over $400 & the front sway bar bushings are not available. Lead time for delivery was into November so will use standard Nissan bushings for my repair. Would rather have used urethane for longevity & tighter response but the regular ones lasted 230,000 miles so will not complain.

Thanks for your input. Oh, by the way, my cost with the offered 20% discount was only $126 for the 'long' gearbox. A very good price & hope the quality is there also.

if you want your max to feel tight and safer at highway speeds i would do to your max what i did to mine. get a syspention package struts and springs, then front and rear sway bars and front strut brace. all these together make the max feel like a corvette as long as you fix any problems you have with your car. When i did all this i couldnt belive how well the car would respond. i would also get springs that drop the car alittle, that also makes a differance because it lowers the center of cravity. i wouldnt go any lower then 1.2" drop because after that you'll start to feel every bump

Thanks for your comments.. that is what I would like to achieve for our 89 SE. I have now removed the old control arms, motor mounts, strut mounts & am trying to work out the old steering gear. So far I've found bad axle boots, bad steering gear boots, bad inner tie rod, bad outer tie rod, leaky gear box & one really bad motor mount. What was your brand name & source for your parts? So far I've only found Stillen that seems to be a reliable source for sway bars & for the front strut mount brace. So far everything has been easy.. but it does take a lot of time.