(I've also posted this to the Vanagon list, but I'll take all the help I can get)
I don't want to sound too alarmist, but I'm a little worried about getting my new power steering rack in correctly, i.e. centered. (I need to leave for Everybus Thursday, and have lots to do before then.) Here's my problem: I got the old rack out and got ready to change the things over to the new rack that didn't come with it- bushings where it bolts to the body, fittings to hold pressure lines on, and the plastic collar around the splined shaft. I noticed that there were numbers on the new shaft, but didn't see any mention in the Bentley or Haynes about what to look for. I heard of centering indicators, but not how to handle them. What I was going to do was line up the old and new racks and make sure that the tie rods stuck out the same on the new as the old. But I got to thinking about the numbers on the spline and the tab I noticed on the collar, AFTER I got it off. I looked in the manual for my A2 Jetta, and it gives a procedure for centering the rack and lining up the notch on the collar, but I'm still a little confused. I measured the turns of the spline from "steering" from one side to another, and found that my old rack apparently did not have the steering centered. So should I turn the spline on the new rack all the way to one side and then back half as far, or should I measure and set it to the way the old one was? I don't want to end up with a steering wheel that goes one turn to the left and three the right. The Jetta manual also mentions centering the steering and then lining up the tab on the black collar with a notch on the rack. But since I transfered the collar from old to new without seeing what numbers on the shaft it lined up with, I don't know what to do. I also counted the turns that it took to take off the outer tie rod ends, but should I bother with that if I've got these other troubles?
So, sorry this is so long, but here's my questions in summary-
-How far out should each side of the rack be (tie rods) and how do get it that way using the numbers on the rack spline and how should I put that plastic collar on the spline, and what number does it have to be lines up with?
Thanks for any advice. I want to get this ready for Everybus.
Ed