Hey guys I threw in a rebuilt NVA rack into my coupe, Didn't mark anything so steering rack was off center. What I did was go back, took tie rods off and tryed my best to center the rack itself and than the steering wheel and I did this by trying to get mirror images of the steering wheel when they were at each lock left and right. Well, no matter which tooth I adjusted the U joint to, the steering wheel always goes a tiny bit further on one of the sides no matter which tooth I adjust it to. In my case I left it where it goes slightly more to the left than the right. I also reset my steering angle sensor after this and my tie rod lengths are now even, but the steering shifted to the left after this procedure. Going for alignment now but worried that steering wheel won't be straight again as I've been dealing with this issue for a while.

Thanks

 

Just tell them that you replaced the rack but didn't center it, they'll disconnect the u-joint, recenter the rack, center the wheel, then make alignment adjustments at the tie rod ends.

For the future you can center the rack by measuring the length of the inner tie rod end protruding on both sides and make them the same measurement on the left and right side.

 

I suppose that I'm a philstine...the racked usually comes centered. But I just mark them with whiteout and count the turns from center, then end to end in order to double check the center of the rack.

The steering wheel remains ~locked to center until the new rack goes in, then wiggled in to the rack. Locking the steering wheel or clockspring to center is the most important part.

 

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It's not exactly rocket science, set the steering wheel perfectly centered, ratchet strap it to the brake pedal while you do the alignment so it cannot move. If you're running out of adjustment on the rod ends then unbolt the steering u-joint and make some correction there. Perform a steering angle recalibration with either NDS2 or by visiting the dealership. Unplug the ABS relay if you have to drive to the dealership to keep VDC from doing silly things.

You should definitely be driving away from your alignment with a centered steering wheel, if not then you have the proof that those techs don't know what they're doing and you should probably never get an alignment done there again.