Xantia steering rack boot replacement.

[Hell Razor5543]

Some stretchy boots come with the cone to help fit the boot.

[Madmechanicdave5]

Hi if it's the same as on a Xantia then you've got the end of the pas ram spigot to stretch over and you might have to heat the boot in hot water to stretch it. In the past people have used a kind of stretch funnel thing but i don't know where they got them. I changed the boots on mine when I changed the track rods. When you remove the track rod on the spigot end the boot goes over the spigot a lot easier. I did have the rack out though so that made it easier too..

How easy was it to get the entire steering rack out,i tried numerous ideas to try and get boot over the spigot, but found it practically impossible, but in order to get the entire rack out it said in my Haynes manual that you need to drop the chassis to be able to remove it, I didn't like the sound of that, so have now searched for a mechanic to do the work, as it's my wife's car, which failed it's mot because of this boot issue, if it wasn't for that spigot i may have been able to get boot on, it's a daft idea to hold a hydraulic ram in place would've been better if it was just a bolt, but that's the French design for you...the car i was working on is a Citroen Picasso xsara 55 reg

[aerodynamica]

Well on the xantia you can get the full rack out one side without the front subframe lowered. You need to pop off one of the gear rods that takes a minute.

But not sure on the Picasso. Getting that boot over the spigot is difficult but surely not that hard? Lots of folk have done it with the cone thing but also improvised with old spoons etc. Did you try heating the boot up just before stretching on?

Also might be possible to get the inner track rod out with the steering at full lock. But be prepared! I think it'll need a pipe wrench on the inner joint outer surface because often there's no 'flats' to get any kind of big spanner on it. You'd need to replace the boots anyway because they don't usually survive the removal of the inner joint. Then just remove the steering ram 2 bolts/ nuts.

I would only take out the rack if you really have to and then you'd be a well refurbishing the whole thing on the workbench.