TheLastMan

Hello all, been lurking for a long time. Pretty handy with a wrench, got my '98 Altima up to 323,000 miles doing all the repairs myself, and it was still running strong before I got rid of it for my '02 SE. My SE has almost 221,000 miles on it, and I'm hoping to surpass my Altima.

Here's my problem. I'm replacing my steering rack/gear and I've searched all over the internet for a good write up on this, including this forum. No one seems to have discussed it here. Nothing on YouTube for our generation. Found a great write up for the 4th gen, and while it looks similar, I'm stuck. I have the FSM and have studied it like a ****.

Even with dropping the y-exhaust pipe and the crossmember, which is necessary to get to some bolts, I still can't quite get to the few bolts I need to get the rack completely separated. When/if I get all the bolts that hold on the "hole cover," do I pull that down to expose the pinch bolt? Everything about this job is difficult but getting those hole cover bolts off is just so awkward, the top one seems not possible. And I have no idea how I'm going to get some of the bolts back on.

Has anyone done this on our generation? Can anyone please help? Once I'm successful, I'll write this up.