Hello,
I'm first time posting, after long-time lurking. I am an experienced shade-tree mechanic (formally professional, but have been military for a decade).
As some of you may know, 98-00 LS400 remanufactured rack and pinions are apparently unobtanium at the moment. So I undertook rebuilding mine, to which I thought I was successful.
After rebuilding the rack, I bled it as best I could with the instructions on ALLDATA, and immediately drove it to be aligned. When they returned the car, the rack was dumping all of the fluid out of both sides.
Now, I'm not doubting that I'm somehow to blame, but I am wondering if somehow the system caught some dirt in the pressure control, blowing out the new seals I installed.
Does the solenoid valve located on the pressure control unit of the rack control pressure to the rack? Could it cause overpressure? Is a common failure of the control valve to blow all the rack seals?
I'm confident I made a best-effort rebuild. I've rebuilt automatic transmissions that have withstood 500+hp engines under similar circumstances (no special tools, rebuilt in my home garage, zero experience with rebuilding said transmission prior to attempt). I could have messed up the seals but it is hard for me to believe I messed ALL of the seals up during installation.
Thanks in advance. Pictures included of exploded rack and my minty clean 99 ls400.