E30 Power Steering rack leak

[joshuawelshparrant 2]

So my wife gives me a call after driving the E30 to work saying it's sprung an oil leak, and sends a photo of a substance draining from the vehicle at a good rate. I go in to see whats going on and discover that the steering rack boot is where the fluid is coming from, sigh a relief that it wasn't worse, leave her with the wagon and baby the coupe home. I think to myself "I'll just order a rebuild kit, it can't be that hard" and slowly as I research and crawl under the car for part numbers realise that this could be a real sh*t job. 

Important info:

Car: E30 318is 1990 

VIN: WBAAF92020EE46058

rack part number (also in photo): 7832 955 155

Location: Central Otago (yeah this would be a lot easier in a city)

 

So my question is? do I order a rebuild kit, because lets face it I currently have the time, none of the specialist tools but I'm a kiwi male so I should be able to work it out?

or

Do i replace the rack with a second hand rack, save myself plenty of cursing but have no idea how good the seals are? 

 

With regard to replacement racks, I don't really want to add sorting out steering linkage while I'm at this so potentially E36 etc racks are out (unless you have a good argument).

Any and all help would be most appreciated.

 

Regards 

Joshua

[nick496 268]

I recall someone rebuild and sold E30 racks a while ago (I want to say Auto38, but not sure) 
I have rebuild an E36 rack, which wasn't particularly fun, but hasn't leaked so far. I would imagine an E30 rack wouldn't be much different.

Would recommend buying a rebuilt one if available, otherwise look into rebuilding it yourself. 

[joshuawelshparrant 2]

Thanks Nick, I'm leaning towards buying a rack rather than rebuilding, it seemed like such a good idea last night, but in the cold light of day i realised it would be a PITA

 

[curryinahurry 39]

Happened to my e30 a few years back.  I ended up upgrading to an E36 rack.  They're abundant, cheap and significantly faster. 

You should definitely reconsider as it does offer a very significant improvement to the driving experience.

Edited October 16, 2017 by curryinahurry

[Allanw 1071]

Either get an E36 rack, or a properly rebuilt E30 rack - they do crap themselves, and having them sleeved where they wear fixes them.

 

Dads old E30 rack was knackered at about 100K kms. It was rebuilt with the "sleeving" or insert, or wahtever, and was still fine at 235K when he sold it.

[joshuawelshparrant 2]

Thanks Allan and Andrew, I am starting to lean towards a E36 rack now just knowing it will be a bit younger. The first rack seems to have lasted 260k km so getting another E30 that’s 30 odd years old may not be the smartest proposition for not having another rack crap out on me in a short space of time. 

As this is one of our daily drivers i’m trying to keep it off the road for the least amount of time, which kinda puts out getting the rack rebuilt by someone competent, and being way down south does make sorting all this stuff just that more challenging.