i guess i should have studied the archives a bit more before starting this job. my rack come off fairly easily once i completely removed the clamp bolt on the u-joint. yes...loose is not good enough! anyways, i am not sure if i moved the steering wheel after the rack was removed. i also may have rotated the shaft during the job to make it easier to work with. bottom line is i have no idea where the steering wheel is in relation to where it was when it came off?

what sort of mess am i going to have to deal with?

also, i have read that the splines for the pinion and u-joint will only fit back together one way. if the rack wasn't delivered with its splines set at the same position as the rack that was removed, wouldn't that require moving the steering wheel or the pinion to get it to mate up? im not sure how to rotate the pinion without risking damaging the splines.

help!