For once, I know what's wrong with my car. One of the hard hydraulic lines on the outside of my steering rack has rusted through and is leaking badly. It must be replaced, of course, but the work looks tricky and I'm hoping someone might have useful advice.

The line in question goes from one end of the rack to the other, and is contorted in such a way that I think it would be impossible to install a similarly shaped line without dropping the rack out of the car, which I'd rather not do.

One idea is to re-route the line so that it travels from one side to the other underneath the rack. This might make it a bit more vulnerable to road debris, but would make the installation fairly straightforward.

Another thought is to have a flexible line fabricated by a small local hydraulics company.

If anyone has done this job before and can offer some insight or suggest something I haven't thought of, I'd appreciate it.

--Jon