You may recall that I posted a couple weekends ago about some nasty front end play in my '84 245. The passenger side front wheel feels loose and makes a clunk about once every revolution.

Yesterday was a nice day so I put the car on a friend's lift and removed the front wheels. The ball joint on the right side has definitely seen better days. The rubber part of the joint looks like it was used as chew toy by a 200 pound pit bull, and it has noticeable play.

But what really bothers me is the play in the tie-rods. The play seems to be at the end of the tie-rods (on both sides) where they screw into the rack.

The rack was replaced about 15 years ago but it has 200K+ miles on it at this point. I see that the parts are reasonable. Under $200 for a reman rack. I figure that I could buy the rack, tie-rod ends, and ball joints for about $400 including shipping.

Question is: Is replacing the rack a DIY job, and are any special tools required? On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate difficulty?