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Just went through this on my '82. I never loosened the other end of the joint. In my opinion that just creates one more thing that can 'move' --- which I feel gets in the way of trying to align the splines.
Two things I did that helped a lot -- 1) I LOOSELY fastened the passenger side of the rack to the crossmember. On my rack that side attached with a U-bolt. Once that side was nailed down, so to speak, it helped minimize the angle that the pinion splines (male end) had compared to the joint (female end). Also, that enabled me to use one hand to position the rack and the other hand to try and line up the joint -- otherwise I found I was using both hands to try and manage the rack; that left the joint just kind of flopping around. And let's face it, when it's flopping around, you're not getting it in. (context warning) 2) I asked my wife to sit in the car and very gently wiggle the wheel back and forth. With that, it went right in pretty quickly. Once I got a feel for it - I was able to reconnect them on my own after that.
Bottom line is, it just takes some patience.
I turned the rack from lock to lock and took careful measurements to ID the center position of the rack. Of course, have the steering wheel at 12 o'clock when you stab it. Makes it easier to do your string toe-setting after you get it back together.
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82 242 5.0L; '10 Cayman S; '15 Honda Fit
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