I'm about to replace the pressure hose on my 94 xjs 4.0. the current one is leaking everywhere. It got punctured some how. Possibly when I was working on it last.

Anyway, so I figured I would replace the rack bushings with poly since I'm in there. My question is do I need to replace all three or can I get by with just two (one on each side). The upper area is a bit hard to access and I hate to go through the trouble if it is not going to matter.

 

I just dropped my front suspension cradle and replaced all of the wear items which included installing a new rack. My new rack and pinion already had new bushings installed and so I debated whether to remove the new rubber ones and replace with poly.

I decided to simply fill in the gaps between bushing and subframe with a slice of the new poly bushing. My reasoning was similar to your question: "How much will it matter?"

I think that two is better than three but since you're replacing a line it wouldn't be much more work to loosen one more line and drop rack down.

But how much will it matter if you only replace 2? Objectively? Not at all. If you're an obsessive? A lot.

 

Nothing 'bad' will come of replacing just the two. The steering rack isn't gonna fall out nor the engine explode

But....

I think you'll be happier if you replace all three. Leaving one unchanged is gonna be like an itch.

Cheers
DD

 

Actually, I guess Im difference than most, I will take great pleasure in knowing I did less work than everyone else with exactly the same results and reliability. I am going to take it a step further and put in just the ends of the poly bushing, as mentioned above.

At the moment I have pieces of tires that I cut up with a hole saw. Works great but it could be a tad tighter. I may just add another piece of tire and sand it until its the right width. Though, its easier just to cut the poly bushing.

Efficient laziness is what I call it.

 

I have seen several posts from people who worked around replacing the rack bushings instead of going ahead and doing it. I believe this is more work than just replacing the bushings. I removed the 3 rack mounting bolts, this let me move the rack enough to access the bushings. I used a cheap air chisel to drive out the old bushings, and installed aftermarket poly rack bushings. Total cost about $25 US, and total time invested, less than 2 hours.