Ram steering rack pipes. ES9J4.

[SteveLP]

Hi.
I have a leaking set of pipes going to the rack. It is for the ES9J4.
Anyone have spares or know where I could get replacement pipes. With or without a new rack!
At the moment the car not moving anywhere fast!
Thanks. Steve.

[xantia_v6]

There is not much chance of finding new, or even used pipes, the are unique to the RHS ES9. You will probably need to get your existing ones repaired. Where are they leaking?
It. Seems common for them to leak at the junctions of the flexible and solid sections because they were not crimped tightly enough, perhaps the crimping dies at the factory were worn out by 1999?

[SteveLP]

Yes. That's what has happened. Once the rack is off the car is stuck until it is repaired.... . If it can be repaired....

[xantia_v6]

Any good hydraulic hose specialist should be able to crimp new rubber hose onto the old steel sections.

Does the rack need to come out to replace the hoses?

[Southerneruk]

You might need to replace the small rubber insert that seals the pipe, on the rack you have 2 metal pipes that that comes down from the bottom of the steering column to the input end of the ram, there are also 2 metal pipes that feed into the bottom of the steering column that feed the oil in and out. These do not often leek, but when they do, it is just a replacement of the rubber seal.
If it is the other end of the ram that is a leaking problem, you have a headache, the ram can not be pulled apart and repair, it is a replacement job, finding an unused one or one that don't leak will be hard to find, but just thought about this, on the wheel end of that ram you have pressure release return pipe, it could be that the return pipe is blocked somewhere or because it also connects up with other pressure returns it could be another component that is faulty and is releasing too much oil for the pipe to take so it leaks at the weakest point and that is the flexible return pipe from the ram