[peva]

Check out Moog K7349 on Rock Auto. It's the bushing kit. They're the two flat washers (see photo below) - they go between the rear-most bushings and the rubber sleeve/cover on the rack. It's hard getting the washers in place while you get the bolts started without dropping the washers - and then they fall back onto the transmission, and you'll never find them after that.

The kits you got include the single-piece bushings (and probably the bushing sleeves?), but don't include the two washers.

Are your old washers possibly stuck to or into the rack rubber sleeve/cover?

Moog K7349:

 

[peva]

Found this in the FSM - items 5 and 7 are the washers:

 

[peva]

Now - to address getting everything in the rack lined up for your bolts to be installed:

Referring to this exploded view of the rack that I found on the internet, we'll call item 3 the rack housing, 14 the rack rod, and 20 (what I called the rubber sleeve/cover in my first post) the boot:

Notice that I added two green and two red arrows. When the rack is assembled with the two inner tie rid bolts installed, the two red arrows will be in the same horizontal position, and the two green arrows will be in the same horizontal position.

Notice that the boot is shown cut away to reveal the spacer block (metal piece with two thru holes at the points of the one pair of arrows in line with the inner tie rod bolts). The back side of the spacer block is machined narrower than the front side you're seeing, and slides back and forth, left and right, in the slot that you see in the rack body as you turn the steering wheel.

Right now on your car, you've got the two tie rod bolts, the two tie rod ends (with bushings), the two holes in the boot, the two thru holes in the spacer block, and the two threaded holes in the rack rod that are not lined up with each other. With both bolts out, everything moves independent of each other left-right. Your tie rod ends should be pretty much stuck in their original position - you can wiggle them a little if you need to, but the friction of the tires is holding them still. The rack rod should be locked in place by the steering wheel - if you had to, you could have a helper move the steering wheel slightly lift or right to line up the rack rod holes as you insert the two bolts and get them started into the rod hole threads. BUT - you've got the boot holes that want to be in a certain position by themselves, but the boot is made to flex and be pulled left and right with a small force, AND you've got the spacer block that slides freely left and right within the rack body slot, independent of the two boot holes.

S-o-o-o - you're task is to stick a finger or two thru the holes in the boot and move the spacer block left and right to get its two holes lined up with the two holes of the boot. Notice that it is possible to line up the red arrow hole of the spacer block with the green arrow hole of the boot (and vice-versa), get one bolt started, and then be tearing your hair out trying to figure out why you can't get the second bolt started into the rack rod threads.

See my note at the end of this post about applying blue thread locker to the bolt threads just before installing them.

Once you have the spacer block fairly lined up, you position the inner tie rod end hardware (the two washers, retaining plate and retaining tabs thingy) to the tie rod ends and push the bolts thru all that and the boot holes, then thru the spacer block, and finally, thread the bolts into the holes in the rack rod. Get one bolt at a time thru all the holes and started into the rack rod. You might have to wiggle and push things one way or the other as the bolt is pushed thru one layer at a time. Again, hopefully the tie rod ends and rack rod are already being held close to the same position by the tire friction and steering wheel position. Don't move the tires or the steering wheel UNLESS you determine they aren't lined up close enough with each other to get the bolt started in the threads.

The main challenge will be to not let the two flat washers fall because, again, they'll want to fall into a black hole behind the engine and on top of the transmission never to be found again. Ideally you'll have spare washers because of the original factory ones plus new ones from a Moog bushing kit.

The second thing to focus on is to not cross thread the bolts in the threads because you're frustrated or tired or whatever. Force/wiggle the bolt one way or the other to align with the threads as you start to turn them into the threads. Once you have the first bolt in no more than a couple of turns, put the second bolt in - it should go a lot easier with the first bolt lining everything up (except for the second tie rod end, but it too should be close to the right position).

NOTE: As if there aren't enough moving parts to control all at the same time, I highly recommend putting blue thread locker on the bolt threads just before you start installing them. Especially if the bolts are not the factory originals, the heads are likely to be smaller than the originals, and the retainer tabs will not be as effective at preventing the bolts from loosening and backing out over time. That has actually happened to a few people on this forum and elsewhere. Imagine what happens if you're going down the road at 60 mph and one of those bolts falls out - it has happened - and to people on this forum. I recommend the thread locker even if the bolts are the originals with the larger heads.

 

[peva]

In other similar threads, I verbally described bending/squeezing the locking tabs with Channel locks to more closely hug the contour of the smaller-headed bolts. Good illustration. 👍

How does the orange thread locker compare to the red? We think the red is generally considered to require a torch to break loose - maybe not so with the orange. 3X the torque of the blue - sounds like a lot. Maybe not enough to create problems getting it to break loose. I assumed the blue would be plenty strong.

 

[peva]

Thanks for the followup! Glad she's driving well.

You're a better man than me. I have never once been able to find and retrieve any number of inner tie rod washers once they fell onto the transmission! 😁