Hi guys, i have a VN calais 5ltr & recently my steering has become really tight. I have changed my power steering pump with a reco & it did not fix the problem.. but now my rubber boots are very swollen. Wondering if it could be my rack, if so would a VN V6 rack fit in?

Your rack is probably leaking internally which would explain why ur boots are swollen, has it been losing any fluid?

yes the boots will be swollen with fluid i'd imagine the rack will be the same for the 6 and 8

Double check on the 6 and 8 thing. I looked at putting a VN rack in my VL (better clearance of headers with different bypass pipe routing) and I do recall being asked if it was for a 6 or 8 when I rang the local steering joint. Either way, you definitely need a new rack, and soon, otherwise you will kill the pump, been there, not pretty, or cheap.

Cut the cable ties, clean out the fluid then re cable tie, then add some stop leak to the resevior, sometimes you gotta try it.

Yeah, it depends on how bad the leak it, when I first got my VY SS Commodore in 2008 it did seep a bit of fluid , adding stop leak to it slowed the leak down for a couple of years. Then it got worse so I bought a second hand rack and rebuilt it (i.e. replaced seals, teflon rings , boots, ended up damaging a needle roller bearing to replace a seal so I replaced that bearing in the pinion area, and tie rods). I am against fitting second hand stuff like that because I did find someone had tampered with the tie rods (got to the threaded studs with a die grinder) so I made sure I thoroughly inspected that,I couldn't take what the guy said as gospel (the one who sold me the rack) because as I said the tie rods & tie rod ends were stuffed even though he said he wouldn't worry about that,"Be very careful with that !!!!" I rebuilt the rack in my VL and my brothers VN with success too (that was before he wrote the VN off). If you're not confident with rebuilding the rack they can be bought on Ebay for $200 - $300 ,for a rebuilt/exchange unit, there is a trick to rebuilding them including centralizing the pinion so the steering wheel will remain central and then the rack pad can be torqued up properly in that position, the teflon rings are a bit tricky to fit because you've gotta soak them in hot water and then fit them into the grooves without distorting them. I managed to damage one on the rack in the VY so I had to chase up another one.