haha trust me it has crossed my mind. Even if the new rack ends fix the problem ill be looking into a manual steering rack in future. Just unsure what do do with the P/S pump, cant run the belt without it. Do you know what to do with those lock washers Morton?
Pretty sure you have to run a dummy idler without power steering on the old buick.
The lock washers you can grab from any steering specialist, my bloke gave me a handfull for free. Take note of how they sit on your current rack ends. The new ones will be flat. Once they're in there (they lock into the rack end), and the rack end is tightened up to about 80nm (or just as tight as you can bloody well get them), then smash the ends of the washers down with a small hammer, so they "lock" around the flat parts of the rack
And you're done!
Keep in mind you have to pry back the old lock washers before you can remove the rack ends