So I have ordered practically a whole front end for my Ranger. I decided to replace all the bushings, ball joints and shocks. Only thing not getting replaced are the springs, steering knuckles/hubs and sway bar. I did find that the lower half of the upper left hand sway bar bushing was completely missing along with the upper left ball joint boot. I was looking into replacing the Rack and pinion bellows/boot. I noticed that there is a line that goes up into the boot where it attaches to the body of the rack and pinion. What is that and does it need to be removed to replace the boot?

 

As you move your steering wheel (and of course, the rack) from left to right and from right to left, the area inside the boot gets smaller or larger and the air inside of it has to go somewhere. Instead of just releasing the air to the outside environment, that tube just lets the air go from the left side to the right side and vice versa. That tube will come right off and you might make sure that you have a good replacement hose there when you put everything back together.
I replaced about every maintenance part on the suspension of my '98 a few months ago, but I did not have to replace the rack.
Consider replacing the entire rack with a name-brand replacement unit and not worry about if your other boot will fail six months from now, but it's your call.

 

Thanks Kruse! I was going to replace the tie rods and thought that when I replace the inner tie rod (along with the outer tie rod) it would be just easier to replace the boot also as I am replacing everything else. The rack is still in great shape with no leaks. Can that tube be found at a reasonable price?

 

That tubing slides in and out quite easily. When you get the boot off, everything inside should be very clean, so the inside of the tube will be also. If you removed it and cleaned it up to match your new clean boot, I would figure that would be enough. I personally didn't replace mine.