Have a small leak in rack pinoin boot

A silver dollar? What do you consider a large leak?

First of all, if there is power steering fluid leaking out, there is a leaking internal seal and the rack and pinion assembly must be replaced. If no fluid is leaking, that boot is there to keep dirt and water off the very smooth and polished rack. Dirt and rust will lead to leaking fluid.

In the past repair parts were not available to mechanics for rack and pinion assemblies. All we could do was replace them with professionally-rebuilt units. Now there are some places that make parts available but some want to sell entire kits which are not cost-effective if you have to pay someone to make the repairs, and some parts aren't such a good value after you add the cost of shipping. Some auto parts stores have addressed this somewhat common problem by offering aftermarket boots. You'll need to unscrew the outer tie rod end from the inner tie rod to slide the boot over it, then the car will have to be aligned because that threaded connection is one of the critical adjustments.

You can also get a used boot from a pick-your-own-parts salvage yard. There you can take the donor apart to see what is involved. "Pull-A-Part" is a chain of very clean and well-organized yards I visit often between Indianapolis and southern Georgia. Parts are very inexpensive too.

Thanks for the followup. Seems the more unnecessary stuff the engineers pile onto our cars, the more problems they cause.