1998 Cadillac Seville rack and pinion

There should have been nothing he could have done. The only interaction with the knuckles is removing the tie rods from them, aside from the wheels. Was the toe set after the gear was replaced, or are you possible hearing tire scrub.

Typically, with bad wheel bearings on a front wheel drive vehicle, there will be a change in the noise when swerving the vehicle right and left. The noise will either diminish, or become more pronounced in one or the other direction. That is often times the case, not always. There is a possibility that maybe the brake backing plates were disturbed, and now they(it) are contacting the rotors. If the frame was lowered to remove the rack, maybe the flexible joint exhaust joint suffered some trauma. Does this noise only occur while the vehicle is in motion, accelerating or coasting?