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Posted by: Joe Ricard Oct 3 2003, 01:15 PM

Does anyone have a good procedure for changing out the old stock tie rods wit the turbo version. I am replacing because both rod ends have slack in them. both boots have tears and of course the rubber bushings are really worn. So I figured it is a wash for the upgrade.

Is it better to take out the whole rack or can it be done from under the car?

Posted by: 736conver Oct 3 2003, 01:31 PM

Mine was already out when I did mine and it was great to have the leverage with the ends. Dont know if you can get the same effect with it in the car.

Posted by: URY914 Oct 3 2003, 01:35 PM

I found it easier to take out the rack but I'm able to get to the steering wheel shaft pretty easy on my car. You may not be able to do this too easy on a stock car. Working under the dash is no fun.

But the tie rod ends are changed all the time so I wouldn't think you'd need to remove the rack to do the job.

Paul

Posted by: John Jentz Oct 3 2003, 01:42 PM

I put mine on when I installed the 911 front end, but I can't imagine having to pull the rack to do it. You DO need a very thin, 4-5mm, 32mm open end wrench to tighten the rack side rod ends. DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE who says you can do this job without the proper tool as you cannot torque the new rodswithout them. If you "Shadetree" here, YOU WILL DIE . You can grind down a cheap wrench or buy the Smartcamber Products "Special Tool" from the catalog stores. It also has the hook spanner to remove the old inners, but a hammer and chisel work just as well.

Posted by: Kerrys914 Oct 3 2003, 01:51 PM

PLEASE expand on this??

I replaced mine, in the car, with the Turbo kit and didn't think it was anything too hard or unsual about the swap.

If I forgot something or didn't do someting correct I would like you know ASAP.

Are you talking about the connection of the tie rod to the steering rack? Anyway to check the torque on this? I think I just used a common wrench to tighten it. I did this over a year ago so some things are fuzzy

Cheers and thanks
Kerry

Posted by: ArtechnikA Oct 3 2003, 02:03 PM

amazingly enough, the set of VW/356 wheel bearing adjustment wrenches includes a very thin 32mm wrench - and here i thought i was going to have to buy something new, when actually something old will work out fine ! (it's an ordinary KD Tool set, from the FLAPS pegboard...)

Posted by: John Jentz Oct 3 2003, 02:09 PM

There is only a 4-5mm wide wrenching space avaliable on the milled flats of the inner rod end between the BIG washer and where the flat ends. There is no way to get a normal, unmodified wrench in there. I would also use a little Locktite Blue. I just pulled until the correct shade of red appeared on my face . I have heard of people using Channelocks, pipe wrenches and the like , bad, bad. If you want to torque it, you'll need to modify a crowsfoot.

Posted by: John Jentz Oct 3 2003, 02:13 PM

[quote=ArtechnikA,Oct 3 2003, 12:03 PM] [/QUOTE]
amazingly enough, the set of VW/356 wheel bearing adjustment wrenches includes a very thin 32mm wrench - and here i thought i was going to have to buy something new, when actually something old will work out fine ! (it's an ordinary KD Tool set, from the FLAPS pegboard...) [/quote]
True, now if I could only find mine, left it around here about 30 years ago...............

Posted by: Joe Ricard Oct 3 2003, 02:17 PM

Man this is still the best site going. Thanks for the advice. Will post the out come as soon as I finish.

Posted by: fiid Oct 3 2003, 03:04 PM

I would recommend using threadlock on this one - you don't want these coming out. I used a gas wrench on them, and I am confident I got enough torque, although this would not have sufficed if I hadn't had it in the bench vice at the time.

I tried to do mine in the car, but I just couldn't get the old buggers to budge with the rack in the car, so I pulled it. I took the liberty of repacking the steering rack with moly grease at the same time, and cleaning things up a little bit.

It's not that hard to get out - all you have to do is unhook the cv joint under the dash.

Fiid.

Posted by: fiid Oct 3 2003, 03:15 PM

actually - you know what - I think I torqued them with a 2 foot black-pipe wrench.

Fiid.

Posted by: Joe Ricard Oct 6 2003, 03:20 PM

Went pretty smooth. Took a mighty wrench and both feet to break passenger side loose form the rack.
Thanks Ya'll