I've been told to ask for pointers before digging into the installation of 930 Turbo tierods on my 914. Well, I'll be doing it this weekend.

Any pointers?

(Also replacing the rear calipers and re-bleeding/replacing the lines.)

it's just a common sense install

you should get the car re-aligned so I hope you have a place close by....

There should be some rather thick spacers supplied with the tie-rods-ifn you purchased them intentionally for a 914--do not forget these!!! Also, since these ends ( rack side) have no locking mechanism for the rod end--clean the threads of both the rod end and inside the rack and use RED loctite!! Use a big wrench and tighten these puppies down good!! re-use your springs that hold the original boots inplace--they work fine for the new boots......enjoy!

probably just use a pipe wrench to remove old tie rods since they're most likely spent. you can get a tool used for bicycles to tighten new tie rods, at a bike shop.

I wouldn't do tie rods by themself unless you have a problem. I'd wait until you were going to refresh the rest of the suspension (ball joints, bushings, shocks).

The shocks were done a few months ago, I guess I could do the ball-joints and Bushings at the same time...

Any reccomendations on what I should get to do them?

The Elephant Racing Polybronze or the Mueller bearings are the hot shit for replacing bushings. Or, just go with whatever replacement bushing the usual parts houses sell. It also depends on the condition of the a-arm bushings. I'd inspect them to see if they look squashed or deformed. If they have low miles on them they could be in good shape. Ball joints are a little tricky because they are a bitch to get off. Ideally you want the special ball joint tool and an impact gun. Do a search on ball joints. You should find lots of people's experiences of pain and suffering when trying to remove them.

ball joints arent hard.... (with the right tool and an impact wrench/cheater bar)
just be smart about it

balljoint/tierods/bushings make your car feel like new

If you are running a 23MM master cylinder, you might have a clearance problem with one of the feed lines for the master and the boots provided with the Turbo Tie Rod kit. Turning lock to lock can actually pull out the feed line. (ugly) I found that bump steer spacers on the rack give you just enough room for the boot to clear the feed pipe.

If you have a 17m or 18mm it is not an issue. DLee

Well, here are some tips from when I upgraded to turbo tie rods. Fortunately my car had really good alignment and the steering wheel was centered. So, here is what I did:

1. remove all the stuff around (steering rack cover, tires etc.)
2. remove the tie rods from the steering knuckle (I used a pickle fork to break it loose)..got it at my local flaps.
3. remove the tire rods from the steering rack....count the number of turns it took to get each one off...if they were different then check to see if the rack was truly centered or if it wasn't did someone centered at the "steering wheel" only. Note the difference on the turns, if there were any, and you'll have to adjust the new rods by the difference after centering the rack itself. Note, to remove I had to use a wrench and a big-ass screw driver that I put in the u-joint part.
3. since mine was in alighnment and steering rack was centered....I lined the new turbo tie rods up with the old ones to get them to the exact length. If yours were different here is where you can line them up like the old ones..then back off one and adjust the other by the difference to make them the same.
4. Now center the streering rack from below to make sure it was centered (just keep measuring each side and slide the rack back and forth until perfect.
5. put the tie rods back on...connect everything up
6. Once the steering rack is centered..you can then check your steering wheel..if it is off take it off and reposition it.
7. take it for a test ride! If you did all the measurements correctly the alignment will be pretty close (mine would go dead straight after this). You'll be close enough to be able to drive it to an alignment shop for the real deal.

Don't take it to the alignement shop yet if you are going to change other stuff like ball joints, ride height etc. Do all your front-end work first then take it in.

Good luck and hope that all made sense because I'm going off of memory from something I did last august!

Jim

How do you get the damn boots over the end of the rod?

Never mind