simpsoap

Great thread and nice write-ups. It's definitely satisfying being able to work on these cars yourself. Enjoy!

-Andy

squidge

Progress. The steering rack is back in the car, and the control arms are out. While waiting for Elephant's new bump steer correcting tie rods with solid inners (!!), I decided to tackle the Walrod bushing install.

I put myself through about 90 minutes of effort removing the bushing sleeves with a torch, channel locks, and pry bars, wishing I had a damn vise the whole time. Unfortunately, my rental garage has nowhere to mount a vise.

Finally, with the sleeves out, I get to cutting and chiseling out the first bushing. This proves incredibly difficult or impossible without a vise, as even with a 2lb dead blow hammer and a serious punch, I can't impart enough force. Not to mention I've gotta being pissing off the neighbors who live directly above my garage. :/

New plan: Have Elephant refurb my arms and install their sport rubber bushings, which I wanted to start with, but had a hard time justifying the cost of. No longer. I took the arms straight over on Wednesday, and came home today with beautiful arms and the new tie rods! These new tie rods put the ball joint at a slightly different angle and allow you to use spacers to tweak the amount of bumpsteer correction, allowing lowering between RoW and RS height without the need for RS carriers. They're pretty trick, and for about the same cost as Tarrett inners + outers scavenged from an OEM assembly or something. Definitely cheaper than Tarrett + genuine outers (since nobody sells outers only.)

Got the control arms prepped with new Lemfoerder ball joints, new air deflectors, set the length on these new tie rods, and am ready to hopefully get her buttoned up this weekend, pending a few bits and pieces from Sunset tomorrow.

Planning a front end alignment next week, to be followed by a real alignment/KT/balance after I do coilovers in a couple months.

user 723923490

Very Nice.
I wish the new tie rods were available six months ago. My setup is the same as yours except standard tie rods. Bump steer is detectible on my car under certain conditions.

uniquenamehere

I don't see these tie rods on their website... do you have a link handy?

squidge

I got one of the first sets, maybe the first. Give them a call and speak to Chuck if you want a pair, or wait for them to put up a listing.

squidge

Spent a few hours on it today. First photo shows the control arms and steering rack in the car -- woo! Started on the tie rods and ran into a snag. The stud coming out of the tie rod's ball joint is crazy long. No way to get it into the carrier without removing the strut, which I wasn't anticipating. It's a full 3/4" longer than stock, and for seemingly no real reason, as there's 1/2"+ of thread going past the nut when it's torqued down.

Anyway, I notched the brake retaining clips, separated the strut from the carrier, and got the tie rod in, with both adjustment spacers on top of the knuckle for minimal bumpsteer correction since I'm not lowered yet. More bad news... the strut makes hard contact with the tie rod throughout the range of motion. I swapped the 1/8" spacer to the underside of the knuckle (which meant removing the strut again) and it *just* clears now. Seems like the minimum correction on this is not actually usable with a stock strut. Maybe it is with a coilover, IDK. I'll find out in a couple months. In the meantime, I'm going to follow up with Elephant on these snags since it's a new product.

Boots were reasonably easy using tools made from a hanger, as pictured. The extra bend prevents poking a hole in your new boots.

Icing on the cake, my 10mm hex bit snapped in half re-torquing the strut to the carrier, so I'm stuck for a couple days until a replacement comes in. I'm getting close to being back on the road!

squidge

I'm back on the road! Wrapped up the tie rod install without issue, and found that a tiny bit of clearance opens up between the tie rods and the struts when the car is on the ground. Removing the strut from the wheel carrier was definitely necessary, though.

Got a basic front end alignment yesterday from the shop that used to do my BMW. I'll go with a Porsche alignment specialist, likely Elephant, once I do the coilovers, sways, and rear arm refresh next year.

The rebuild appears to have been a success. No leaking so far, 60mph steering wheel shimmy is gone, and the feel is just great. Quick response, no slop, and tons of feedback into the steering wheel. Combined with the new RS engine mounts, it feels rumbly and alive. Happy to have this project complete, and a box of original parts to save for posterity.

squidge

Picked up something shiny! Local seller, barely used, at a great price, put me firmly into the PSS10 camp. Looking forward to getting these installed in the next month or two.

69MACH1

Beautiful 993, looking forward to updates!

JPS

Super thread, thx. You will love the PSS.

Q for you. Did you notice the rack leaking, or notice something funky in the driving first, then see the leakage? Better way to ask: what were the symptoms that led to you rebuilding?

964Lovac

very cool!! Thank you for documenting everything so well. Need to get some little odd jobs done in the next few months and this thread has inspired me a bit to get started already!

squidge

That's what I like to hear!

It's really satisfying to gradually knock out the list of things to do. I've also bought a lot of little things that I didn't document here: new brake and clutch pedal covers at $8/ea, new trunk carpet clips for a few bucks, new headlight drain tubes to replace the missing/torn ones, four new lug nuts to eliminate the original security nuts, etc. Little stuff like this really helps get the fit and finish just right. Although now I have four lug nuts that look newer than the rest... /twitch

JPS: Rack was visibly leaking at a quick glance under the car, not sure for how long prior to my purchase in Sept. Clearly a while, though.

JPS

Thanks. Did you notice any affect driving?

squidge

As long as there was adequate fluid, no, no difference.

JPS

Thank you