Luis de Prat

You're asking the right questions. If someone doesn't post the part numbers, I will tomorrow.

FWIW I recently overhauled the manual steering system on my 83 which had been through all sorts of mishaps (long story). One thing everyone seems to be overlooking is that although the manual rack has its advantages, I seriously think the late control arms, ball joints, tie rod assemblies were much improved over their VW derived predecessors in the early cars. The manual steering on the early cars has a good feel to it, but I find that its components wear out more easily than in the late car steering system. Ball joints, wheel bearings, tie rod ends, etc. The only thing that seems bulletproof is the rack itself.

Personally, I wouldn't dream of yanking the more refined steering and suspension parts in my 951 for the primitive VW parts, unless I could find a way to only replace the rack if I wanted manual steering that badly.

Manning

Luis,

You don't have to convert to the earlier suspension steal A-arms to use manual steering. In fact I went the opposite direction this past spring and installed the early offset aluminum A-arms from an 86 951 on my car. No trouble, no issues.

Also, at some point Porsche issued a revised version of the tie rods which have rubber damping built into them. Mine are just fine 2.5 years later.

MPD47

Back to the Manual rack, does anyone have any trouble with the manual rack and rather large tires? (Say 245's on the front)

Manning

You need to read Joe's post on the first page for more on that. He wrote:

MPD47

Oh... hah..... I'm just blind.