Techno Duck

Just planning ahead a bit for later in the week. Probably going to swap a spare rack in for peace of mind while i have it all apart. The only part that worries me are the two high pressure lines going into the rear of the power steering rack. Ive got two allen hex head banjo bolts that look like they are going to be severely seized. I can squeeze an allen key into the top one but not sure if ill be able to on the lower bolt. Any tips for getting those loose? If i end up stripping the holes out, what is the best method to get these off? I just bought the regular hex bolt head banjo bolts from Rennbay.

Secondly, can i remove the rack with those high pressure line still attached, i didnt check the plumbing, but do those lines connect at the power steering pump?

These are the two lines i am refering to...do i even need to take these out to remove the rack?



BTW, this is on my friends car..mine looks far worse .

potent951turbo

I think I would use an allen socket before using a regular key. A lot of the things I try to loosen that are torqued down pretty good end up stripping out using traditional allen keys, so I have always used the sockets that have the allen head on them.

On my old 951 someone had stripped out the allen bolt on the back of the rack and I ended up just using a chisel and hammer to slowly get it lose by putting the chisel on the edge of the head and hitting it with the hammer on a angle.

Techno Duck

Colin, id love to get the allen socket in there but there is limited space between the engine mount and the rack. I was wondering if its possible to remove the rack with those still attached. Where do the other ends of those lines attach to anyhow, the power steering pump?

PeteL

I believe you can move the rack with the lines still attached. I replaced one of the high pressure lines to the rack. I just unbolted the rack from the cross member, which gave me the clearance to get in there and remove the banjo bolts.
Always "wake up" allen head sockets before trying to remove them. Put the allen socket into the bolt and give it a few whacks with a mallet or hammer. this will firmly seat the socket and wake the bolt up.

potent951turbo

Jon, I am getting ready to swap another rack into my 951 also so one of us will have to report back with what you could get into there. I figured I would be able to get a allen socket in there with a swivel or something, but I haven't really look at it close enugh yet. So you might be right in that there isn't enough room.
I just went out and looked at my parts car that doesn't have the engine in it anymore and the line that you posted the picture of goes from that banjo bolt into the rubber hose line that you see in your pic and then turns into a hard line that runs along the top of the cross-member and then goes to the power steering cooler. The the opposite line on the cooler goes to the reservoir, and the second line on the reservoir goes to the pump, and the other line on the pump runs to the rack. Hopefully that makes sense. I will try to post pics up tonight.

Scott at Team Harco

What Pete said. It is fairly easy to remove the rack mounts and position the rack lower to access the banjo bolts. You may wish to separate the rack from the steering shaft as well to gain even greater access. The fact that the lines have flexible hoses make this possible. You will need to remove the small bolt that holds the (p/s pipe) clamp to the top of the crossmember as well.

Once you do gain access to the bolts you may end up needing vice grips to remove the bolts after you round out the allen sockets. In this case you should replace the banjo bolts with hex-head bolts from Rennbay.


Rennnnnbaaaay!

Best of luck...

F18Rep

If worst comes to worst a pipe wrench is your friend.... Bruce

Techno Duck

Ahh.. pipe wrench. Ive got a nice small one when my friend rounded the hell out of his oil drain plug..after torquing it with an impact gun. Cant believe that one worked. Gotta dig that outta the tool box!

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully this dosent give me to much grief.