Van

If I recall, this is the bearing: http://medias.ina.de/medias/en!hp.ec...0;bgiKMbwvfJLa

I never found a p/n for the whole u-joint. I seem to recall V2Rocket telling me there is a Volvo steering shaft that fits the splines...

V2Rocket

Got that info from Porsche_Doc and tried it out a little...it is a shaft off a Volvo 240 with aluminum U-joints that clamp onto the splined intermediate shaft; you can adjust the length of the overall shaft quite a bit by moving the U-joints around. You have to drill out the threaded holes on the ends to fit the Porsche pinch bolt though.

odurandina

Van, do you think i need to do anything with my steering box?
i already forgot what causes the play you discovered.

maybe the tie rod ends?

mikey_audiogeek

Judging by your avatar, you're running too much tire...

Van

I think your intermediate shaft u-joints are worn. But we'll find out when we take it apart.

moorepower

I guess I should pay more attention to post dates. 2009?

tortellini

Hi, I would definitely be interested. Mine is worn out..
Please mail me at: thorsten_doerdrechter@hotmail.com

tortellini

Hi, I would definitely be interested. Mine is worn out..
Please mail me at: thorsten_doerdrechter@hotmail.com

V2Rocket

FYI, the 924 manual steering shaft is about 1-1.25" longer than the 944 manual shaft but uses the same splines. I have 2 if you would like to play with one.

s14kev

Old post but I found this comment amusing. Does this mean I have the mind of a 3 year old...

Van

No... a 13 year old.


Because of the deformation of the bearing holes due to the staking process, it's actually a pretty major rework job. And, when I looked into sourcing the bearings, there was a pretty large minimum order quantity.

It was much cheaper to just buy shaft that was regularly available (in my case a power steering one) and adapt it to fit. A search should come across that thread.

pontifex4

I have a newly-rebuilt steering shaft that's going in my car. It's the prototype for a service that may be offered soon, but you can PM me for details if you want.

86 951 Driver

How do you know if your shaft is the issue? I believe mine is making a popping noise when I turn the wheel. I have traced it down that far. No sound comes out of the steering rack its all by those u joints. How hard is this to replace?

lee101315

So, the last post on this thread is a year old.

Is anyone rebuilding the steering shafts?

V2 mentioned a volvo 240 coupling would work, does anyone know from what year?

Mine has a lot of play, and im dying to get rid of it....

Dean924s

I am re building steering shafts but I am backed up at the moment and I have not been advertising all the much. See my web page here for information>>> http://www.emotorsports.org/prod02.htm. I have also been approached by a well known reseller of parts to sell through them for me. If that deal goes through the price will go up by about 35% (they have to get there cut and at that point it will become real work).

The short version is that the U joints are special order from outside the country. One of the important things I learned when researching this is that U joints for steering shafts are specially designed for the purpose. There is a special seal that helps to prevent dirt and grim and water from getting in to the needle bearings. This is especially a problem in cars that see winter weather. Tracking down the U joints was a big deal. Many late nights calling all over the world. They are not sold in the USA. In fact they are not even listed in the manufacturer catalog in the USA. One of the reasons is that U joints in cars starting in the 90's use steel stamped yolks and these are not rebuild-able. You have to replace the entire shaft. Because of this manufacturers of the U joints stopped supplying them in the states to there dealers and only sell them to car manufacturers at the whole sale level for the manufacturing process. They are not even listed in dealer parts catalogs.

There is another supplier of steering shafts that makes a good product however in the photos I have seen they do not appear to use U joints that have the seal to protect the needles bearings. They sell mainly to the racing community and there product is absolutely fine for that application but I have concerns about there product being used on the street for extended periods of time with prolonged exposure to dirt and water.

That leads me to the next thing I use grease formulated for the lower ends of mercury outboards. The greek is specially formulated to be water resistant and thus sheds / expels water. Standard grease will emulsify with prolonged exposure to water and wash out and or attract dirt and cause the U joint to fail.

Something you can do to help your existing U joint is to get a hypodermic needle and fill it with greens and inject it in to the needle bearings of your existing U joints. Yes this is a pain in the .. well you know. This would help pro-log the service life of existing U joints BUT there is also a problem with this. If you are not careful you will force dirt in with the new grease and this will actually damage the U joints. So as you can see there is an up side and a down side to this.

I don't have any minimum orders for the U joints but due to shipping costs there are certain price breaks so I usually order 20 U joints at a time. Enough to do 10 shafts. At the moment I have a couple rebuilt Power steering shafts in stock and I have 3-4 cores that need rebuilding . I am actually having problems getting people to return there cores. I may have to up the core fee as an incentive to get people to return them.

Ohya this is not my "real job" It is something I stumbled in to when I was trying to get a new steering shaft for my car. I then thought it would be nice to offer it as a service to others at a reasonable cost.

Yes I make a little bit on each unit. It takes the better part of 1 1/2 hours to rebuild one. Add in painting time, packaging and shipping costs and there is not a lot left over. But again it is not how I make a living. I enjoy the rebuilding process and I take pride in offering a quality product.

Anyway if anyone is interested I can supply rebuilt steering shafts for power steering cars on an exchange basis and if you have a manual one I can re build it but you will have to send me the shaft as I don't have any cores for those.

If anyone is interested or has any questions email me directly. My email address is on the web page noted above.