V2Rocket

you might be able to get away with the steering shaft by itself somehow mounted in a porsche housing..?

Mark944na86

It never ceases to amaze me the expense and effort people will go to in order to seriously devalue a car.

V2Rocket

lol

yea, please dont drag that poor pinto down

chrisc

Why would you go to the trouble when brand-new Porsche manual racks are readily available??? I got one for a great price last spring, still in plastic and an unopened Porsche box. It was an easy swap from the power steering unit.

catamax944

LOL i'll act like i didn't even read about this pinto idea.It's just..........

That's interesting,where did you get a brand-new one?

Tom R.

is it really possible to devalue a 944? heaven forbid i say the value of the average 944 is somewhere between next to nothing and nothing. If the car had real value, the OP wouldnt be here trying to put in a pinto rack.

i say if it bolts in, go for it. A lot of american car parts bolt into a 944 like a LT-1, a chevy alternator, ford motor mounts (oops, those two a 928). what kind of clutch is it on that long thread that supposedly fits a 944 and costs about $12?

tinklybear

+1 for going for it.

I think it's a mitsu starion or ford ranger clutch? Too bad an S has a different size =[

Mark944na86

There is price and there is value. As Oscar Wilde said: "He's the sort of fellow who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing."

So yes, it is quite possible to devalue a 944 -- drastically.

Legoland951

Maybe in Brisbane Australia. Around here, a 944 is currently worth next to nothing, which is about the same $ as a similar condition Yugo or Hyundai Excel. I bet a new Pinto rack is worth a good fraction of a running 944's total price as I have seen a few sub $1k 944 in decent condition overall. I just bought 2 running 85/85.5 944s running light wreck in the front for $275 and $375 this week. Maybe in 20 years the 944s will be worth something and all my parts would be worth millions.

Luis de Prat

Well, the car must have some "value" or you wouldn't have been on here for all these years and 8K+ posts, now would you?

Frankly, I think the "devalued" state of the 944 is more of a huge plus than a negative for sports car enthusiasts. If the cars' "cost" were anywhere close to it's 911 brethren, there wouldn't be nearly the amount of people turning 944s into track cars and just plain having fun with them.

Having said that, the fact that the platform is "devalued" doesn't imply you should put cheap parts in it. If you want the car to perform as intented, you're not going to achieve it by skimping on parts. YMMV

tifosiman

^What he said. +1

Tom R.

To quote someone much smarter than oscar. "Necessity is the mother of invention" not to be confused with the mothers of invention.

Every appraisal book or article Ive read says something to the effect of "if something has value, it will have a price". Since most 944s have minimal value, the price too is minimal.

Take the price of the 944 lego just bought, assume it has a half decent steering rack in it. pull the rack and install a pinto rack.

what is the value of the car now? i bet it went up!! Did it go up less than it would have with a porsche rack? Maybe. is the difference in value that it went up less or more than the savings?

Why is it *** u me d here that the car will not perform as it was intended to perform? Why is it *** u me d that the pinto rack is not as good as the porsche rack?

does the porsche alternator in a 928 perform better than the chevy alternator? does the 928 with the chevy alternator not perform as good as the 928 with the porsche alternator?

Kudos to the OP for trying. Kudos to the people here that tried and may have found a clutch that fits the NA for a fraction of the porsche part price.

krystar

it was actually $36 + tax :P

hacker-pschorr

Anyone that has been in the auto wold long enough knows that 99.9% of the time, when non OEM parts are used, it's a hack job.

Sorry, that is just a reality.

Take a 944 into an experienced Porsche shop for a PPI with a pinto rack, chevy alternator, and a dozen other miscellaneous parts bolted on. I guarntee you their first suggestion will be to swap out evrything for OEM. So yes, having these hodge-podged parts on a 944 can hurt the value.


I have no problem with non OEM parts myself, as long as I'm the one choosing to put them on. I would have serious doubts about buying a car that way.

tinklybear

Mix and match parts may hurt the already low resale value. But so does stripping the interior or removing the headlights, both of which are encouraged on this board. The true value of these cars is the quality of the drive, so if a Pinto manual steering rack maintains road-feel and saves a couple franklins, I say do it.