Dean924s

I have been getting a fair amount of interest about this. Please email me directly at dsmith@radio.fm or take a wonder over to http://www.emotorsports.org/prod02.htm It covers pricing, core fees etc. If you want to call me with questions I don't mind my phone number is on the site noted above.

Dean924s

I got the shipment in today. I just started cleaning up the cores I have. At the moment 6 are spoken for that leaves 4 more rebuilds possible from this shipment.

Dean924s

I wanted to update this. I have been rebuilding these for people over the last 6 months with positive reviews. I have put up a web page that covers all the various aspects of rebuilding these. Including a "how to" with photos showing the steps involved as well as other info.

>>>>Link to my steering shaft rebuilding page<<<<

Lizard944

Glad to know you're there for when I eventually need a rebuild.

jpk

I got a rebuild steering shaft for my 968 from Dean back in January. I wanted to wait until I got a chance to properly drive the car before providing any feedback.
Overall, I'm very pleased. The difference in the steering during normal driving is subtle, but I was definitely getting a clunking jolt in the steering when backing out of parking spaces. That's gone now, and my steering is back to 100%.
It was pretty straight forward to install the shaft, and everything was pretty accessible from below. Loosening the rack a little bit was a key to getting the new shaft installed. I used a long piece of conduit to help drive the upper joint onto the upper shaft. Overall, it probably took me less than an hour to swap them. One thing to note is that the orientation of the shaft ends is pretty random since the shaft is splined but the ends go on the rack and upper shaft in only one position. I found my steering wheel was pretty much 180 degrees off with the new shaft. I simply removed the steering wheel and clocked it back to what it should be. The alignment wasn't affected.
Dean was really great to work with and very accommodating. I had a window of opportunity to get this job done, and he expedited getting the new shaft to me. Also, once I returned my old shaft, he promptly returned my core charge.
Thanks again Dean for providing a unique service. I don't know what I would have done otherwise; probably just continued to live with sloppy steering.

Dean924s

I am glad you are please. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!!! Having provided these to a bunch of people now I have to say that the owners of 944's 951's and 968's are a great group to deal with. I am honored to be able to help and your support is appreciated.

Dean924s

Ohya and I am going to add this to my web page. I have figured out one of the main reasons why steering shaft U joints go bad. It is from break fluid getting on them. If you are topping off your break fluid or bleeding your breaks be careful to not spill the fluid as it will run down and end up on / in the U joints of the steering shaft. 80-90 percent of the units I get back from people have the tell tail signs of this and on many of them I can smell the break fluid. A leak in your master cylinder can also cause this. Another possible cause could be if the clutch master cylinder goes bad and is leaking. (how I killed my last steering shaft)

Anyway just an FYI to all of you. inspect the clutch master for leaks and if you are adding break fluid put some sort of protection around the opening to prevent spills from dripping down on to the steering shaft.

exe30

I know this is an old thread, but are there any DIYs or instructions on there on how to swap these shafts?

jpk

It's been a few years, but I don't recall anything particularly tricky about doing this. It's pretty much just remove the old and put in the new.
As I mentioned in my post above, I loosened the steering rack to get enough play to install the new shaft. I don't think I had to do that to remove the old, but I'm sure it would make it easier. Also, I used a long piece of conduit (1/2" pipe about 3-4 feet long) to help drive the upper join onto the steering shaft from below once it got started (using gentle persuasion with a hammer).
I had a lift to work on when I did this, and almost everything was done from below.

exe30

For future readers, it cost me about $250 for a mechanic to install this shaft in my '86 951; I don't have a lift and didn't want to bother with the frustration.