xschop

I have one disassembled on the bench and just thought it could be welded up at the splined shaft and pinion housing.
But what kind of challenge is that.

The extra washers doesnt look like exact science for a swap kit either.....pondering.

xsboost90

i pulled the lines, squeezed the fluid out of it and put two bolts in the holes to cap it- Raced a full season like that no probems.

Otto Mechanic

Today I took apart the rack I picked up last week and it bears no resemblance to the rack pictured with the "t-bar" under the diamond shaped cover. It has a single spring retained by two 10mm hex bolts.

I don't know if this is a recent (or even real) 944 steering rack. I got from a salvage yard in Emeryville CA that specializes in Porsche parts and picked it from a pile of them. On the outside it looks just like mine but it doesn't have the two springs, caps or t-bar.

Not sure what to do with it. It matches the construction described in "How-to-Depower Rack" @ https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...ower-rack.html but it's not going to help any of us with designing a "kit". If it really is a 944 rack it tells me there must be more than one kit that needs designing.

Pictures attached, comments welcome. I'm not an industrial photographer and the lighting on my bench isn't great, I hope it's good enough for identification.

xschop

Is it 21" end to end?

Otto Mechanic

I'd say almost exactly.

Otto Mechanic

Sorry for the confusion. The t-bar is on the input shaft. The single spring under the diamond shaped plate isn't the part shown in the other photo we were talking about. I have the same part described in the other article I just wasn't oriented. I'll take it apart and get more pictures. Having the parts on a white drop cloth wasn't such a good idea for photography.

Otto Mechanic

I have trouble understanding what you mean much less doing it, so I guess that's a challenge.

You and 67King both mention welding the input shaft to something, maybe I haven't taken it down far enough yet to see the problem? The fellow in Colorado also mentioned a weakness in the input shaft somewhere, is it under the bearings I haven't removed?

Otto Mechanic

Now I have a better idea of what you're talking about. Spacers for the banjo bolts would be nice, I hate throwing out perfectly good bolts, especially expensive banjo bolts.

Another idea I had was putting grease fittings where the two black plastic fittings are. Tapping those holes for fittings so you could lube the rack without taking it apart would be cool.

xschop

If you are talking about the plastic crossover tube fittings, then they need to stay. If you cap them, then your bellows will prematurely fail due to their constant expansion and collapsing.

67King

I have no idea what you are talking about. That looks EXACTLY like a 944 rack. It looks exactly like the rack posted earlier in this thread.

You will be very hard pressed to get the pinion shaft apart. The roll pin that holds it together is very tough, I wasn't able to get it out.

On capping the thing, I used cap set screws (headless fasteners that use an internal drive hex). If you remove the collar around the shaft, you don't need to worry about the hoses or tubes or anything. It is actually pressed on, so if you found one of the threads here where a guy had to cut it off, you don't really need to, it'll come off without that.

xschop

I now see that the plunger comes right off. If you leave it on, then you will have even more resistance in turning when you are pushing against a very high viscosity grease.

Otto Mechanic

That's certainly good to know! I wondered about the friction fit on them.

It wasn't a great idea anyway, the holes are 10mm, too large for a 10mm zerk fitting, but I do think I'll replace two of the banjo bolts with 12mm fittings. I found a set of 5 on eBay for $6.

Otto Mechanic

Which plunger? I've removed what the other guides call a "piston" I think, which is a tube that shuttles along the rack, and the stop for it. Seems like it shouldn't be there if there's no fluid for it to move in.

The problem I'm having is figuring out how to get the bolt that holds the "t-bar" on the pinion shaft shown in post #51 out. The head is recessed into the shaft and the walls are too narrow for me to get any of my small sockets or wrenches into. It also seems to be an odd size head, probably 9mm. Looks like I'll need a thinner walled socket than I have to get it out.

Otto Mechanic

Well that makes two of us I suppose, I didn't know what I was talking about either. That's the problem with typing notes and posting them as I fumble around doing exploratory surgery.

I was following the written procedure without pictures and confused the plate with two bolts on the rack housing with the plate with one bolt on the pinion. I later discovered my error.

I haven't read anything that talks about removing a roll pin. Why is this necessary?

Are you talking about the collar shown in the first photo of post #20 on this thread, described as a "piston"? I removed two circlips on either side, slipped off the washers and collar, then removed the o-ring seals. After the collar was removed the piston came off the rack with a little help from a plastic mallet, the seal on the piston seems to be a press fit.

xschop

Yep, its an odd ball hex. I just put an old socket in my lathe to get the OD to fit. Works great.

You guys are slackin'