FredR

If you want to get a quick assessment of what the front wheels are doing toe wise stand about a metre or so to the rear of the car and squat down on your knees- with one eye closed move from a position slightly wide towards the car and stop when you can only see the side of the front wheel. If you have a toe in condition [as you should] then the position you stop at should be a bit wide of the car. /If you have a toe out position you will not be able to find such a side on position of the front wheels because it will be obscured by the car.

You could also take pics from this position so that we can confirm same. Not possible to comment from the pics you posted.

DuncanF

ROG100

Thanks everyone and it looks like we have got our late and earlier mixed up.
Replacement set on the way to Ashley and we will do some backtracking on recent orders.

dr bob

FWIW, trying to guess at toe settings with the naked eye is, well, no better than a guess. I saw the movie but the camera angles and lens choices just made it worse.

The jackstands-and-strings method works very well, keeping in mind that the toe will change a lot as the car settles on the suspension. For work like this where I know that the toe setting is OK when I start, I'd raise then lower the car back onto the tires, and take a toe reading. Replace the two tie rods, setting each of them as close as possible to the length of the old tie rod it's replacing. Set the car back down, and fine tune the toe setting so it matches what you measured after the initial raise-and-lower. It would be a help having the rack centering bolt installed for both measurements but that's not really critical. This method gives you a really good chance of settling the suspension (75-100 miles driving) without scrubbing the tires too badly. Then do a normal full alignment without lifting the car at all.

awilli6

Mrmerlin

Post 17 has your answer look at the bottom of the WSM its either 245mm or 235mm
It looks like a short version to me.

Geza

Based on the configuration of the flats (4 not 2) on the end that threads into the rack, and a comparison to Roger's pictures, it looks like it is the late model (shorter) version. It also doesn't show the 4 crimps?, which is additional confirmation.

awilli6

jpitman2

You need one of these. Dont ruin boots, dont (usually) require as much hammer beating.Tighten as much as possible , smack the end over the ball joint with hammer, repeat until it separates. Leave the ball joint nut flush with with the end of the thread to reduce damage to threads.
On small ball joints (eg Miata), some care is required re thread damage, as that part seems quite soft.
jp 83 Euro S AT 57k

Adamant1971

ROG100

Yes we screwed up. After getting new stock in we put the shorts in the long box and the longs in the short box.
There are no defining marks on either tie rod to give you an idea if they are long or short and the difference in length between early and late is circa 15mm.
We now compress the tie rods to there shortest length to distinguish between the two as a final check.
Original OEM Lemforder are NLA in the after market. So the choice is Porsche or aftermarket.

awilli6

ROG100

Bummer - You can see the dimple through the cap hole. A centering screw is $10 I will send you one on Monday gratis.

FredR

Ash,

Something does not quite add up here. The car can be aligned without the centering bolt but that presumes that everything is centered correctly- thus the alignment shop will position the steering wheel to be visually central and should be able to complete the alignment. If the rack was off centre the steering wheel would be displaced proportionately when driving straight ahead. Thus if they cannot align the car something else has to be incorrect whatever it may be. If you remove the centering bolt cover you should be able to visually tell when the rack is centered and the steering wheel should then be aiming straight ahead- you should also have to turn the steering wheel equal amounts to reach both limit stops.

awilli6