geekapalooza

I just had the Anchor 2698 mounts installed earlier this week. Ordered them from Autozone's Web Site at about $49.00 each.

Too busy right now, so I had a local Independent Porsche Repair shop install the mounts for me. They said a 4 wheel alignment is required after installation of the engine mounts. Not too sure about that (opinions welcome on this one)?

Went ahead and did the align, since I show no signs the PO ever had anything at all done to the suspension or alignment.

BUT, now the car is back at their shop. As soon as I drove it off the lot, the thing pulls like crazy to the right! The wheel has to stay pulled 15 degrees to the left of center just to go straight down the road. The Tech was gone, so I asked the helper if they even test-drove the car after the alignment. He said "No". What the h#ll, no test drive?!

I'm wondering if the alignment could actually be done correctly, but the steering shaft may just have been reinstalled a tooth off - from the motor mount job? Could that be it?

Thanks

Garth S

Relatively easy to determine (re. the reinstalled position of the steering shaft coupler).
Elevate the front end on jack stands, allowing room for the front wheels to turn side to side. Pull the (yellow) plastic plug on the front of the rack, directly ahead of the shaft coupler. Inside, there will be a notch at absolute dead center: center this notch in the hole by 'steering' the wheels - use a pointed punch to 'feel' the notch: With this centered, the wheels should point straight ahead, and the steering wheel centered also. If not, either the coupler is off, or someone has given you an alignment with unequal tie rod lengths.

GlenL

The steering rack has to come down to get at the bolts for the mounts. It doesn't have to come off completely, but sounds like they might have done that. Also sounds like they messed up the alignment. The steering wheel not being centered is one thing, but if it's really pulling, then that's a serious problem.

Do they have the Hunter no-lift rack? That's the only way I've gotten my car done right.

SharkSkin

I had Devek do my alignment, and I noticed the same thing. They had aligned it properly but one of the couplers in the steering shaft is off a tooth. They did their best to position the wheel correctly but it's off half a tooth at the wheel hub. Due to time constraints I elected to live with it until I could fix it myself; Devek could have resolved the issue I'm sure, but I wanted the car back.

Check the centering pin as Garth mentioned; with the pin centered, is the wheel in the same position as it is when you are driving straight down the road, hands off the wheel? If so, look to your linkage. If not, the alignment wasn't done properly.

D

jon928se

Number of Splines on the Hub and on the UJ at the bottom are different. Hence you can get a proper alignment with the rack centred and crucially the tie rods the same length, yet be unable to get the wheel straight by just miving it around on the hub - you need to also move the UJ at the base around as well.

I had convinced myself that the steering column was twisted after an lignment and I couldn't get the wheel straight until I realised this

Jon
Black SE
PS it's a trial and error job unless your good at maths and can be bothered to count splines.

Editted in

I should add that the steering wheel was on straight ex factory (I assume) so if it is not straight with the centring bolt in the rack it means someone has buggered about with it.

borland

Rob,

The lower control arms must be disconnected and moved out of the way before the engine crossbrace can be dropped to expose the motor mounts.

Reinstalling the lower control arms exactly as before is not always possible, thus alignment should be checked and adjusted as required.

I seem to recall that the steering universal joint only has one position that allows installing the retaining bolts.

Regardless, adjusting the steering wheel straight, performing a pre and post alignment test drives, is all part of a standard alignment.

Fact is, most alignment shops can't do a reasonably good job on the 928 without spending a lot of time to get it right.

geekapalooza

Thanks for the great information as always. This really helps me understand the setup better. You guys are the best. Thanks

maddox

Hi Rob, I am thinking of doing my mounts in the near future. just out of curiosity, how many hours labour was charged by the Porsche technicians to do yours?

Has anyone done their mounts without using a hoist? I want to know if it is possible to replace them with the car on a ramp or on stands? If so how long did it take?

Thanks

Jim_H

Done it twice without hoist. Time varies a lot depending on what little problems jump out at you. Probably 10-12 hours on avg. depending on luck....

geekapalooza

Maddox,

The Garage charged 4.5 hours at 80.00 per hour to replace the motor mounts. Spare time is rare these days, so I didn't mind paying up.

ALso did a complete Hunter 4 wheel alignment while there, just to be sure all was lined up properly. This was another 2 hours labor.

If I had the free time, I would definitely do the mounts myself. Not too bad a job, just a lot of gruntwork. I say go for it.

BTW - The car feels great after the new mounts. Now if I can just nail down the pesky fast idle condition.

John Struthers

Rob,
All good points.
BUT...
Seems to me that to install those mounts they would
also have to 'unload' some weight, if you catch my drift.
So unless they had a pull down tool and did the 25mm front and rear bounce, or, you noticed some extra mileage -you did record your mileage before you dropped it off...right? Then the possibility that they began the alignment job with incorrect ride height measurements is very real.
Essentially, the sHARk needs to be driven onto rotary plates or similiar devices after the 'loaded condition' and ride heigth specs are met.
The rear alignment/adjustments are to be made first -hopefully wheel loading considerations/adjustments were made prior to alignment process started-. Then the front adjustments.
If their pubs are updated they should know that they can use the 91' my spec's for caster can be applied to your sHARK.
Other considerations, did they accidentally, swap left for right tires/wheel combo? Different runout/balance can affect handling if ANY of the wheels were swapped. Additionally,if they did not mount the tires with the lock lug on the prescribed lug -assuming this is how it was balanced/aligned in the past- you can have compounded, minor handling issues.
If I were to guess... due to the radical pull to the left -that wasn't there before - I'd think that they did the alignment on a unloaded sHARk, followed by some close but no cigar turns of the wrench when they re-assembled the various and sundry steering components.
In any case, this is a problem of their doing and should be handled accordingly.
You know...no charge.
Good luck on this one...I'm heading down that dark path, soon, myself.

Normy

I did my own alignment via marking the tie rods after I did my steering rack and motor mount about two years ago.

-One thing about that job: I'm in shape [run 5.4 miles per day and work out], but I was sore for a week!

Yet, after the big mess in the garage...despite the fact that my car drove straight as an arrow, it started wearing the hell out of its tires and when I replaced them and had the car aligned the same day at the Porsche dealer...they discovered that it was WAY out of spec!

N!
'85 S2 5 Speed

Randy V

Read through the 'ADMIN: A New Visitor?...' topic above for information on proper alignment technique.

I'm guessing that the suspension was not settled after the motor mount work, and prior to the alignment being done.

geekapalooza

They did the alignment apparently 5 times, accdg to one of the Techs. The first stab was letting the car "sit" or "settle" for 20 mins after the engine mounts were complete - thus an unloaded sHARK! Gimme a break...

Attempts 2-5 apparently got much closer, after they actually put a few miles on the sHARK. I took the car after after align job #5, and there was still some pull, but apparently it was all tire related pull at this point.

I went almost straight to the Tire Store and had 2 Yoko AVS ES100's put on. No more pull - wooo hooo!

Funny thing was there was no pull at all when it went into the shop for the engine mounts and alignment. When all was done, tHey said the front and rear ends were both way out of alignment. The RF tire was wearing bad on the inside, so I'm guessing the tire pull actually "cancelled out" the out of alignment condition??

Oh well, it was a long and slightly stressful time without her at home in the garage. But she's back home now with 2 new Yoko's, new engine mounts, and (finally) aligned well. I missed her so much I fixed up the garage a little, for her arrival back home. Sick- huh?

Now if I can only get some "escape" time to get it out on the open roads!!