Carl Fausett

Application : All Porsche 928 78-95

The Steering Rack Mounts on your 928 may be suffering by this time in their life... as the rubber has been under attack by all the oils that have gotten splashed or leaked onto them. Oil pan leaks are notorious for this. The rubber in the mounts turn to mush (oil destroys rubber) and that allows the steering rack to slide left and right when you turn the wheel - instead of your tires!

This is the Cure! Our Soild Steering Rack Mounts provide a permanent cure to sloppy steering rack mounts. PLUS - They are much tighter than the original rubber-bushing mount - removing all the play you ever had that allowed your steering rack to shift around on its mounts.

Our Solid Rack Mounts are machined from a Cast Alloy and impervious to oils and chemicals. You'll never need to replace them again!

Easy Installation: All 4 of your steering rack mounts can be replaced from the bottom easily. Easy-to-follow instructions included.

This is a brand-new product that is not up on our website yet. But - we do have it displayed in our eBay store if you want ordering information:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsc...temZ8014593677

FlyingDog

Just what I've been looking for!

BTW, check the text on your 3rd pic. It says "sway bar mounts" not "steering rack bushings/mounts"

Bill Ball

Nice job, again, Carl! Do you see any adverse effects in daily driving from eliminating the rubber dampening effects of the stock bushings? Regardless, I just bought set on eBay. My bushings don't appear to be deteriorated, but if I lever hard on one wheel, I can see the rack move a small amount, and I do experience a lot of tramlining. I can find no other slop in the steering and suspension, so these should help.

FlyingDog

With my car on a lift, pushing the back of the passenger side wheel in lifts that end of the rack 1/4-1/2". Everything else is tight.

I haven't yet taken a close look at the mounting. PET lists a bolt and a spring washer as going through the top of the bushing/mounts. Could that be easily improved upon?

RDS928S

Carl,

I just ordered a pair. If my sway bar bushings have'nt been shipped from your shop yet you can combine the order.
I can't wait to feel the effects all of these small suspension tweeks.
Will your new solid rack bushings make noise on a daily driver street car?

Thanks Rich

urnotthesameina928

Sounds like its going to be a great product!!. My only question like others is if eliminating the rubber will it cause any adverse effects.. for those who have taken the plunge keep us updated to how it all works out..

Carl Fausett

Thanks for pointing out the error in the text of the 3rd pick. I must have sway bar mounts on the brain.

I've had a couple folks say "My 928 will not stay in alignment"... or that they have thrown tie rods and other parts at the car and they still have too much slop in the steering wheel.

Remember, unless you can hold the steering rack still, you cannot even get an alignment to begin with.

On the 928's I have seen, all the bolts are captive at the top by the cross-member. This means you do not even need two wrenches to get the nuts off - the bolt cannot turn. Replacing these is pretty easy. Porsche used the same 4 steering rack mounts thru all models and all years.

In my experience with these solid mounts - there is quite an increase in road feel. If the tires wobble, or hit on an edge in the pavement, or are out-of-balance, it really is transmitted up into the steering wheel more than before.

That kind of feedback is useful to me - but everyone might not like it. Also, I perceive a faster turning response from when I move the steering wheel to when things actually start to happen - is it real or just my perception? It seems real.

I made them from Delrin about 6 months ago - but they did not wear well, so I had to go to Metal. Still, we chose a "soft" alloy so it does not eat into the aluminum casting of the steering rack.

Test your steering rack mounts with a friend... its easy. No tools. No jacking. With your 928 on the pavement, (motor off and E-brake set) get on the ground and stick your head just in back of the Left Front tire... have your partner turn the steering wheel L and R about 3 or 4 inches in each direction while you stare at the steering rack.... does it slosh around on its mounts or does it hold still pretty well? Your view of the rack will be improved if you turn the steering whell to the right 1 full turn.

On factory OEM steering rack mounts, the rack is allowed to move about 1/4" Left and Right, and up and down a little too. Thats normal.
With our solid mounts there will be no movement at all.

Even if you do not order our solid mounts - you may enjoy a new set of OEM mounts from your favorite 928 Part Supplier - they are only a few dollars each.
Its a cheap way to gain some steering response and enjoyment.

Benton

Holy Moley, I can't believe I paid the $$ for new stock mounts. When I bought them, I just knew I should wait and see if someone came out with solid mounts. I might just buy these anyway. Cool product!

BrianG

I used a set of poly steering rack mounts on a Jaguar, and found the "road feel" annoying. For me, I found that replaceing the old ones with new OEM units was the answer. I also found the poly sway-bar mounts transmitted a lot of road noise to the car, and they squeaked badly after a while.

YMMV

gruffalo

Currently I have improvised a solution to fixing the rack (solid, no flex) to the sub-frame. Eric from Denmark was also into this, and had several posts here on the subject.

I have found absolutely no bad side effects to this at all.

I have ordered Carls parts just to get rid of the DIY look of my current setup.


mm

Carl Fausett

yepper! ya sure you betcha! da frigid norte'

I just made a batch of these last night, and the lathe was not appreciating the
current ambient temperature of Zero. Takes a LONG time to heat up the shop at temps like that.

Carl Fausett

BTW - I have switched the material again, they are now being turned from 6061 T6 aluminum billet.
Lighter weight, better resistance to corrosion.

EB338

Does anyone make Poly versions of our rack mounts? I would think them a better compromise if you don't want as much road feel transmitted to the wheel than to go with solids. For race, yes solids all the way, but on the street I would prefer to split the difference between rubber and solid. The poly should resist oil and heat damage better than the rubber did too.

Nice product, glad to see the issue is being addressed by someone.

Carl Fausett

My first prototypes wer cut from Dupont Delrin.
At 6 months, it already showed they were wearing too quickly.

Poly would have to be cast, not cut. A minimum order to make the mold and cast the part would apply, and I do not think we could get that order together. I know, I have already had this conversation with Energy Suspension. ( www.energysuspension.com ) It was hard just to get sway bar bushings done, (which we have) much less these.

This is a limited-production automobile, now discontinued, and the sub-market we are selling to is just those owners who want to tweek and tune this car.

The economics of scale drive a lot of "we should" decisions, and choices of manufacturing methods.

EB338

I dont have the real thing here in front of me but these bushings look a lot like many of the upper A-arm bushings from our cars and many 1960-80's american cars. Is there anything pre-existing that is close enough to be modified or close enough that our mounting conditions could be modified to accept them? I would have thought similarly with sway bar bushings, there are a lot of them out there already, what is the chance there is something close already being produced?