cfc928gt

You take the rack cover off which has 5 17mm bolts and 6 13 mm bolts. The hardest part was getting the left back bolt off. Issue is holding the top of the bolt to keep it from spinning while you take off the nut. After the plate is off the rack will drop down a bit. I took a chisel and punch on the bottom lip to deform it so I could then push it out the top. When you put the new bushings in you need to crimp the top of the bushing over to keep the rack from moving up and down on the bushing. I used a channel lock to work the lip down around most of the lip. Just be careful not to tear up the rubber on the bottom side.

dr bob

As part of the motor mount replacement task, the rack is dropped out of the crossmember to get to the bottom MM bolts. Those 10mm bolts (the ones with the 17mm heads) come out real quick with the small air ratchet on the bottom, and a screwdriver wedged between the head and the roll on the crossmember on top. The 8mm (13mm heads) come out at least as easily, using the pee-new-matic wrench.

At first glance, it seems that a grade-8 socket cap screw and a short sleeve of pipe would make a handy bushing puller to use with the small impact gun. The head of the bold would need to fit through the holes in the ears on the rack. Anybody tried this method?

chaadster

Not to be trouble here, but I'm surprised to hear that steering rack bushings took care of tramlining/wandering problems on a car with front offset wheels of ET49. Doesn't that measurement put you into negative scrub?

Bushings might stiffen things up and reduce the amount of steering input for awhile, but my best guess says that it won't stop the tramlining problem.

I never had this problem before going to ET55s, now I have it slightly. Recently I took the ET55s wheels off (picked up a pair of scissors in my rear tire that ripped a big ol' gouge!) and put the stock ET65s back on, and was reminded that the tramlining is an offset issue.

Maybe jacking all of the stock suspension numbers around these lower offset front wheels will help, but I wonder about the overall impact on the total handling package doing so will have.

Bill Ball

Tramlining is often mentioned as a complication of low offset and negative scrub angles. I've always had more tramlining than I would like with stock wheels. The new 996 wheels are 7.5" with 52 offset upfront and tramlining is less than I had with stock wheels. The car is running low stock ride height (160). Go figure.

fraggle

You will need

2 17mm ratchets, one with an extension.
1 17mm box end a nice one (thin!!) helps get it to fit in there.

If you're lucky you'll have a 17mm box-end stubby, but a full size one will work.

You can work the box-end wrench up in above the rack to hold the nuts toward the rear of the car. Be careful you don't short it against the starter solenoid. That can wake you right up when you're under there. Not that'd I'd know.

You work the box end up top to just bite on the nuts. I've also removed the wire harness hold down on the driver/rear, it gets in the way.

I can drop the whole thing in 15 minutes now. I've got Carl's solid Al bushings and they are awesome. I did build up a couple of shims for the top of the rack so there is absolutely no movement in mine now.

When you put it back together, work from one bolt to the next slowly, making sure the single one on the far drivers side gets snug first; as it helps self-align the plate the rack mounts to.

Scotts87928

I had some serious tramlining and while Fred (CFC928GT) and I were vacuuming and charging his AC system he suggested my wheel bearings. I had just driven his and it drives like a new car. Then he drove mine and the steering wheel wasn't nearly as responsive as his. We checked the front wheel bearings (by jacking up the front of the car and pulling and pushing the wheel and tire assembly on a vertical axis) and found excessive play. I regreased the bearings and tightened up the bearings. The car drives MUCH better. Just had an alignment a month ago and put in a new rack and bushings last year. Thank you Fred!

jeff spahn

I had Greg at Precision adjust my wheel bearings before I drove it home in November. How often do the bearings need to be adjusted? It seems that my car tramline's pretty bad since getting an alignment. Maybe have the caster set differently? If this is the case, what should they set it to?

dr bob

Jeff--

Set the car to factory settings. A little toe out will make the car a little more twitchy, sometime mistaken for "better turn-in". But as all will remind you, the you absolutely must have the car fully settled when you have it aligned. If your alignment tech insists on raising the car to inspect for worn parts and play, go out and drive around for an hour or two, or find that section of road that has a dozen speedbumps on it with 15 MPH warning signs. Drive a dozen laps at 50 and you should be settled enough.

FredR

Jeff,

If by any chance the bearings were set just a tad too tight that might explain what you expereinced. A good laser alignment system would point out any slop in the steering system to the operator but not over tightening and it is all too easy to do that- half a flat too tight is probably all it takes.

The caster specified for a 1990 model is in the 4 degrees range, for latermodels [with no differences in the steering system], Porsche specified over 5 degrees I seem to remember. I use 5.5 degrees but then I have wide wheels and minimum toe settings [improved turn in/lighter steering load on the wide wheels] and that caster setting helps offset twitchiness at speed that regular toe settings stabilise.

Without doubt, age and maybe oil droppings [I have a minor leak in the power steering system piping] degrade the rack bushings and I like the prospect of fitting the offerings from either Carl or Roger if an when I feel I need to. At the moment my steering is taught and rather excellent.

Regards

Fred

jeff spahn

I know they didn't lift the car. I watched them roll the car onto the alignment machine thingy. I probably drove the car 15 miles on our rough roads before going to the shop after putting in the motor mounts.

Another thing was there was a new rack put in a couple years ago by the PO. Would a new rack have new bushings?
Here are the settings the alignment showed when done. I am planning on getting new springs/shocks as they are original and we had to raise them way up in the rear to get the settings to where they were adjusted to by the shop:

FredR

If they put a new rack in it owuld have had new bushings unless it was a refurbished rack and even then I would expect that to have new bushings. The shop did a reasonable stock alignment for you based on those settings recorded. Note that before laignment your caster was close to 5 degrees both sides- after a bit of difference between each side but probably not a critical difference- others might comment on that.

I presume before alignment you had to correct the steering wheel offset to the left slightly to stay in a straight line looking at those front toe figures

Regards

fred

jeff spahn

Yep, they centered the wheel during the alignment because it was off after the motor mount job. That's what prompted the alignment.

Landseer

Mine had (still has) tramlining after alignment. The saddle in the rack is shot, so there is fore/aft play in the DS rack rod. Every other piece of the suspension is new. Has solid rack bushings, too.

The way to check is put it up on jackstands, turn wheel to extend DS steering rod. Lay underneath and try to manipulate the rod. If worn, it will shift and maybe clunk. Repeat on PS.

May not be your car's problem. It is mine's, though.

dr bob

Mine doesn't suffer from tramlining, with 55mm offset fronts. I do my own alignments now, after suffering severe tire wear following commercial alignments. One thing I've noticed is that the lower ball joints need replacement on my car, after a casual push-pull check with the car on stands. My car sees smooth roads here, so if you have over 100k on your car, it gets driven on less-than-perfect roads, or you are having trouble with steering consistency, take a hard look at the lower ball joints. I wrapped my hand around the joint, and did the push-pull test with my feet while laying under the car. I could feel the play. There are pry-and-measure tests that can be done with the suspension loaded, but unless you can get the car on ramps or a platform lift it's pretty tough. Oh, the driving symptoms are somewhat similar to to loose wheel bearings.

Jeff, go drive your car 100 miles and ask the alignment guys to take another look at it. 15 Miles usually isn't enough to get the suspension settled completely. My memory of the height of that car is that it's a bit low, in the 150-160mm range in front, so a little height change makes a real difference in toe.