Airflite40

yeah, my mounts are like yours. hmm. I'll have to check mine again. thanks!

Bill Ball

Carl once commented the studs in his kit might have clerance issues. I couldn't understand why. They must be long studs, as the bottom of the pan should be well below it, but I recall there isn't a lot of room where he crossmember comes up around the side of the pan.

SharkSkin

Yes, they are all the same length. The ones I had to cut originally had short bolts, and with my used-up mounts I could barely get a combo wrench on the bolt.

SharkSkin

Update -- knocked off at about 8:15 last night. Still left to do:

-install front wheels
-flush rack
-monitor engine oil while flushing rack, top up as needed
-re-install swaybar
-get it off jackstands
-settle suspension(will try the "loosen a-arm mounts" method
-sanity check of toe-in
-alignment

Upon final assembly, I have about one finger width of clearance between the cut studs and the crossmember. Probably more than I need, but what the heck.

SharkSkin

Just returned from my alignment. First impressions -- WOW! Before, I would have described the 928's steering as surgical. Now, it's more like micro-surgery. The old rack mounting bushings were ready to let go, but were still intact. They had obviously been softened quite a bit from fluids. The internal bushings were pretty worn, exhibiting a few mm of play at some positions. Now, *any* movement of the wheel results in a change in direction. It still tracks straight when I take my hands off the wheel(as before) but now it seems that the tramlining is gone. The road where I observed the worst tramlining in the past has recently been repaved. It's going to take some more driving around to say for sure whether that's cured, but it feels incredible.

WooHoo! time for a

worf928

Whadya do Dave to fix the play?

SharkSkin

Rebuilt rack, Carl's solid mounts.

jorj7

Dave,

9/2 was your birthday. Gee, it was mine (and my dad's) also. Happy birthday.

SharkSkin

Thanks George. Happy birthday to you & your dad!

Some pics for the curious...

1 - Prepped for surgery
2 - End of first day(note all of the crap piled on the bench waiting to be unpacked.
3 - Rack ready to go in
4 - Rack snugged up with solid mounts
5 - Pan studs that I felt needed trimming -- this pic doesn't give a good sense of how vulnerable they looked to me though.
6 - Trimmed pan studs, shown with full weight of engine on crossmember. Had I not trimmed them, the gap in this pic would be maybe half what it is or less
7 - Horked engine mount. In both cases, the side opposite the safety hook was the one that let go.

worf928

Ah. I thought you were referring to the new rack. So, looks like you got a low mileage core as the basis for your rebuild. Did you get a Griffiths? Or a ZF rebuild?

Bill Ball

Dave:

In that picture of the rack with Carl's solid mounts, it looks like the mount is taller than the rack, so there is space between the rack and the skid plate. Is that so? The rack could move up and down a bit on the mounts. I observed that with my stock mounts, even though there were in good shape. Louie's lock-down technique with large washers eliminates this space and any movement of the rack in the up-down plane as well as side-to-side. Wonder if this matters and why the space is there.

Bus

Dave,
Great accomplishments! Congrats!

I got my dash pod off and on thanks to your guide this past weekend... not as bad as I thought it was gonna be... which is good because it has to come back out along with the dash for a recover this winter. The odometer gear was quite simple in the end also... new bulbs, a good cleaning and the pod is working great!

Do you happen to have any pics where you used the "rack centering bolt"? I'm going to need to do that eventually when I pull mine for new mounts and boots.

Michael

SharkSkin

Dave, It's neither. 928I has a different rebuilder, and according to Tom, they replace the interior bushings as needed.

Bill, yes there is space, but trust me -- that rack is not going *anywhere*. The studs that hold it in place had to have the paint scraped off for the bushings to fit -- even then it is a slight interference fit. With the various misalignments inherent in the design of the crossmember, the bushings have quite a bit of friction against the mounting ears of the rack. The bushings had to be drawn up against the crossmember(and into the rack mounting ears) using the mounting nuts. I was able to hang from the rack -- my entire body weight -- and it did not move downward. So, not an issue IMHO.

Michael, in pic #4, the yellow plug covers the opening where the rack centering bolt goes. In pic #3, the rack centering bolt is installed, visible just below the gear.

An additional bonus... I was able to line everything up so that the steering column locks with the wheel in the upright position(not sure how many can say this) and the centering bolt in place. There was a bit of dremel work involved in accomplishing this, I had to cut a new groove on the input shaft for the lower pinch bolt on the u-joint. If I didn't want to do it this way, I would have had to cut a groove in the steering shaft for the upper pinch bolt. It only goes on one way.

SharkSkin

Additional note on the bushings -- if you look closely at that pic, there is maybe ~1mm of bushing exposed before it gets to the stepped portion of the bushing. So even if it could move, it would only move 1mm.

worf928

And that's another thing I don't 'get' with the rack rebuilds. Why does the input shaft have to be randomly oriented in a rebuild? Anyone?