seb928s

Hey everyone I'm going to be replacing the power steering rack to an manual rack. It's an 1986 951 so it will bolt up without any mods. I know how to remove the rack and all but any hints or ways to make the job easier? I want to do this with the engine in the car. Also do I need any special tools to remove the tie rods from the suspension? I know when we removed the early manual rack from the parts car we didn't use anything. So basically I want all yours guys hints,cheats,and anything that will make this job easier. Also how much time will this take by the books? That will give me an idea how much time the car will be down. I'm planning on starting on a Friday and Finishing up on Monday at the latest. I still need to fit this in when I will be able to work on the car.

Danno

My guess is about 1.5-hours to do the swap. Helps to have tools to get the tie-rod ends out of the spindle. Pickle-forks or gear-pullers make it easy. There's a couple of bolts that hold the high-pressure hard-lines to the crossmember that can be difficult to see and get to. Also easier if you remove the swaybar first; it gets in the way of the hard-line running along the fender and crosses over to the crossmember.

Tip on re-installing. Make sure you have the rack centered, use the centering tool to hold the dimple on the rack centered. Then line up the U-joint clamp such that the split is perpendicular to the flat-spot on the pinion. Saves you a lot of time re-aligning the car later because you gotta drop the rack if that U-joint clamp isn't centered.

Good luck! Let us know how the car feels afterwards.

seb928s

Danno I'm replacing the rack with the u-joint shaft that goes to the top as these parts on the manual rack is longer by an inch or so. I don't think I can just pull the rack and put the manual in the same spot. I have whole rack with the shafts. As I did some research and I need to replace everything up to the firewall where the shaft from the steering wheel comes out.

Devildog2067

If you figure out a way to replace the steering input shaft without pulling the brake booster, let me know.

vetblack

The most difficult part is changing the shaft at the firewall. The easiest way will require two people to put it back on. To remove it, the bolt can be accessed form the top with a combination extension/swivle. To put the longer manual one on, make sure the splines on the shaft and the firewall are clean and put a little antiseize on them. Next , have one person under the car and one above. The person on top can drop in the bolt from the top.Have the person on top turn the shft until the perosn underneath can see the bottom of the bolt. The perosn underneath can puton the nut while the perosn on top hold the bolt from spinning. The best way to put on the nut since it is a very tight area and you can not get your fingers up there, is to use a 1/4 drive extension w/swivle. Put a little piece of balled up masking tape in the socket end to take up some of the room in the socket. Put the nut in the socket on top of the tape (it should also stick to the tape a bit holding it in the socket). Get the nut started and then tighten it down. Believ\e it or not, I did this thing by myself and it was a pain in the @$*. I then did it to my friends track car with two of us and it was a piece of cake. Putting the rack on the cross member is straight forward..

Good luck.

BTW, the manual rack (on my track only car) is excellent. It took one event to get used to it, but now I would never go back to power steering.

seb928s

Thanks will do that seems not that hard. Vetblack how long did it take you both times to do it?