Van

I'm converting my turbo S over to manual steering. For those that aren't aware, the power racks use a different style of tie rod than the manual racks. Exactly why, I don't know - but one's a male thread and the other's a female thread...

My options were either to replace my perfectly good tie rods with new ones for the tune of about $350, or modify the steering rack... Option "B" was free.

So, I took the rack apart so I could get the bar out of it. Here's the manual bar (left) sitting next to a power bar:




Next step, in my lathe, to center drill a hole in the end:



After drilling, I was ready to tap it:



Here's the bar with the tapped holes:




And then it's over to the milling machine to make the locking notches. Job complete:




And it only took an hour or two.

Kool

Interesting.

How did you strip the rack down with out breaking anything? Do you have any pictures.

Van

I don't have pictures...

The manual rack comes apart very easily. The power one has a lot of pieces... the key is to undo the huge nut that holds the steel tube piece onto the aluminum housing piece. I put the rack in a vice and hammered away at that nut with a punch in one of the notches. Finally, just when I was about to give up, the nut started turning, and then it was a piece of cake after that.

MATT DAMOND

Nice ingenuity!

Weston Dillard

and $20,000 worth of shop tools!

Great idea though. The cost of late offset tie rods was the main reason I sold the manual rack I had and "manualized" my power rack.

West

Rock

I remember hearing something like a 914 tie rod end, or maybe an early 911 tie rod end would match up with the manual rack. anyone know anything about this?

PorscheDoc

Hmmmm seems like you could offer a service up here Nice work!

944CS

or one could buy the new Genuine Porsche manual rack tie rods that I'm selling for $240 instead of $350

2bridges

seems like the 86 turbo tie rod ends are the same as manual?? anybody know for certain

Lemming

Early 911. I went through this a month or so ago when I converted to late offset front hubs and I have a manual rack. When I first started I too thought that I was going to have to buy the whole unit and was not happy. Once I determined that it worked, I called Chuck at Paragon, they now sell them as just the tie end.

http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...347.333.01.htm

Van

Lemming, that's the other end - the spindle end. The issue with the manual vs power rack is the other end - the end that bolts up to the rack.

My understanding is that the early offset cars (including the '86 turbo) use the tie rod end that has the castle nut - and a male thread can only be used on manual steering tie rods.



The late offset cars use a tie rod end that does not have the castle nut, but rather a lock nut. I do not know if the tapers and lengths on the ball stud are the same...

Anyhow, the power steering tie rods have a female thread - and the rod its self is threaded with the male thread.



The real issue is the other end - the end that attaches to the rack.

Manual tie rod:




And power tie rod:




To sum up... Manual steering: rack end - tie rod ball socket has female threads; spindle end takes a ball joint that has a male thread.

Power steering: rack end - tie rod ball socket has male threads; spindle end take a ball joint that has a female thread.

I have late power tie rods; early power tie rods; and early manual tie rods in my possession - and have made my observations based on those.

Lemming

Van,

I was responding to Rock about the manual tie rod end (spindle). For a while Paragon was not selling the manual tie rod ends, just the inner and outer manual tire rod as one piece for $130/side.



When I was replacing hubs and spindles I needed to replace the outer tie rod ends on my manual rack since the boots were bad but I did not want to spend the money on the whole tie rod when the inners were just fine. I did some research and found that the early 911 tie rod end was the same as the 924/944 manual tire rod end and could be purchased without the inner tire rod. Paragon now sells just the outer manual tie rod. As you state that rod end will not work with your modified inner power steering rod.

Wish I had the machinery to do the work that you can in your shop. It's on my wish list, but my track car eats up all my cash

johntorg

Van, If I send you a manual rack and late offset power steering tie rods, can you do your magic on them? If so, please PM me with a price.

xschop

Did you measure the exact end to end lengths of both the manual and power rack rods (not tie-rods) end to end?

I am deciding which is the best route to go for adapting my bump steer kit to the manual rack since I've already done it for the Power rack and want to keep the inexpensive toyota tie rods that can be had for 40 bucks a pair.
Thanks, and definitely good work thinking out of the box....

BTW, the Toyota tie rods I sourced are M14 x 1.5
I assume that is the tap you used in the upper pic?

Mike Lindsey

We carry a tie rods for manual box and 951 chassis. No mods necessary.