This must be a uniquely stupid design. The bolt you have to break loose to remove the ball joint on the front of a 993 -- the one that threads into the steering rack -- is square, and 19mm. The only wrench you can put on it is a crescent wrench. This bolt is made out of soft steel. There is a special washer with a tall lip that rests between the steering rack and bolt head, so that you can only get about one third of the wrench onto the bolt.

This is a beautiful recipe for rounding off the bolt. ****ing brilliant design work, Porsche. One side on my car came off fine, the other side appears to have been torqued far beyond necessary. So now I have a rounded-off bolt. What a mother****er.

 

Noah,

Too bad you had this problem. When I changed to GT2 tie rods I did not have a problem getting the tie rod ends loose. I agree the design does not allow for a good bite on the square rod end flats. What I do in those instances is put a wrench on the rack flats (to keep the torque load off of rack pinion gear) and use another wrench on the square and then squeaze the two wrenches together.
If that doesn't work then I have someone hold the rack flat wrench (with counter-rotation preload) and use a hammer to impact the tie rod end wrench.

Sounds like you may need to go the vise grip plier route now.
The job is much easier with the car on a lift and a helper.

I have the original tie rod ends if you want one of them.

Mike