993 steering rack DIY rebuild tutorial
 

After taking my 1995 993 for a 300km drive the other day nearing home I had to stop due to the power steering pump whining. The reservoir was low on oil, I bought some ATF and topped it up which fixed the noise. When I returned I discovered fluid leaking from both ends of the rack out of the rubber boots, they were full of red atf!

After finding out the cost of a rebuild in New Zealand ($1500+) and the price of a new one is just plain stupid. I decided to rebuild it myself. Which was a 100% success. with a total cost of just over $100 and a few hours of my time.

I thought I would document this for future DIY'ers.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a right hand drive rack however the procedure will be almost identical for a LHD rack.

This was relativity simple and straightforward with no special tools required:
I welcome any feedback and corrections and thanks to jon928se for his initial advise on dis-assembly techniques.

First I sourced the 993 Rack Seal Kit from http://www.klaindustries.net/ $69 + shipping
http://www.klaindustries.net/993rack...rack%20kit.jpg

It turns out the US kit (LHD) is slightly different to my RHD rack. They were very helpful and promptly sent me 4 square ring seals that were about 10mm bigger diameter to fit my input shaft at no extra cost! (nice guys!)

I have broken these DIY instructions into steps (each with its own large image that I am linking to to save huge images in this thread):

STEP 1 REMOVAL http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP1.jpg

STEP 2 DIS-ASSEMBLY http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP2.jpg

STEP 3 DIS-ASSEMBLY CONTINUED http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP3.jpg

STEP 4 SEAL REPLACEMENT http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP4.jpg

STEP 5 SEAL REPLACEMENT CONTINUED http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP5.jpg

STEP 6 SEAL REPLACEMENT FINAL STEP http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP6.jpg

STEP 7 RE-ASSEMBLY http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP7.jpg

STEP 8 INSTALLATION (coming soon later this week)


Cheers
Brian

Wow, Thank you very much! Look forward to the rest of the procedure. This should definitely go on p-car.com.

Great work - can't wait to see the rest!

Awsome! I wish I had this when my rack went south a couple of years ago.

Pleased to see that the link I had posted to Jons rack R&R (928 rack rebuild) appears to have had some value ...... look forward to the remaining chapters!

Amazing write-up - thank you!


Andreas

Please keep the update coming. There will be many of us who are going to have to cross this bridge at some point. Which fluid did you use when you refilled it?

Awesome, thanks for all the details!

Wow, nice work Brian

Excellent! Thanks for posting.

Fantastic. Also on Pcar Workshop.

Great pictures,

In stage 3, the diagram that you show removing the C-clip, have you put a dent in the inner edge (at around 5 O'clock) as a result of inserting screwdrivers into the groove to remove the C-clip? If you have, for someone-else trying this in the future perhaps making a hollow c shaped cylinder (ie an incomplete cylinder if you get what I mean) formed from a steel sheet and rotating it once the end of the clip is lifted into the cylinder may avoid nicking that part of the rack?

Hi RS man,
RE: c-clip removal, the u shape is part of the factory rack housing and is there to enable you to get the screwdriver behind the clip initially :) also this part of the rack has no seal surface and is external to the unit only covered by the rubber boot, so scratching is not a concern.

Yes we also thought of making a sheetmetal (1/2 circle) to slide down behind the screwdrivers as we worked our way around, this would have minimized our frustration when slipping and the clip pinging back into the groove :) - but with a few tries we got it out just fine.

Another question was what oil did I use. I read somewhere (and will locate it before my final assembly post) that certain types of ATF are fine. Since proper Porsche oils are not available in my town, I used Valvoline DX-3 ATF. I will include the proper refilling procedure too - at the end.

Step 4,5 and 6 added today, I don't have an exploded view so I have made up names for some of the parts :)
If anyone has or can get an exploded view that would be a helpful addition to this DIY

STEP 4 SEAL REPLACEMENT http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP4.jpg
STEP 5 SEAL REPLACEMENT CONTINUED http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP5.jpg
STEP 6 SEAL REPLACEMENT FINAL STEP http://www.webbnet.com/911/images/99...rack_STEP6.jpg

final assembly con installation coming soon\~

Kudos!
 

Thanks for taking the extra time to documnet and share with the community! :biggulp:

A duplicate loaded up on p-car would be a big plus for posterity.