pp000830

See attached PDF

BesideTheBox

Good job!

The rough estimate I got for having it done is $3K. $1.5K for a 'new' rack - I assume a rebuilt rack - and $1.5K for labor. You've done it for about 10 percent of that. Wow.

I have a minor leak in my steering rack. By minor, I mean that it is not leaking on the garage floor with the under body panels in place. How did you decide it was time to do it?

Who did you have rebuild your rack?

Garth S

Definitely a fun job .... nicely done!

"Getting the boots on the rack and tie rod ends was the hardest part of the entire job. There may be a trick to doing this – a trick I do not know."

When you get to do it again , here's the trick to install the rack boots.......

pp000830

http://www.steeringgearsuperstore.com/

pp000830

Thanks!
Andy

pp000830

If it’s not leaking onto the floor I would hold off. If it is not consuming the fluid you may just be seeing seepage from the boot. As a last resort you can switch out the steering fluid for the thick red stuff from Lucas in the white bottle. It will slow down any leaks a good bit and forestall replacement.

alcanada

Hello Andy, you have a PM for a copy of the instructions, the attach file is incomplete.

IXLR8

Roughly 15 hours of labor? Time to find another shop.

BesideTheBox

It was an informal estimate, not written, so I don't have the breakdown. The shop's labor rates are $110/hour if they supply parts or $135/hour if the customer supplies parts.

They will get my business if what needs to be done is something that I am not interested in doing. The twin cities, MN is a small market. There are 2 Porsche dealers and a few good independents.

alcanada

Thank you Andy for sending me your collection of posts on removing the rack, changing out the seals in the steering rack, and all the parts that you had to order from Pelican to complete the project. It helps to have all the reference material in one place and saves me many hours of research to order the right parts.

Yes, I am thinking about changing the seals myself. I will heed you warning about damaging the internal cylinder and may still send the rack out to a professional. But as I read the posts on this project, it seems to me that the most difficult part of the project is the removal and installation of the rack. The actual changing out of the seals is simpler.

Maybe someone who has done this can offer some comments.

Elonash

I have done this by myself for the price of a seal kit, which is 5% of the turnkey price in my area at a mechanic workshop.
I faced quite a lot of difficulties to change some of it and had to dismount the rack again to better place one seal which was causing excessive effort to turn the steering wheel. And that's right that installing or dismounting the rack is quite a job, maybe far easier if you are a skilled gymnast...
But I like to work on my car and to learn about the inside components.
If you don't feel confident then just don't just do it, otherwise the risk is to loose motivation to go ahead in the middle of the way...
Enjoy!

BesideTheBox

Working on a rack rebuild and when I called my local VW dealer to get the recommended steering rack grease,
he couldn't find the part in his system.

So I googled around and found that VW Steering grease part number AOF 063 000 04
has been superseded by VW part number G 052 168 A1.

And then the local VW parts technician was able to find it in his system and will have it at his shop tomorrow.
Maybe this information is somewhere, but I've been following pp000803's notes and it has the old part number
in it, as does the freely available electronic version of the 993 workshop manual.

Cupcar

Boy that's for sure.

mr_bock

I bought the rebuild kit as I was doing a full bushing/bearings replacement project. I suggest taking lots of pictures as you take the rack apart. Especially how the seals go in. The drawings did not show enough detail of the seal direction. I had to guess based on which side the pressure pushing. Since I have a car lift in my garage, it was easy to drop the front sub-frame, etc... I remounted the rack to the sub-frame and had it all supported on saw horses under the car. I used painters tape wrapped around the steering shaft u-joint to hold it up right. I slowly lowered the car while checking the position/and steering shaft, etc... so I could get everything aligned and back together as a one man operation. My major concern was not having a seal mounted properly and causing a leak. All went perfectly and no leaks. One more thing, getting the rack boots back on was a pain. I made two sets of hook tools from coat hanger wire that got me through. Took some time but saved big $$$!!!

Good luck to all the DIY'ers who take this on.

Spencercat

Reviving this useful thread for those who follow. Like others have pointed out the bcaway DIY pictures are indispensable, until you get to the LHD input shaft housing, which is very different from his RHD version. I had some trouble with the seal at the top of the input shaft housing, but the rest of the seals were pretty easy. The steel circlip was actually harder to replace than to remove with the right hooking tools. Putting the rack back in was easy once I hooked it up to the steering wheel and rolled it all the way right then all the way left. Overall, I'd agree this is an 8 out of 10 on the difficulty scale.