CaptainGSR

I am going to replace my steering rack boots. The driver's side seems to have been torn for a while, and the exposed shaft is a bit dirty.

After I clean it, should I then put PSF or silicone grease on shaft itself, or even some other type of grease/lubricant?
I have some Dow Corning 111 laying around...

I have read a couple of DIYs, but they all concentrate on the internals of the rack.

Cheers,

Johan

NYC993

Replaced mine last year. I followed Quad's recommendation to disconnect the inner rods not to worry about counting turns for alignment purposes. I used thin pliers to grab and pull the smaller (outside) part of the boot over the rod. The boots are quite sturdy, but I had an extra in case I rip it, which I didn't. I also recall turning the boots inside out prior to fitting the larger (inside) part, make's it easier sliding it on. And of a bit of soap helps. Overall the job wasn't too difficult.

Quadcammer

eh I think we used some regular old synthetic grease. nothing too heavy and just put on a little.

Spyder_Man

The boots on the steering rack of my '95 are shot too. I'd be curious to hear what you learn about this repair.

Quadcammer

easy
cut old boot
clean area
use two open ended wrenches to loosen the inner tie rod. disconnect inner tie rod from rack, slide new boot over tie rod, tighten it back up, apply some grease to the rack gear, and pop the boot back over the rack.

The boot requires a bit of fiddling to get over the tie rod and rack. as noted above, some dish soap works nice and you may need to flip the boot inside out.

CaptainGSR

Thanks for all the replies, I know how to do this, but I am concerned about what type of grease to use.

The last time I did this, it was on a honda, and the shaft was clean and lubricated, so I never had to worry about re-greasing it.

Cheers,

pp000830

Remove the rods w/o taking them apart to preserve your alignment. If you take both car sides off mark them left and right. The inside one should only be greased with VW steering rack grease VW part number AOF 063 000 04 as the regular stuff will contaminate the rack. My car’s tie rod ends were good (no play) but the outside rod end grease boots looked a little dried out so I cut the boots off and replaced the little booties with aftermarket ones and repacked them with wheel bearing grease.

Find detailed info here as to how to get the boots on w/o damaging them:
https://rennlist.com/forums/993-foru...ent-notes.html

EMBPilot

We used M1 synthetic grease after a good cleaning. While it might not be by the book, I've had no problems. About a year ago. (Finds wood)

Garth S

If you have any difficulty with the outer end boot, this
installation trick may help ....

P-daddy

^Genius!!