911/Q45

I'm replacing my cracked steering boots. It looks like I can just unbolt the tie rods at the rack and swing the hub out for clearance. I'd like to avoid undoing the tie rod end if possible. Has anyone else done this with an AWD 993?

SPR

I just did it actually although I replaced everything new but that's a different story. Replacing them can be fun, but lucky for you I have the best way to do it! yes you can simply unscrew the tie rod end from the ball joint- that's what they call it believe it or not. cound the number of turns it was at to preserve the toe. Then take the boot and wd40 both the inside lips of the boot as you can spray a little on the ball joint also if you wish. Push the sucker on. At first it wil become a nusance. I started with trying to use a screwdriver to feed it with my finger on the other side of the opening. This seemed to work the best, but be careful not to split the new boot with the screwdriver- flathead of course. Now the fun part f

everyone says that getting the boot over the rack lip is the worst but I really didn't have a problem. What you do is go ahead and slide the boot so that it's about 2/3 the way to the end - towards the rack. the start pushing the slack of the accordian boot towards the lip so that it is possible. Then what I did was grab the accordian gap on the boot and after spraying some wd40 a little bit on the lip, grap the gap about 3-5 slots back with two hands on either side. The pull it towards the lip. With the excess accordian it makes it go straight and if you weasle it a bit it will pop right on. Now with on hand holding the pressure make sure it's seated so you dont' have to do it again, and push it all the way into the race. viola. It really wasn't so bad. Other people said to use grease, but the coeffecient wasn't enough for sliding. wd40 worked great! Then just simply push the boot back to the end of the ball joint and screw the ball joing and tie rod back together-

SPR

Another real important thing to note though, is to check the rack to see if it's leaking. Typically when the boots are ripped, it is from leaking petrosin and it has eaten through the boot. Check out www.p-car.com for the how to in entirety

911/Q45

After reviewing the shop manual and looking at pcar.com it looks like I can unbolt the tie rods from the rack side and leave the alignment and hub end undisturbed. My boots are torn, but dry-too much time in the desert, I guess. Has anyone done it in the way I just described?

SPR

well what you are talking about seems to be at the ball joint to the rack? If that's the case it will be a major pain if not impossible to bolt together with the boots there.

911/Q45

Couldn't the boot be in place towards the hub, snug the bolt to the rack, then push the boot onto the slot on the rack with WD40 as you described? Further research(consorting?) reveals that boot failure results in dirt in rack seals, results in leaks, giving the appearance of Pentosin attacking boots. Catch the ripped boots before the leaks start and it's a whole lot cheaper!

SPR

well you could do that, if I understand you right. You want to disconnnect the balljoint from the rack then slip on the boot tighten it back up then put it on? If so that should work ok. Mainly I just remeber that with the tie rod end on the ball joint it was a pain to thread. I gave up and just put the ball joint on first then put the boot on.

deltajetfixer

I just cut off the old boot, popped the balljoint end off the wheel and slid the new boot over the tierod end, up the entire length of the tierod onto where it fits on the steering rack.

How's that for a run-on sentence?

911/Q45

So the hole in the boot was large enough to fit the entire tie rod end through!?

deltajetfixer

Yes.

911/Q45

Replaced the torn steering boots today and learned all the tricks. You can indeed unbolt the steering links at the rack and swing them out of the way. The old boots pull off easily, if only the new ones slipped on that way! Use silicone spray to lube the boot and the metal it slides over. Slip on the rack side a little, then use a large deep socket to hold the boot against the rack while you spin it and coerce it into the groove bit by bit. Bolt the link back together, then pull the boot over the link to the groove near the hub. Grab the boot about 3 ribs in and pull it out until the end slips in the groove, then fold the boot back until you can see the end in the groove. The first one takes a while, the second one goes fast after you learn the rhythm. Check your's, if you catch them early the dirt won't have time to ruin the rack seals. This job was kind of a nuisance, but nothing like replacing a rack and way cheaper.