REMOVING THE STEERING RACK

The indication i had of a bad steering rack were two puddles under each rubber boot as well as the loss of my powersteering from the lack of fluid. The seals had failed allowing fluid to enter the boot area and eventually, under pressure, escape from the boot. My boots were in perfect shape. Records show I had 8yrs and appx 52500 miles on my rebuilt porsche steering rack.,

To remove it is not a bad job but i really think will be made easier by a couple of tips in this page and the use of the almighty dremel!.

The basics,

1) raise the front of the car so you have access to the underside area along the rack. Chock the wheels in back.

2) Make sure your steering wheel is straight. It may help later getting it all back in a some what aligned form so you can drive to the alignment shop.

3) count the threads on each tierod that are exposed. this also will help with a quick and dirty road worthy alignment later.

4) Now loosed the lock nuts on the tie rods.

5)remove the power steering cap as it will allow fluid to drain easily from underneath at the rack fittings once loosened

6) get a catch container under the rack and loosen the 2 banjo bolts that hold the power steering lines. Before doing this it is a good idea to spray brake clean around the area you are working to clean of any loose debris that may fall into the hoses once they are unhooked. You will flush it later anyway, but it all helps

7) At this point you would most likely get your 17mm socket and one heck of a pull and undo the 4 bolts that secure the rack in place. I used a chatter gun and they came unseated easily. NOW, this it the big gotchaya and the issue that pops up when everyone does this job. The bolt will start to spin in its housing as there is nothing counter holding it on the other side. Take a 17mm wrench and place it on the top side of the bolt. : ) hahahah...good luck! It gets ugly and next to impossible in the space Porsche gives you. You can do it but it is truely a struggle and VERY time consuming!!!

This is where my lttle tip below works well!get your dremel out and do what i described in the picture below. Have a spray bottle of water handy as you will have some sparks. You are operating around steering fluid and gaawd knows what under your car. Be careful.

8) with your slots cut and 17mm wratchet wrench handy, do what is seen below and proceed to remove the 4-17mm nuts. There is one more 17 mm bolt that is hidden up and away..you will see it easily, but it does not require a counter hold.

9) remove the remaning small 8 or so 15mm nuts (or is it 13mm..sorry) that hold the metal bottom brace in place and the one 17mm i mention above slighlty hidden out of view.

10) the shield should drop dowm exposing the full underside of rack.

11) loosen the 13mm nut on the splined steering shaft coupling and COMPLETY REMOVE IT. It has to come completely out or you wont be ablt to slide the shaft out of the coupling.. I use some wd40 to help free up the tight fit.. Once off , the rack should almost hang there only being held up by the tie rod joints at each end.

12) now un thread the steering rack arms from each tierod

13) once free, the rack may drop but odds are it will get caught up on the sway bar and the PS line near it. Just simply remove the lines a bit and manipulate the rack down and out!

14) DONE in no time!