The Maintenance Files

Turbo Tie Rods

(Fall 2007)

Along with the Lemförder TTRs & some CV boot kits, I broke down & bought a Power Bleeder, as you can see.

So, I jacked up the car & got to work.  I had read Wayne's 101, the Bentley & numerous posts on Rennlist, Pelican & Impact Bumpers.  Now this job is supposed to be relatively easy, but don't believe it.  In 101, Wayne says you just twist the old tie rod off.  Ha!  Just try it.  You don't have the room or the leverage.  But I'm ahead of myself here . . .

With the car in the air & the wheels off, you remove the pan to get access.  2 nuts & 2 bolts & it's off, with the sway bar now hanging down a bit too..  Now attack the spindle arm on the shock tower end.  Take out the cotter pin & remove the castellated nut on the old tie rod end & pop the ball joint end out of the shock tower bracket.  Sure, it's a breeze.  Much has been written about this part.  Use a pickle fork.  Use the special Porsche tool.  Use a spreader & on & on.  One post made sense.  They said that 90% of garage mechanics just whack it with a hammer.  So, I used a bottle jack to support the spindle arm so it wouldn't bend or bounce & whacked it with a hammer.  It didn't really require that much force, so no damage ensued.  Both sides came off with absolutely no fuss or muss.

Roll the clampy thing on the inner bellows.  It's reused.  Remove the outer one & the old bellows.  Then, you take the old tie rod off by unscrewing it from the steering rack.  Except you can't unscrew it because you can't get enough leverage, because everything is in the way.  The brake lines.  The fuel lines.  The sway bar.  The cross member.  You get the point.  And a wrench won't fit up in that tight space & if it does, you can't turn it.  The rubber just twists.  So the fun begins:

• Change front jack stand points since you can't use the torsion bar brackets in the front.  I used the welded platforms on the tub corner just aft of the front wheel.  A nice late-Carrera touch.
  
• Access your smuggler's box in the trunk.
  
• Remove 2 bolt clamp on the rubber bushing on the steering rod.
  
• Un-loosen the bolt on the aluminum(?) steering rod clamp above the bushing.  To fully drop the rack, this bolt must come out.  I just loosened it & the rack dropped 2 -3 inches which gave me enough room.  If you are in the mood, you can drop the whole rack & regrease/rebuild it but that's another job for another day.
  
• Underneath the car again, remove the sway bar.  Ha, ha.  This is easier said than done.  You have to undo the bolt on the front torsion bar cover & remove the 'cow catcher' (another bolt into the trunk btw on this sucker).  Then remove the 2 bolts on the torsion bar bracket.
  
• Let the front A-arm free!  Which it won't until you remove the height adjuster screw, remove the torsion bar & the spongy gasket.  Unbolt the long bolt that holds the cross member & goes through the torsion bar assembly.  Then the A-arm will pull out & you can finally remove the sway bar.
  
• At this point, you may as well remove the aluminum cross member since it's in the way, too.
  
• Unbolt the horn thing that looks like a spaceship.  Unplug the wires but remember their orientation.
  
• Unbolt the fuel pump bracket.
  
• Unbolt the 2 bolts that position the steering rack.  This is where the bump steer spacers reside.
  
• The cross member will come off with a little persuasion now.  Note how it mates with the bolt holes so you understand the reassembly.  The circular extension on the bolt hole fits into a recession on the cross member.  This also might show you why you shouldn't use it for jack support, since it only touches the body in 2 small places & it is at its front.  Not stable at all!
  

After all of this, I could finally get a wrench on the tie rod to remove it.  Now, I'm a normal size & my hands are a normal size so I just don't know how people get them off without all of this hassle.  A lift would certainly help for access.  This was a huge pita.

Here is the A-arm swinging free with the tie rod in the back & the shock tower spindle hole to the right.

Here you can see the steering rack, the fuel pump with its bracket The brand spankin' new boot is in place.

This photo is looking towards the passenger side with the front on the left.  On the left, you can clearly see the circular ridge on the bolt hole that slots into the aluminum cross member.  The one to the right is the sway bar bracket hole & where the pan fastens.

Re-assembly of this whole mess went very well.  The sway was the only mild hassle.  Make sure you have it bedded in both brackets - particularly the A-arm one - before you start bolting down the A-arm.   And use some lithium grease on the inside of the rubber sway bushings.  Then just assemble in the reverse order of your disassembly.  Grease the torsion bar & clean the sponge gasket.  Observe all of the different torques required, of course. And you may have to beat the sway bar into place to get its rear bracket to align.  I did.

To read more & see more pretty pictures since I didn't take many, see the threads below:

Rennlist -  Turbo tie rod installation questions.

Pelican - Turbo Tie Rod Install

Pelican - Installing Turbo Tie Rods Tomorrow

And there are more links on my Links page

And btw, here's what my 70K mile front bushings look like.  Only the passenger rear bushing is showing some real drift.