Turbo Tie Rod Install

[sagolfer]

I installed the Turbo Tie Rod upgrade for my 1986 Targa this weekend. I know, I know, much has been written about this project already. I just thought I would add my experiences and answer a few questions I couldn’t find answers too as well as to confirm a few of the different techniques discussed already. I used the steps in Wayne’s 101 911 Project book for the project. I won’t repeat the basic stuff. I’ll just add to the parts that he called difficult or “not as easy at it seems”.

Prep
I jacked the front of car up high enough to easily slide underneath. You’re going to be doing a lot of pushing and pulling so make sure the car is very secure on stands. Remove the tires and, if you happen to be doing calipers or rotors at the same time, removing these will give you more room for unscrewing the tie rod from steering rack but it’s not necessary. I removed the pan underneath that covers the steering rack (4 bolts). I did not remove the sway bar.

Tie Rod Ends
With all the money you save doing stuff like this yourself; it is well worth buying the “special” tools for most jobs even if you only use them once or twice. As someone else suggested, you can always sell the tool after you’re done and not lose too much. However, since I already had a 15” pickle fork wedge tool and a 3lb, 10” dead blow hammer, safety goggles, and my tie rod end boots were already split, I decided to forgo the special tool this time. I gently tapped the forked wedge in above the tie rod end bushing to seat it firmly then, with one big blow of the 3lb hammer, the end popped apart. Much easier than I thought it would be. There were some marks on bushing from the fork but, like I said, they were already split.

Removing Tie Rod from Steering Rack
I used two methods to unscrew the tie rod end from the steering rack. On one side I used a Pipe Wrench and the other side I used the leverage method of bending tie rod at it’s |_| bracket close to the steering rack and pushing counterclockwise.

On the passenger side I couldn’t get the rod to budge using the leverage method so I used a 12” pipe wrench. I placed the wrench on the tie rod on the outside edge as close as possible to the tie rod end adjustment nut. I couldn’t get a breaker bar in there which might have helped. I set the wrench up so that I could pull it down using my weight. You skinny guys might have a tougher time. You stronger guys will probably be able to turn it from any angle. Once it broke free, it was still a struggle all the way out.

On the drivers side, I attached the wrench but the tie rod turned as if I was adjusting toe. The tie rod end nut must have been lose but before tightening, I decided to try the method using the tie rod as leverage. I lowered the tie rod at the |_| bracket. By the way, it does not get near 90 degrees because of the sway bar is in the way. Still, I pushed it counterclockwise and low and behold it came lose. While turning, there were some positions I wasn’t able to use the rod leverage so I wedged a large screwdriver (about 12” long) in the |_| bracket and turned it that way. The rotor seemed to be in the way more on the driver side than the passenger side but it came off.

Getting Boot Spring Retainer On
Attaching the spring retainer to the boot on the steering rack was said by many to be the toughest part of the project. I fought the good battle for about 5 minutes and thought it would be impossible. The plastic tie method (instead of the springs) was looking like a good idea. Attaching the bottom part of the spring with a small, thin screwdriver wasn’t too difficult. The hard part was getting the spring on the top and back side of the boot.

I then discovered that I could actually turn the boot on the tie rod with the spring partially attached. So I attached the bottom part of the spring (using the very small and thin screwdriver). I found it easiest to push the screwdriver underneath spring, lift it over the lip, and let it go on to the end of the boot. I then turned the boot slightly counter clockwise, lifted the spring again and dropped on the boot. I repeated the process of turning the boot slightly and attaching the spring until the spring was all the way on. I found it very easy with this method. The second boot took no more than a couple of minutes.

Hope this helps others that decide to take on this project. The whole project took about 3 hours. As always, once you figure out one side, the other side goes much faster.