Tie Rod replacement

[renatta]

Newbie needs a little help. I know this is probably a dumb question, but how the heck do I remove the tie rods? I'm in the process of changing over to the 930 turbo tie rods and I just can't break the old ones loose from the strut. I see in the manuals that Porsche has a special tool to accomplish this, but is it absolutely necessary?

Help! My resto is at a standstill until I get this figured out, which obviously isn't happening!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave :

[SGB]

The nearby FLAPS should have a tie rod seperator- I haven't used one in a long time but it wasn't complicated.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

I am told that you also need a very thin wrench. A buddy of mine got a cheapie and took a grinder to it to thin it out. I have heard of some folks using bicycle wrenches as well.

I don't remember which nut requires the thin wrench, though.

--DD

[bob174]

Yeah, they talk about using a spanner wrench they get from bicycle shops Dave. For getting them off of the strut, I used the tie rod separator as mentioned by SGB. I was curious to find that it worked better in one orientation (slanted part of the fork up or down? can't remember) than the other. After I got them off the strut, I just unscrewed them from the rack & pinion using a pipe wrench as described in a number of posts. Worked like a charm. However, if you want to keep the originals for some sick, twisted reason, the pipe wrench will chew them up. Putting the new 930's on required a wrench with a thin cross section. I scalped out an adjustable wrench with a die grinder and it worked out ok. You'll just need some kind of wrench you're willing to sacrifice to the cause.

[Kevin Powers]

getting the tie rod ends off requires a little persuasion. i soaked them with aerokroil, backed up the bottom of the arm with a 4x4, and put the pointed bit of my air chisel in the indentation on the top of the tierod and it came out. a chisel bit works well for starting the thin nut where the inboard tierod end meet rack rods. consider doing your ball joints also while you're in there. you will need an alignment any way, so now is the time to do it. i did both items, triad spherical upper strut mounts, koni red ext adjustables, had a 4 way alignment and corner bal. the way it drives now is incredible.

kevin

[cruiksdr]

Hey Dave!

Noticed you're in Maumee. I'm right down the road in Tiffin. How long have you had your car? Are you a member of the Maumee Region PCA? Do you know Dave Kimple (and about the 914 annual meet - http://members.toast.net/dk/)? If so, then we may have met already, but if not, welcome, and get in touch. There's a gret (and large) group of 914ers in this region (mostly around Toledo and S. Mich.). Lots of support. If you need any local support, just holler!

Daniel
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914-6 Conversion, 2.2L

[Jim Savage]

Also don't take the nut completely off. Leave the nut on the last few threads of the tie rod. When striking the fork with your hammer, the tie rod won't separate into pieces and go flying!!!!

Jim