Power Steering Rebuild Question
 

Have done this before, but its been awhile and I’m about to do this again…and I’m wondering if, in general, it might be wise to lubricate the various rubber o-rings with some ATF prior to installing them.

I ask this because I’m always a bit leery that such rubber gaskets, if installed dry, might be more subject to possible deterioration during final assembly…than if they’d been lubricated prior to installation.

Have just watched the Rennbay video, which does not mention such pre-lubrication, but I think it may be a good idea to do this. Anyone?

Another question: Although I'd done this rebuild years ago on a previous (85.5) 944, and I think I can figure out how to take the rack apart, I could really use a refresh on this...and cannot find any videos relating to rack disassembly, and if anybody can provide me with a link to one, that would be great!

https://youtu.be/L3FSridFEuY

Check this one out. It may help

https://youtu.be/JM1_UbR11vs

And this one.
Good luck

Is yours leaking? If not, and if it were me, I’d install it and use it until it does leak. It’s relatively easy to R&R at that time. Said with my bias developed from having done mine and not enjoyed it. Easy to nick or scrape one of the surfaces and make a good rack bad (as did I). Others may well be better at this than me though.

My two cents only,
John

I saved the old rack by using white shepherd oil stop leak at max strength, and then flushed the fluid out, and replaced the lines and reservoir/filter, and used synthetic ATF... It was a bit of a gamble, and it turned out most of the leaking was due to the lines and not the rack in my case... The rack seals still seep a little, but I am able to live with it.

Thanks for the links...I'll check them out soon.

John J. - I hear you on this as my rack does not currently leak. It was replaced with a remanufactured ZF unit back in 1999...about 50K miles ago.

Probably OK...but my upcoming spring/summer/fall will be quite busy, and I'll be depending on my 944 as a daily driver - meaning that I really won't have all that much time to do a fix if it springs a leak over this upcoming timeframe.

At any rate...a bit of "protective maintenance" I guess!