944 Inner and Outer Tie Rods

[jcporsche944]

After an extensive hunt...and severe price shock......I found that early 944 front Manual tie rod inners and outers can be DIRECTLY replaced with 1992 VW Jetta tie rods. After ordering the OEM from Carquest, I found this forum, and read the info I just mentioned. I replaced the outer tie rods with OEM from Ebay for 30 bucks, and the inners for 25 per from Autozone, with a Lifetime Warranty from Auto Zone. You can believe it or not, but they matched exactly. My mechanics were surprised, but had to admit it.I hope anyone who has the same problem reads this...checks it out for themselves....and saves a whole lot of money. The Carquest ones were $180.00 apiece. Check it out for yourselves, and save a lot of stress. Don't get me wrong....the Carquest guys were very helpful and nice...but had to admit it too.

[smkn951]

excellent tip. thanks

[JRMock]

Hmmm...outer tie rods for early, non power steering, from our forum host, (Pelican Parts) $29.95 each. Ordered last week, just received yesterday (Lemfoerder , made in Geremany)

Wonder what Carquest was looking at?

JM

[nightheart]

Originally Posted by JRMock

Hmmm...outer tie rods for early, non power steering, from our forum host, (Pelican Parts) $29.95 each. Ordered last week, just received yesterday (Lemfoerder , made in Geremany)

Wonder what Carquest was looking at?

JM

Thats for the ends. The entire assembly is over 200 and NLA most places, including our host and dealerships. I spent hours cross referencing part numbers to see what replacement would work. A 92 jetta MANUAL steering inner does fit my 83 manual steering. The inner only, as the outers are not the same. The inner assembly is simply not made any more. In my case, I have the the first 83 assembly, where the it takes a tie rod end with a female connection, whereas the 83.5 and up manual steering take a end with a male end. The original ends are same as the power steering ends on 84+ cars.


see here for my thread on the same topic.

83 manual tie rod


My 2 cents....

[16vCorey]

I've heard about that swap before, so I tried it with a power steering rack. Unfortunately the VW inner tie rods are about 2" shorter that the 944 inner tie rods, but otherwise identical. Good to know that it works with the manual rack though!