steering rack
 

anyone know if the pinion tower on the boxster steering is serviceable? i've been doing some research on converting power racks to manual and one of the keys to success is being able to open the pinion tower and remove play in the torsion bar.

hi. in my journey to see if i can give my boxster manual steering, i've found some good resources on how to convert the power steering rack to manual.

where i am stuck now is how to route the serpentine belt with both the power steering and a/c removed. there is a company that makes a bracket for the dfi 09+ cars that puts an idler pulley in place of the a/c, so all i need to do is confirm if the 09+ part number for the a/c compressor matches the one for the earlier cars.

anyone with a source to dfi part numbers?

me again. a quick check of ebay shows that the jobber vendors are touting the dfi part as the same as the 986 part, so this idler pulley bracket should work:

Welcome to BGB Motorsports

which means i can run without a/c or ps pumps. $250 for the bracket + $100 for a used boxster power steering rack to convert to manual (+ install cost). save a few pounds, gain a few more hp, more road feel, get arms as big as tree trunks ...

hah. found this; note the thin sliver of metal you would be relying on if you were to depower a power rack (assuming a 944 rack is similar to a 986 rack):

http://mwthemachineshop.com/wp-conte...2/Picture3.jpg

Wow ...yeah needs to twist to sense load and apply hydraulic pressure.....but really I can't imagine I am steering with that cross section in torsion:eek:

No electric PS for you?

got all the electric ps parts but not installed yet. since I started tracking the car seriously it's taken all my time and money just to keep it in shoes, brakes and fluids.

Yeah....for sure working on securing a work contract and then track car....

ok, let the grand experiment begin. was feeling some bump steer with my new suspension setup so have some tie rods from Pelican on the way to sort it out. took the opportunity to find an inexpensive boxster steering rack on ebay and had it shipped direct to the fellow below:

944 Manual Rack | THE MACHINE SHOP

the conversion to manual is under way (ps fluid lines plugged, grease nipples added, torque rod shimmed) and i'll have the whole bit installed this spring. as I am not running AC, I have a ps delete pulley on order from gsr:

GSR Power Steering Pump Delete - Porsche 911, Boxster

should clean up the engine bay nicely (also have the sai deleted) and reduce parasitic load (hp will now come from my arms). uncertain what the driving experience will be like, but feedback I've gathered from the few who are running manual racks is that it is no biggie (while I do have wider front tires than stock, my car is also lighter).

will report back once it's in and I've had the car to the track.

Which tie rods did you get? I hope they are adjustable so that you can dial out the bump....I would imagine the outboard pivot will need offset spacers to do this.

Lets know how it all goes....never been that happy with steering feel on a Box. The best steering I have experienced was on a late eighties Nissan 240SX. Oddly enough it seems that they are now very sought after drift car

King, my power steering recently failed and I had "manual" steering for a couple of weeks including a day at the racetrack. This provided tons more feedback(!) but my entire upper body got quite a workout.

what i've read, however, is that failed ps is different than a manual rack. with failed ps you have to exert additional effort as the hydraulic system is still in place; you have to force the fluid the length of the car and through an inoperable pump.

in all honesty, however, arms like paula abdul's legs (ie, as big as tree trunks) would be cool.

I can't give any experience on PS vs manual on a Porsche, but I can on Chevy S10's.
You could get manual steering or power steering on an S10 from the factory. The main drawback of the manual was in very tight turns at a slow speed. I wouldn't say it was an arm workout, but it sure took more time to turn the wheels. Another drawback of manual was if the front wheels hit a rut or something. I believe the hydraulic fluid would cushion the blow a little before it reached the steering wheel.
Please do continue to let us know how everything turns out. I've daydreamed about what you're doing. I would love to completely strip a boxster down of the all
non-essentials. Delete the AC, PS and switch to an electric water pump.

I've had that in the back of my mind. a few years ago at my local track there was a guy in a lotus 7 that went into the rhubarb pretty hard when one of his front wheels offed and his steering bit him viciously.

rack is done. got an ebay vendor to drop-ship to martin and he's done the work and shipping it off to me asap. for anyone who is interested and has a 99, the ebay vendor originally sent the wrong part, so he has a converted 99 rack available too.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1426088258.jpg

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1426088276.jpg

manual steering
 

Quick question, if you convert to manual or depowered ps rack can you leave the ps pump in place or will it eventually burn and lock? I'm assuming not pumping thru valves, hoses and rack it will not offer much resistance but would you would just let it fluidless? basically the quetion is if the power steering pump bearing is lubricated by the pentosin or is it just a normal dry bearing as in an alternator?

944 racks are well know to leak. Some replace it with a manual.

anyone has some input on this?

depends. if you are keeping your ac then you just delete the pump altogether and run a shorter belt. if your ac is gone then you need some sort of dummy pulley there. GSR make one that mount in place of the ps pump. porsche make one that mounts in place of the ac pump (for the cayman r when it came out, but the ac pumps are the same throughout model years so should fit); both are about the same cost. GSR, before they made the dummy pulley, were just using a gutted ps pump and apparently no issues, so i assume a dry bearing.

Yes im keeping the ac, that makes it easier

99 de-powered rack...
 

will it fit my 98?

thx, matt

Have you tried Rack Doctor ?
 

PORSCHE BOXTER - RACK DOCTOR - Quality Rack and Pinion Remanufacturing

lots of satisfied BMW guys use this place

well, spent the weekend with my boxster with manual steering. results the same as reported by bayley here ...

http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-racing-forum/65308-anyone-running-manual-steering.html

the power rack was professionally converted to manual by the machine shop and, since i have no ac, i used the gsr dummy pulley. the pros - more hp. no dyno info butt or otherwise, but i was hitting the end of the main straight at our track consistently about 5 kmph faster than before. another pro is that it cleans up the engine bay nicely; with the ps, ac, and sai removed it's not so busy in there any more (just gotta get the bigger oil cooler in, delete the charcoal cannister and the associated purge piping, and perhaps replace the aos lines with something less plastic, and i am done in there). and, of course, about 20 lbs of less stuff to slow me down (or piss fluid all over my engine).

the cons? steering is tough. we run a technical track here and it is a lot more work maintaining a line. over the course of the day i adapted, but do think it slowed me down a bit (although by the end i was running as fast as before the change). i had to change my hand position to 10 and 2 to get more leverage on the steering wheel. sure can feel the track though. for street no problem once you get used to it, even in parking lots. will i keep it manual? yes, but only because my current car will see mostly street use once i get my race car built. and the race car will get the electric steering system.

another thing to report - i'd been on the rennline adjustable transmission mounts (blue - sport) all last year and did experience an increase in vibration, but that may have also been attributable to the full chinese catless exhaust, or the fact that i'd removed all the insulation around the engine at the same time. the slight increase in vibration was more than offset by the improvement in shifting. well, this spring i installed the function first 'sport' yellow engine mount insert into my still in good shape 987 motor mount and did not experience an increase in vibration. mind you, things did not seem to get any stiffer with the addition of the insert, so uncertain if it is a worthwhile add-on or not.

another track day down and the manual steering is really growing on me. didn't really notice it, actually. slightly modified my driving style (outside hand moves to twelve o'clock for more leverage in turns). feel of what the front wheels are doing is quite amazing - those things are busy, jumping, sliding around, etc. - great additional data points to have re limits of front traction (although i think i have no turn-in issues at this point, 245 tires, -2.5 camber, 15 mm wider track each side). also really noticing the extra power from not driving the pump - noticeably faster at the ends of straights than previous. unrelated, engine seems to like motul x-cess 8100 5w40. pretty much all motul fluids in my car at this point.

another (long delayed) update. changed the front toe to zero (from the factory 1/16" in) and steering effort reduced considerably. apparently the 1/16" toe is intended to make the steering less darty - but on a manual steering car darty is good - less effort to turn.

Manual rack conversion
 

Do you know what the machine shop did to permanently lock the pinion in place and get rid of the slop needed for PS to work?

I've done manual conversions on racks before and the pinion was welded. I saw a mention of shimming the pinion to lock them together but wasn't sure if that was accurate.

I have my 986 rack apart and am going to convert it (weld pinion, get rid of middle seal, plug all pipes, grease, reassemble) but wanted to see if there is something I'm missing.