GerritD

Hi guys,

when removing my brakebooster and cleaning some parts in the engine bay, I noticed a crack in the upper knuckle of my steering column :


Apparently there was an issue in the early 80's with the steering column and several cars were called back to Porsche for this important failure.

My question, can I replace this knuckle by a later type (from 1984 onwards) which should have been improved ?
Or can someone tell me where I can get better knuckles for my 928S of 1980 ?

thanks
Gerrit

Rob Edwards

Yikes- good catch on your part!

PET (and 928intl) say the U-joint is the same part # 78 to 95. The only hassle is that you'll have to drop the rack to R&R the U-joint.

hacker-pschorr

Wow!!! I need to go inspect mine.

At least it wasn't this bad:

https://rennlist.com/forums/off-topi...ic-photos.html

GerritD

SO THIS MEANS I CAN USE ONE OF A 928 S4 ? BECAUSE ON THE LATER CARS THIS IS BEEN IMPROVED ...
THE STEERING KNUCKLE CAN BE DETACHED INTO 2 PARTS, SO THIS SHOULD BE RATHER EASY..

Tom in Austin

Wow, no idea these joints could fail that way! I'm gonna clean the crud off mine and make sure it's ok.

GerritD, are you possibly thinking of the flex coupling in the center of the steering shaft that allows it to be separated into upper and lower sections? On my car, I found the bolts on that coupling impossible to turn, guessing they had some super-Locktite or something because they weren't that large. Of course it wasn't easy to get a wrench on them, so maybe I just wasn't getting enough force on there to break them loose.

GerritD

Tom,
that's what I mean, the upper part of the flex coupling contains this faulty joint. Normally the flex coupling can be detached by bolts...ofcourse after 30 years they may be hard to loosen but some WD40 rusteater-spray can do wonders to unloosen the bolts which are often corroded and rusted.

kr
Gerrit

Rob Edwards

I think we're tripping up on nomenclature - Gerrit has a crack in the upper half of what he's calling the steering knuckle, I'd call it a universal joint. And then he says the steering knuckle can be separated into two halves. (That might be true but I'm not sure they're meant to be separated...) Tom's asking about the flex coupling, which is the rubber damping disc in the middle of the steering shaft:



Regardless, even with the engine out of the car, you cannot unbolt and separate either the rubber flex coupling OR the universal joint at the bottom of the steering shaft, if the steering rack is bolted in place. It must be dropped to give enough space to get the U-joint off. Even if you could split the U joint in situ, there's not enough room to get the halves off their shafts and apart.

Imo000

That's not true. I've removed the nuckle at leat twice without touching the rack and once replaced the rubber coupler without unbolting the rack.

Rob Edwards

Really? LOL, even with the luxury of sitting my butt in the engine compartment on the crossmember, I struggled with it for a while on Dan's car and finally gave up and dropped the rack. Good to know it can be done!

Lizard928

You can undo both pinch bolts and slide the universal up then pull it out without dropping the rack.

However the upper unit requires the steering shaft to be fully removed. I have a couple spares kicking around if you need one.

GerritD

Hi guys, sorry for the late reply. I had been busy detaching the universal joint. Still work in progress since 1 out of 4 bolts won't budge, and I need to be carefull not to damage the bolt.
I purchased the same complete steering nuckle of a 928 of also 1980 so this should fit perfectly.

I'll keep you posted.

GerritD

Update 1 :

last bolt, holding 2 parts of the intermediate steering shaft together, has been losened...but I still can detach both parts by sliding them aside????. As if there an axle inside preventing this.
So neither can I remove the rubber coupler in between ????!!

I then tried to detached the steering wheel, remove the circlip, and tried to remove the inner part of the steering tube, but it won't budge enough.

DO I NEED TO REMOVE THE COMPLETE STEERING TUBE (SO ALSO BY REMOVING INSTRUMENT COWL ) ???

AND CAN THE STEERING RACK REMAIN BECAUSE THIS IS QUITE SOME WORK ?

Ducman82

you should be able to lower the rack, no need to take it all the way out.

GerritD

I finally managed to take it out without removing/lowering the rack :

1. remove instrument cowl
2. losen the 3 bolt of the steering tube
3. remove spring attaching steering tube to chassis

now you can take the whole steering tube out. See my pictures :

Bill Ball

What you did, removing the pod and steering shaft, is the WSM procedure for getting the intermediate shaft out. Also, Rob is right about having to drop the rack in some model years, at least to do the lower u-joint - the u-joints in some are longer. This is even mentioned in the WSM. Also, "steering knuckle" refers to a part attached to the wheel hub.

I don't believe the upper u-joint is replaceable separately. It is not sold separately, at least new. Regardless, it appears the intermediate shaft and u-joint is NLA. You should be able to get a good used part from 928 International.