944 Power to Manual Steering Rack Swap
944s are notorious for leaky power steering systems. At least 8 out of 10 of these cars
that I have been underneath usually have had power steering fluid covering the lower
front of the engine bay and the various suspension bushings. The sway bar bushings on
the passenger side usually die a horrible death due to the effects of said leaks. Leaks
may come from the pump, reservoir, lines, or even the power rack itself.
Unfortunately, my power steering rack was completely trouble free, with nary a drop of
fluid leaving the system. What’s the problem then, you say? Frankly, I have always felt
that the 944 power steering is over-assisted. I also feel that it does not offer proper
“road feel”, and feedback to what is going on. To further compound my personal issues,
weight reduction procedures on my car in recent years have made the power steering
seem like even more overkill. My decision to switch to manual steering was finally
concreted by driving some early 911 cars and experiencing the marvelous steering
feedback that they have.
Not all 944 cars came with power steering from the factory. The 1982 (European
models) and 1983 cars came standard with manual steering racks. Power racks were
added in the 1984 model year. Some sources state that this occurred due to Porsche’s
attempt to alleviate owner complaints of wheel vibrations experienced at the 60-70mph
mark. The addition of the power rack insulated the driver from a lot of road feel, and
thus most of the vibration issue. The vibration complaints lessened somewhat after this
component change. It is now common knowledge that the vibration issue can come
from one or a combination of many things: tires, tie rods, wheel bearings, ball joints, etc.
Besides early production cars, certain race-specific 944’s came with manual steering. In
particular, cars made for the Rothmans 944 race series (8V non-turbo N/A’s) in 1986
had manual racks. 944 turbo cars made for the various Turbo Cup race series’ in
Canada, France, and Germany from 1986 through 1989 had manual racks as well.
OK, enough with the history lesson and onto the meat of this article. To convert the 944
to proper manual steering takes somewhat more than simply disconnecting the pump
and fluid lines. This method works, but the ratio on the un-assisted power rack is wrong
and extremely “heavy”. To do it properly, you will need the following:
1 manual steering rack, part# 944.347.011.00
2 manual rack inner tie rod ends, part# 944.347.033.01
2 manual rack outer tie rod ends, part# 944.347.333.01
Drivers side and passenger side rack boots, part#’s 171.419.831.c and 171.419.832.c
respectively
1 manual steering rack intermediate shaft, part# 944.347.027.01
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