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Are there no locking tabs on the inner tie rods?
Posted: Mon May 04, 2026 12:30 pm
by jeyjey
With other cars I'm used to there being a soft washer that is hammered over one of the flats on the inner tie rod. Doesn't appear to be such a device in PET.
Am I missing something, or is there some other locking mechanism? (Or are you supposed to use a thread-locker?)
Re: Are there no locking tabs on the inner tie rods?
Posted: Mon May 04, 2026 12:49 pm
by jeyjey
Ah ha! Found this little gem in Clark's Garage:
At each end of the rack, there is a small locking notch (about 8mm) which should have the flange of the inner ball joint peened into it. Use the cold chisel to carefully remove the peened portion of the flange.
Re: Are there no locking tabs on the inner tie rods?
Posted: Tue May 05, 2026 12:03 am
by Oringojin
You had me scared, there! I rebuilt my rack last fall and didn't see anything like a collar to hammer down, but I realized we're not talking about the same rack! There is nothing but a lock nut on the manual rack. There absolutely IS a hammer-down locking collar on the power steering rack!

- porsche 944 hactory manual tie-rod.png (118.91 KiB) Viewed 144 times
Re: Are there no locking tabs on the inner tie rods?
Posted: Tue May 05, 2026 5:36 am
by jeyjey
I'm getting too old for this. Your picture looked somewhat familiar, so I had a rummage down in the basement, and lo and behold, I have a 4-binder set of factory manuals. :facepalm:
A close-up of the final picture:

- tie_rod.jpg (107.96 KiB) Viewed 140 times
Note that the housing of the ball-joint is bent into the shaft groove, rather than a washer fixed to the shaft being bent over the ball-joint hex.