996TT Spoiler ram rebuild

[Hans Gruber]

Hi,

With a wonky wing and nothing to lose I stripped down the pump and the faulty ram to find a broken spring.

Having now had a new spring custom made (well 2 actually as I had to strip down the other ram to provide a complete spring) I have the problem of trying to get these things into the rams.

I don't know if anyone has any experience of stripping the rams down and there seems to be very little online but I can assure you that these springs are pretty powerful. at about 35cm long I have to compact them into a 10cm tube without taking my head off.

I have rebuilt the rest of the rams with new wiper seals and copper washers and will try and get around to posting a 'how to' if I'm successful

It'll be that or a post moaning about how much new rams cost!

Thanks in advance

 

[photek]

Good luck! Hopefully, you survive and can document the procedure for fellow "wonky winged" TT owners

I gave in and just bought a fixed wing...although I still haven't got it repainted and fitted yet...

 

[Hans Gruber]

Cheers Photek.

Well so far it has cost me £35 for a couple of springs (big plug to MPS Springs and his amazing shed workshop, top bloke) and a couple of quid for washers.

I haven't actually done the wiper seals yet but that shouldn't be too hard as they are a std metric size - once I find a way of extracting them

If it works out as a cheap fix you could sell the fixed one!

 

[youngsyr]

I'm suffering from a wonky spoiler too and stumbled upon this video which looks like a good guide to stripping down the parts...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ_...ug_d_jO&index=58&t=28s&ab_channel=NeunTwelven

[Don't use taped up grips like he does to get the wing off, use the appropriate hook and pin wrench tool, it's easier and less risky to your paintwork. The outer sleeve that he grips will freely rotate. Rotate it until the hole in the side of it lines up with the hole on the side of the inner ram. Then insert hook and pin wrench and rotate both the outer sleeve and inner ram together]

I'm umming and arghing on whether to just extend the spoiler and keep it in the upright position and then disconnect the harness and code the ECU to tell it it has a fixed spoiler fitted (gets rid of spoiler control warning light that will pop up after disconnecting the harness).

Proper job is clearly to fix the issue, but it's fiddly, time consuming and far from guaranteed to actually work.

EDIT: Just been looking into recoding via Durametric - seems you can't do this on a 996T, only a 997T. You need PIWIS etc for the 996T!! :frustrated:

Apparently you can purchase a new harness for fixed wing cars (not easy to tell which part number) or jump a couple of the wires in the harness to give the same effect. :frustrated:

Harness hack:

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-turbo-forum/627064-spoiler-failure-warning-light-fix.html

Summed up in pic below:

 

[Hans Gruber]

I did watch that video in my search for info but the guy never addresses any issues with the ram itself and only rebuilds the pump.

Fortunately the internals of my pump were fine it was the ram, spring that had disintegrated when the wiper seals on the ram began to age and allow water through

 

[youngsyr]

I did watch that video in my search for info but the guy never addresses any issues with the ram itself and only rebuilds the pump.

Fortunately the internals of my pump were fine it was the ram, spring that had disintegrated when the wiper seals on the ram began to age and allow water through

Would be great if you could post up a how to on the ram strip down and rebuild?! :thumb:

 

[rgracin]

Another waiting with bated breath here!

This job is on my list once I've put the engine back in.

 

[Hans Gruber]

The end is nigh...

New copper banjo washers/CHF11S and Lucas stop leak on its way to me so hopefully on Monday I can start getting it back together.

i will post pics etc of my endeavours once everything is back and working (fingers crossed)

Sum total of repair thus far:

2 x Bespoke springs £40
Lucas Stop leak £12.99
CHF11S (Pentosin) £14.99
O-rings/Circlips/wiper seals £7
Wiper seal fitting x 2 £20

 

[youngsyr]

The end is nigh...

New copper banjo washers/CHF11S and Lucas stop leak on its way to me so hopefully on Monday I can start getting it back together.

i will post pics etc of my endeavours once everything is back and working (fingers crossed)

Sum total of repair thus far:

2 x Bespoke springs £40
Lucas Stop leak £12.99
CHF11S (Pentosin) £14.99
O-rings/Circlips/wiper seals £7
Wiper seal fitting x 2 £20

Excellent. Good luck!

I'm looking forward to your update.

Would you consider offering a ram rebuild service if you were paid for your time? I've definitely got one that needs rebuilding - probably a spring issue. It raises fine, but only lowers on one side.

 

[Hans Gruber]

The fact that this saga has taken me about 6 weeks from starting to (nearly) finishing is testament to the sheer lack of time I have to spare.

I would love to spend my time doing this kind of thing but I only get a total of 40 hours a week at home if I'm lucky!

Happy to find the time to write up a project plan to help others to save some cash

 

[youngsyr]

Just wondering if you found the time to put everything back together and had time to post a write up? :thumb: