Another 911 suspension refresh

[GH85Carrera]

The biggest reason I am writing all of this is for future searches. I am mainly covering the problems I encountered. Others have covered the how to, this is to cover the WTFs. This to show yet another non mechanic rebuilding the suspension on a 911 Carrera. I have always worked on my personal cars, but never attempted something as complex as a suspension refurbish. My project is chock full of "while you are in there" extras. All new rubber bushings, turbo tie rods, Bilstien HD shocks. I will re-grease the steering rack, replace the fuel pump and a few other things. I started removing parts Wednesday afternoon since our office closed early for Thanksgiving.

Getting the car jacked up and the wheels removed was the easy part. I started on the brake line to the caliper. The lines came apart with a snap and my fingernail was bleeding. Not a smooth start.



I have done a lot of reading on Pelican about suspension work. I have read about the problems about removing some of the parts. I thought I was ready for all the problems. My first big challenge was the castle nut that holds on the ball joint at the bottom of the strut. I whipped out my air hammer and gave it a few blasts. Off they came, no big deal.



Alright now I am feeling cocky and ready for the tie rod ends. I had a ball joint tool just like the picture in the manual. That did not work. Next I tried my pickle fork and the air hammer. No luck. Next up was the cut off tool to just cut the ball joint off at the lock nut. I was able to remove the struts after that. That ended the day for Wednesday. Thursday is Thanksgiving so no garage time. I was happy for the day off my leg muscles were sore.

I spent most of the day just getting the suspension parts off of my car, but it is all off. I will post more as I go and discuss the problems and the solutions to the problems as I go.

[skystak]

wow, I'm doing the same, except now that I now have the A-Arms out and I have no idea how to tell if ball joints are good. I found some cool tools to make life easy. Sears has 5 buck grease seal puller and an 8 inch gear puller for 29 bucks, really handy. HF makes a race installer for 29 bucks that fits perfect for both inner and outer bearings. Forgot to retract the brake pads as well and still pulled them, now I have to figure how get them back on. Bought Chucks ER rubber bushings, HD'd and turbo tie rods (just about twisted out the whole car as they were totally seized as well) My total mechanical experience is signing checks.....and putting air in the tires

[Chuck Moreland]

Ball joints are usually good for about 100k miles or so.

As these things go, ball joints aren't that expensive. Best to err on the side of caution and replace them if you are unsure.

[GH85Carrera]

It only took all day Friday but all the suspension parts are off. The beer in the photo is what I use to celebrate the milestone moments in the process it is Grimbergen. All parts off equals one good beer as a reward. I slip in a few cheap beers to keep me motivated during the process.



Getting the steering rack off was a several hour process. To get to the bottom Allen bolt of the collar that holds the shaft in place inside the smugglers box was a several hour process. I had to go to the tool store to get a 1/4 inch extension, and a 1/4 inch drive 5 mm Allen socket. It popped loose with a POW and there was some corrosion on the threads. The top bolt came out easy with no corrosion. Getting the shaft to come loose from the universal joint was accomplished only after I pried open the clamp just a little.

Tomorrow I will get out the torch to get the torsion bars out of the A-arms. I was relieved to see the ends of my torsion bars. As you can see from the photo my rubber bushings are very off center. My rebuild was 100% justified. It looks like I may need some new torsion bars. I will know more tomorrow after I get the bars out of the a-arms. I plan to get most of the parts powder-coated next week.



I did not get to work on my project today. I had to be social and go with my wife to some friends house to watch Oklahoma whip up on Oklahoma State. Good pizza and friends watching a great football game. And it gave my sore muscles time to heal up.

Chuck, I bought some of the parts from you this spring. It took me this long to psyche myself up to attack my suspension. The rest of the parts came from Pelican Parts.

[GH85Carrera]

After I got everything apart it is very obvious that my old torsion bars are toast. Lots of rubbing and rust. New bars are on order from Pelican. Wayne scores yet again.



This is the pile of parts I took to the powder coater today. 14 total pieces. The sway bar, the crash bar for the front condenser, both a-arms, all four a-arm mounts, the skid plate, the front a-arm cover-skid plates, the cross-member and the dust brake shields.



I will address the problems I encountered in the next post.

[flmont]

How did you pull the T-bars ....Thanks Frank

[chocolatelab]

GH85

I am following you down the path.

I had to put 3 and 4 slices with the dremel into the ball joints and get them super hot before I could bang them off.

I will copntinue to follow your post. Its nice to know there are some other folks heading down the same road as myself.

FLMont

Once the a arms are off the torsion bars are easy to pop out. You can push them back to front. Just tap lightly and they will come out the front as they do this they will pop of the little cover plate up there.

If my a-arms werent of I would not have been able to pull them. There was to much grit or something and pulling front to back was working.

skystak

you and i have matching projects. hd's, turbo tie rods, elephant rubber front and back.

[skystak]

Yep, I got a quote on powdercoat of 85 bucks just for A-arms. I may just paint them and the torsion bars with rust prevention paint. I bought Chucks bushings and I'm still waiting on them. I picked up the ball joint tool at Pep Boys Great Neck bearing 66x80 metric socket to remove the nut with my impact wrench, came right off. Now waiting on parts.......I had major problems getting my tie rods out and needed three guys and lots of fire to get the A-Arm ends off...but like having a baby...the pain is over when its out (at least that's what my wife claims).....I also bought new wheel bearings and ball joints to be safe. I still need to borrow a brake power bleeder.......

[OldTee]

Try one of these from our host.

Pelican Parts - Automotive Parts and Accessories - Porsche & BMW

[GH85Carrera]

The power-coat guy quoted $150.00 for everything in the pile, all 14 pieces. I delivered them without cleaning them at all. So he is going to clean them and coat them for $150.00.

To get the ball joint nut loose on the bottom of the strut was easy. An air hammer is a wonderful tool. I had the nuts off in seconds. Really just seconds. It took longer to get the air hammer set-up than to remove the nuts. Check out the first part of this thread. The picture shows what I did. I lived a long time before I bought an air compressor and some air tools. That air compressor and related tools are some of the most useful tools I have. It has saved me tons of time and made some difficult jobs easy.

To get the torsion bars out of the tubes is pretty easy. I just put on some gloves and started pulling and wiggling. No major force, they just slide out.

I removed my steering rack so I can put it in my vice to get the old tie rods off. I have not tackled that as yet. I will dissemble the rack enough to get some new grease in there.

I still need to rebuild the calipers as well. Both of those are going to be weekend projects.

[chocolatelab]

air compressor is next on my list, i have a bunch of air tools from my wifes father.

what size compressor do you recommend?

[skystak]

I bought a 10 gallon at home depot for 75 bucks. They are now carrying an off brand cheap. It gets me easily to 250 lbs needed for stupid bolt joint nuts and such.

[skystak]

ok i looked its a Brute 10 gallon 125 PSI made by Briggs and Stratton. About 2 feet high and rolls on wheels. Like I said, home depot, on sale a few weeks ago.....

[500_19B]

We live in parallel universes... I am right in the middle of a vitrually identical project: New ER rubber everywhere, turbo tie rods, Bilstein HD's, rebuilt calipers etc.

I am also having everything powder coated or re-plated. $150 for that pile of parts is a great deal, especially since there including the cleaning and prep.

The local coater I use is more expensive, especially if I leave the clean up to them. I am slowly stripping and bead blasting the parts.

This project began as a suspension pan replacement and has generally morphed into all sorts of craziness - such as painting the wheel wells.



At the slow rate I work, you guys will all be done well before me.

I found that the old tie rods screwed out of the rack easily on the bench. I just folded the rod back to 90 degrees relative to the rack and turned it off.

[RWebb]

skystat - powdercoating is a LOT more durable than paint - I'd p/c anything under the car

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by chocolatelab

air compressor is next on my list, i have a bunch of air tools from my wifes father.

what size compressor do you recommend?

Do some research on compressors. It all depends on what you want to run with them. Volume is as important as pressure and tank size. An impact wrench will suck some air. A cut off wheel will really suck air. The space you have available for it may determine what you can get.

One reason I went with powder-coating is I am lazy enough to not want to spend the time with cleaning parts and rattle can paint. Winter is coming in and I sure as heck will not spray paint inside my garage with my cars in there.

Ditto!

skystat - powdercoating is a LOT more durable than paint - I'd p/c anything under the car

[euro911sc]

You may not want to powdercoat the dust shields. Regular Powdercoat does not handle extreme heat well and the Dust shields are right next to the calipers. My coater recommended not coating things that see high heat and instead plating them. I did not put the dust shields back on anyway... *shrug*

-Michael

[dshepp806]

definately keep the heat factors in mind....

nice work...

Best,

Doyle

[Rick B]

Working on a very similar project, changing 1970 911 E front suspension to 'S' specs. What is the socket that works on the ball joint castle nut? Have the impact wrench and air, just cannot find the right socket for the nut. I found one at NAPA that is used on 4x4 front ends, but it is too big.