Ball Joints and Tie Rods
 

I'm planning to rejuvenate my 28 year old suspension in February, mostly basic stuff from elephant. New bushings, ball joints, shocks, slightly stiffer torsion bars, tie rods were upgraded to turbo style 4 years ago at a shop. Already did the rear bushings last year but arms will come off again to put in new torsion bars.
In preparation, two things. Anyone have a ball joint P210 tool they are tired of looking at and want to sell or rent to me ? I'm happy to use and return, don't need this in my tool box for the next 28 years. I won't use it for disassembly, I can grind, drill, and destroy as required on the work bench.
Also, am I money ahead or will I be able to separate the tie rods from the knuckle easy or should I get the special tool there also ? What do others find useful to not destroy the boot. If I buy it, I'll be selling that also when complete. If someone has both and they were useful, I'd get both. Thanks

I'm intending on starting much the same process in the next few weeks....I'd like to borrow the ball joint tool after you!!!

I've got the following on-hand ready to install:

New Brake discs - front
New Brake pads - front and rear
New Stainless braided brake lines - front and rear
New Ate brake fluid flush
New Turbo tie rods
New Front Wheel Bearings - inside/outside
New Ball Joints and ball joint hardware kit
New Control Arm bushings

I plan to take the car to Performance Automotive in Malvern, PA after I complete the work to get an alignment.
New tires are in my future.

Does anyone have anything to share on this job and possible "gotchas"....I've been reading through this site quite a bit on wheel bearings and front suspension work, but any and all sage advice is welcome.

Thanks,
erik.

Subscribed. Going down the same path now too.

I'd rent my tool, but I feel like that steps on the toes of Pelican's sales.

Replace rubber brake lines if they are original.

When I did mine I also dropped the steering rack, cleaned and re-greased. Also, you'll never have better access to the master cylinder than when the suspension is out.
-C

For what it's worth, when I rebuilt my front suspension I took the control arms and front hubs to a local Porsche independent shop and for essentially one hours labor he installed and torqued the new ball joints and installed and packed the new front wheel bearings.

I also did not want to buy any one-time use tools i.e. the special socket, my torque wrench max was 150 ft/lbs and I certainly did not want to buy another torque wrench. Although it is not that difficult to remove and install the bearing races, there is always the possibility of screwing up a hub when you really don't have the presses, etc. so I thought that was a great deal. YMMV.

Also, as Charles stated above now is the time to clean and grease the steering rack. You might want to look at rebuilding your brake calipers also while you are in there. I ended up sending my "S" calipers to PMB for a total rebuild.

Good comments
 

I'm feeling pretty good now, I've done all that other stuff. Brakes (continuous process as DE's eat that up) lines, tires, MC, etc.. Can do bearings now blindfolded as I seemed a few times to do a poor job getting the races in and tightening properly. Hadn't thought about (and don't intend to be) messing with the rack, my steering seems excellent. How bad to get out? I'm mostly interested in removal of the tie rod ends without damaging the boots since they're relatively new. Then it'll be on the work bench to get the shocks and ball joints off.
Old school was to simply whack them to shock them free.
Happy to sell the P210 and tie-rod tool when I'm done which will hopefully be late February. Both tools from our host.

Torque
 

I won't actually torque that nut on the ball joint either, just tighten the bejesus out of it using some simple math on moment arm and pull pressure. 200 something plus ft-lbs? Thats alot!
Some of my other cars as I remember used a simple 3 nut/bolt arrangement on a small flange to hold em in.

Just die my tie rods upgrade to turbo ones from our host. Tie rod fork from sears was $40. Most difficult part of the job was removing the rod into the rack. Read the posts you do need a large wrench. Looking back, I would take a razor and cut the old boots off first so you could support the rack while removing the rod They are not going to be reused so WTF. The other trick I learned was its a ***** to put the new boots on, especially at the small end of the boot. What I did ,believe it our not, was warm the boot up in hot water and stick a shaving cream can in the small end and allow it to stretch for a couple of days. There is just no way to get that boot over the rack without significant prestreaching. Also used, ahem, some person lubricant on the boot to slide it over the metal rack. Oil did not slide as well, and did not have some other suitible grease lying around. After that, home free.

Had an independent shop do my tie rods back 6 years ago when in for something else and I didn't have a decent space to do it indoors. I remember the tech telling me he disliked doing that job, a PIA. I want to remove the tie rod end gently, still waiting to hear on our hosts "tool".

Taking out and reinstalling the rack is very simple and will make all the tie rod/boot stuff way easier to deal with. Regreasing the rack is pretty straightforward, I went as far as replacing the bearing in it as well as the one on top of the steering shaft in the rubber collar.

I bought the "correct size" $12 NAPA tie rod end tool and let penetrating oil sit over night. One side separated in a second like butter. The other side broke the pot metal NAPA tool so I had to get the torch out and went old school with the big mallet whacking the end of it, hated doing it but it worked. Makes you appreciate the specialty Porsche tie-rod tool

ditto but for BJ torque only - they were happy to torque them to the crazy value for me and let me pick'em up on the way home for reasonable dollars.

Please post updates and take photos of the process if its not too much trouble.
I'd like to tackle suspension work this summer.