Installing new spindles (novice questions)

[pontifex4]

Okay, I'm about to upgrade my brakes to Turbo (non-M030) brakes, and have followed the parts list TechnoDuck gave me to a T.

This is a bit of a leap of faith for me, as I have never done anything this involved to a car, myself. My questions are as follows:

1.) How many tools and how much force are likely to be required to get the front calipers-rotors-hubs and, especially the spindles off?

2.) Will I need an alignment after I've put the new ones on?

3.) Aside from the shop manual (which I have) can anyone point me to a resource specific to this job online?

Thanks, once again, for all your help,

Charlie.

[Techno Duck]

1) Nothing crazy in terms of tools needed. Assorted 17mm and 19mm wrenches and sockets will be needed and a breaker bar to get the caliper bolts off. Chisel and hammer to remove dust caps on hubs, allen key to remove the locking collar and a few paper towels for when you pull the hub off.

The camber eccentric bolt and locking bolt on the spindle can be tight also, probably will need a breaker bar on that also.. the locking nut is a 19mm if i remember right and the bolt head is a 17mm.

For the ball joint pinch, i think its a 17mm bolt and nut.

The tie rod end can be a bear to remove. You have two options, a pickle fork and a tie rod end remover. The pickle fork 99% of the time will damage the boot on the tie rod end. I recommend picking up one of these tie rod end removers, available from PT Tools which is carried by PepBoys and Autozone here in the US, im not sure what you have available in Canada. People have sucess giving the spindle a solid shot with a sledge hammer to get the tie rod end off.. i have never had luck using this method and do not like sledge hammers and suspension parts.



2) You can scribe marks on the camber eccentric and strut housing and when you reinstall everything, line the marks up. This gets you pretty close (i have replaced suspension components before and scribed them on a my friends car, when taken in for alignment i was about .1 degrees off). However its still not a bad idea to get an alignment done especially if you dont know the last time it was done.

Typical 4-wheel alighment runs me $125 at the local-ish Porsche place. Make sure you goto a place that is familiar with the 944 or old 911's and VW Bugs. The front suspension is easy to align, but the rear can be confusing if they are not familiar with it.

3) Clarks-Garage might have something, but off the top of my head, this is the process.

1) Remove calipers. Disconnect hardline from back of caliper and remove the 2x 19mm (maybe 17mm...i forgot) on the back of the caliper. Use flat head screw driver to pry caliper up off the rotor..it will probably be a little tight due to the brake pads.

2) Remove brake rotor. There are two screws in the rotor hat. Sometimes these get seized on.. so an impact driver works wonders here. If they are stripped or you dont have an impact driver (only about $15 at local auto store), just drill the heads off.

3) Remove hub. Use chisel on edge of dust cap and work around with a hammer to remove the cap. Use allen key and loosen the pinch bolt for the locking collar. Spin collar off and pull the entire hub off and place it on a clear paper towel. Not a bad time to repack the wheel bearings with grease.

4) Disconnect spindle from strut. Two bolts, the top bolt is a camber eccentric and the bottom is a support bolt. The camber eccentric uses a 17mm bolt head and a 19mm nut. Now before removing these, you can scribe the marks of the bolt and strut housing to try and preserve the alignment. Not necessary if you plan to get them realigned within a reasonable amount of time though. Its up to you. The bottom support bolt is the same, 17mm head and 19mm nut. Once these are removed, the spindle can be removed from the strut.

5) Disconnect spindle from ball joint. I am pretty sure the pinch bolt is a 17mm, remove that bolt completley. Now sometimes the balljoint will slip right out of the pinch, other times you will need to use a small chisel and wedge the pinch open.

The spindle is now completley free from the car.

The rears are very easy to do, basically a direct swap. Remove caliper and rotor, put new rotors on and new calipers. Make sure you use the 1/2 inch washer as a spacer in the back. The washer does in between the caliper and the hub.

[pontifex4]

Techno, thanks again for this. I'll need a ball joint puller, by the look of it!

Charlie

[Smoker324]

You may not need the puller -- remove the nut and give the knuckle a rap with a ball peen hammer -- it may just pop right out.