944 A-arm rebuild?

luckyu003 · 09-29-2009, 02:31 PM

If I buy a ball joint kit who can install them? A porsche mechanic?Machine shop?please let me know your opinion.

Grandad#3 · 09-29-2009, 03:00 PM

Hi Luck, I will give you a link below that will lead you thru each step with pictures in removing and installing the ball joints. Anyone can do the job if you have some tools. Why pay someone else if you can do the job yourself? Look under Control Arms and the rest of his articals.

Home - Porsche 951 - texasblake.com

Cheers,
Larry

Rasta Monsta · Rasta Monsta's Garage

One thing missing from that write up. . .the alu arms are not certain to be rebuildable. The sockets need to be inspected for roundness, and if they are out of round, I think they are junk.

Icey1174 · 09-30-2009, 03:58 AM

What year is your car? You can rebuild the Al control arms. I bought the brass bushing set from Rennbay and rebuilt mine. Our host does not sell the kit.

Here is the instructions from Rennbay. I followed them exactly and I have had no problems over the past 2 1/2 years.

Rennbay - Porsche 944 ball joints, power steering, brakes, odometer gears & accessories

Here are the directions to remove the control arm from Clark's. Ignore the part of the write up that says the Al arm cannot be rebuilt. This needs to be updated as Rennbay has the kit now to rebuild them.

Control Arm Replacement

ideola · ideola's Garage

Not all alu arms are rebuildable. Before you spend any money, make sure you have rebuildable arms. I learned this lesson earlier this year and posted about it over on 924board.org:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ideola

The late offset alu A-arms are not all rebuildable :evil: :evil: :evil:

The pair I got were removed by a reputable source from the same 1987 944S, but the RHS arm is a non-rebuildable version. The rebuildable arm (LHS) is part number 951.341.149.10; the non-rebuildable arm (RHS) is part number 944.341.150.02. Oddly neither of these part numbers show up in the parts catalog or on Pelican's search engine.

I'm not sure if the 944 vs. 951 part number is an indicator, but the dead giveaway as far as I can tell is that the cup that the ball joint sits in has a different casting between the two versions. In the following closeup, you can see the rebuildable arm on the left, and the non-rebuildable one on the right. You can also see in the profile shot how the one on the right has a different casting. Note also the removable circlip on the LHS arm. I believe one of the other ways to tell them apart is by the type of moisture barrier used (which I've already removed on both arms), but I'm not positive that this is conclusive. The rebuildable one had a dark amber type material that I had to heat up to remove. The non-rebuildable one had a light grey rubbery material that was easy to scrape away with a razor knife.