A shocking tale

[Danglerb]

Ball joints on my 85 Euro seem fine, but the boots were toast, so a couple weeks ago I set out to replace the boots.

Porsche doesn't sell boots, but the boot for an Audi A6 (98 - 2002) seems to fit the upper ball joint just fine and Roger and 928Intl both sell them. I haven't found a source for the lower ball joint boot yet, but every boot is toast, so plenty of company in later replacement parties.

****** note this is NOT a how to, more how not to do.

Front driver side wheel was removed almost two weeks ago, and I measured the upper ball joint (looked the worst at the time) and started looking. A few days later confident I would find a replacement boot, I took off the passenger side wheel as well and disconnected the driver side upper ball joint from the spindle.

Despite a LOT of searching, I found no local source for a boot. I bought some of the Energy Suspension tie rod end boots, but they didn't fit into the groove around the ball joint and lacked a reliable way to put on a retaining clip. When the ball joint was tightened down the end of the Polyurethane boot would slide down over the dirty end of the A arm, so it wasn't going to work. I bumped into MarkA later that day and found out 928Intl started stocking Audi boots two weeks ago, so on hold until they were open the next week.

I picked up 4 boots despite Jim Bailey telling me they were only for the upper, not the lower ball joint.

I've had a set of used Bilstein's sitting for months waiting on a good opportunity to install them, and decided that time was now.

The used Bilstein's still had springs on them, so I compressed the springs, removed all the hardware and started cleaning them up. The original black paint started coming off, so I left everything in a parts washer until it was completely gone. First glance at the springs and I liked the gold tint, but looking closer it seemed to have lost all its rust prevention so I decided to paint them with Krylon red.

Prep consisted of scouring with a scotchbright until the surface was totally rust free, then water wash and air blow off. I learned a bit about painting springs over the next couple days, and ended up painting the perches red as well.

Yesterday I found out I might need to move the car sooner than expected, and I was going too slow, so I put back on the passenger wheel and committed to just the driver side and started pulling parts.

Lesson one, spindle, rotor, and brakes are heavy, way too heavy to hang by the brake line, but not a lot in the fender well to use as a support. I used three tie wraps daisy chained thru the ball joint hole on the spindle up around the upper A arm.

The lower ball joint has a cap nut, and the top of that nut fits into pocket on my spindle so that loosening the nut forces the ball joint out of the spindle. Can't remember now if I did that before or after removing the air deflector and bolt through the end of the front shock, but next I removed the lower A arm and ball joint. All the weird angles and muscling around completely ruined the lower ball joint boot and it "seemed" pretty dirty, so I put the whole mess with related parts into the washer.

Surface dirt removed the lower ball joint felt tight, but I could also feel grit, so I squirted in some Marvel Mystery oil, wiggled it around, blew it out with air, and repeated half a dozen times until it felt smooth again. I let it sit over night with more Marvel Mystery oil, then blew it out with air again thoroughly, packed with some Swepco 101 grease, wiggled it down in, and then blew that out with air and repacked with more Swepco.

Today was critical, car needed to be moved asap. ... continued.

[Danglerb]

I removed the three bolts from the shock top plate, and wrestled with the shock for about an hour before finally unscrewing it, rotating the spring inside the upper A arm. The shock and spring were all that was holding the upper A arm up, so before pulling it all the way out I cut a wire hanger and looped one end through the three holes the upper plate of the shock mounted in. I clipped the zip ties after fastening the other end of the wire hanger securely to the spindle.

Spring was compressed and shock disassembled and stuck in the parts washer.

Now the bad news ...

As Jim predicted, boots were too small for the lower ball joint, both the large base and the shaft were too much larger even for a rubber part. to slip over, so I was forced to use a poorly fitting Polyurethane part. Swapping this boot later on if I find better won't be insanely hard at least.

My freshly painted totally hot looking red springs were thicker with one more loop than the spring that came off, guess is that they are for the heavier 87+ models, so I reluctantly had to reuse the old springs. A least I didn't need to worry about the fresh paint as I screwed the springs back up inside.

Did I mention the spindle, rotor, and brakes were heavy? They are.

First I cleaned and repacked the upper ball joint and put a new boot on it. I even sort of got the two clips on pretty well, no tears in the boot anyway.

I put the new shock half way into the upper A arm, and then wrestled the spindle back on the upper ball joint shaft and got a nut started on it to support the weight. Next I removed the wire hanger support, poked the shock the rest of the way through the upper A arm, lowered the car and put the three nuts on the top of the shock mounting plate.

In hindsight a dumb move, I torqued down the three nuts, which greatly limited movement of the shock.

I tried mounting the lower A arm and then attaching the lower ball joint to the spindle, but that wasn't working, so I took the A arm mounting bolts back off and attached the ball joint to the spindle first.

When I managed to get the lower A arm "sort of" back in position, I couldn't get the bolt started in the front fitting. After a couple tries I let the lower A arm hang supported by the ball joint to the spindle and chased the threads to clean up whatever the problem was. Something was really buggered a few turns in, but eventually I got it cleaned out and put back in one bolt.

Pivoting the lower A arm on that one bolt I was able to get the rear rubber end close enough to its mounting point to get the bolts started on it, then put the second bolt in the front mount and gave all the mounting bolts a few turns, but left them loose enough for plenty of play.

Getting the shock end into the lower A arm bracket was just a bear, and involved considerable prying and jacking up the lower A arm before I could even line the holes up. Getting the bolt started thru the sway bar link, into the A arm bracket, and finally into the shock was nothing but persistence and dumb luck with a cordless impact driving the bolt in. Just as the nose of the bolt peeked through the A arm bracket on the front side turning by the impact stopped moving it forward. Enough was through to put a nut on it and draw it through the rest of the way.

Last bit was to tightened all the nuts on the upper and lower ball joints, and lower A arm mountings points, then have a friend do a safety check. I figure its ALWAYS best to have a second set of eyes do a safety check. They gave the ball joints a final torque, and I put the last nut on over the air deflector plate on the shock bolt, torqued the lower A arm mounts, and FINALLY put the wheel back on.

My muscles feel like two days of boot camp.

[Danglerb]

I took it out for a quick spin, and I'm not happy, initial feel is that the shocks are worn out. Just the driver side front is in, but feels just as wiggly as the passenger side.

Bilstein will rebuild them for about $65 each, so I may pull it back out and take the shocks down to them.

On the bright side I think I can swap a shock about 5 times as fast as I did the first one. I'm thinking about making some kind of brake hanger to support the rotor and caliper since that was a big part of time consumed before.

[SeanR]

Well, there is some good news in there.

You now know what NOT to do. Damn, that was a cluster F to figure out how you did what where.

[m21sniper]

You're gonna love the Bilstiens once they're rebuilt. They make a massive improvement over the stock Boge units.

[Danglerb]

I put new Bilsteins in my 81 twenty years ago and really liked them, but thought I would pick up a cheap used set since they seem to last forever. I bought two full sets I found used, one looks very low mileage and the other didn't look bad in front, ancient in the rear. I planned to put the newer set on my 83, rebuild the old rears for my 85, and hoped the fronts were still OK. They "seemed" OK, but all I tried was compressing the shock against the floor and letting it expand.

Short of a dyno or putting them in the car I can't think of way to test them. Bilstein is about 20 minutes north east of San Diego, not too far from the Wild Animal park, but likely only open on week days. I still might just ship all 8 shocks down and have them tested. $25 each to test, $65 to rebuild, but I have a few questions on the details to ask Bilstein first.

Not the first time attempting to save $100 on a 928 has gone FUBAR.

[ROG100]

There is a company in the UK that is supposed to have the right size boots for the lower ball joints. As soon as I can confirm that is the case I will be selling them 8>)
The Audi parts for the upper ball joints got prices out of the wazzzoo at about $40 a pop.
Kudos to mark at 928 Int for finding an alternative - we both sell the same boot for $12 IIRC.

[MPDano]

Originally Posted by Danglerb

I put new Bilsteins in my 81 twenty years ago and really liked them, but thought I would pick up a cheap used set since they seem to last forever. I bought two full sets I found used, one looks very low mileage and the other didn't look bad in front, ancient in the rear. I planned to put the newer Bilstein is about 20 minutes north east of San Diego, not too far from the Wild Animal park, but likely only open on week days. I still might just ship all 8 shocks down and have them tested. $25 each to test, $65 to rebuild, but I have a few questions on the details to ask Bilstein first.

Bilstein
AFTERMARKET & MOTORSPORTS
HEADQUARTERS - WEST
14102 Stowe Drive
Poway, CA. 92064
1-858-386-5900