Ball joint repair

[bumperblue]

Over the last two nights have been fitting two ball joint kits supplied by Design 911. Thought I would give some thoughts for anybody else thinking of doing it.

The kit is adequate, the plastic bushing seems well made and substantial (we will have to see about wear over time ) and the ball joint itself is well machined and everything fits as expected. Couple of issues, the rubber boots supplied are quite thin and flimsy compared to my existing Porsche ones, noticeably so and I split one slipping it over the flange. So I cleaned the old ones up which were still in fine condition and reused. The biggest problem I found was the sprung ring/washer which holds the dust cap in place and prevents the spring popping out. The swing arm is extremely light alloy and surprisingly soft, where it has been machined in the socket to take the sprung ring was it obviously made exactly for the Porsche ring and I found the design 911 ring would not expand and hold the dust cap back under the force of the spring it almost seemed to burr the metal. I solved this by buying a couple of proper spring clips (the type with eyes on the end) and these fitted really well and were very solid. Have now filled the socket with epoxy and will fit back on car on Saturday.

Overall a 7/10 for the kit. The american ones look to be quite a bit better and more complete kits (particularly the metal bushed ones) but at a much greater cost once shipping and import tax is added. In my case its a daily driver and it failed its MOT so time was a big issue.

Its an OK job for you average DIY'er.

Have fun

Ian

 

[zcacogp]

Helpful write-up there BumperBlue. Thanks. Can you post a link to the kit for reference please?

Keep us posted on the longevity of the new parts.


Oli.

 

[bumperblue]

http://www.design911.co.uk/fu/pt385_388_-cma81-cmo123-ct307/Porsche/944-1982-91/944S2-3-0L-1989-91/Wishbones/

 

[os951]

Plastic ball joint parts, Yak []

Son did his 951 arms:

 

[bumperblue]

Plastic ball joint parts, Yak

Olli don't disagree about the plastic but, let us know where you got your kit from so we can share the ball joint fun!

Your kits looks like it will last longer than the car and interesting uses a proper circlip rather than the cut sprung washer to locate and hold the dust cover, much more positive in my humble opinion.

Ian.

 

[os951]

Son's kit was made by a German 944 enthusiast. He does not make these professionally.

 

[VanhireBoys]

I know its a good deal more expensive but I got the Hartech refurbished arms complete. They have a 2 year warranty and were no probs to fit. IMO they are better than new.

Im not saying that them kits are mickey mouse but I personally just didnt want to chance it. Id be interested to know how long the service life is on them. Keep us informed !

 

[bighead]

your joking ....olli's kit look the biz , rather have that than a refurb unit

 

[pauljmcnulty]

your joking ....olli's kit look the biz , rather have that than a refurb unit

Ollie's option does look fantastic, but if it's not for sale....[&o]

I've heard annecdotal evidence that the kits available do fail. I guess it's more down to the skill of the DIYer, and most people who know what they are doing will have no problems, but if you aren't confident then the professionally-rebuilt option has to be worth the small amount extra it costs?

 

[os951]

What causes most kits to fail, is the fact they are installed to the arms which are worn out too much. You just have to be realistic when you check out the arms and not try to rebuild junk.

 

[bumperblue]

Ollie's kit does look fantastic and does look like one of the american kits with the bronze bushing so there is and option available. Regarding the professional replacement whole arms. I thought about that and then thought what kit are they using to replace ball joint it may be the same kit I've just used. So I would rather be master of my own destiny and put it in myself. lets see what the miles tell us (though my car is probably not the highest yearly mileage car around). I will post results. I guess like the originals we are looking to expect, depending on type of roads between 60K and 90k (mine finally failed at 90K).

 

[Diver944]

Pretty much all of the professionally rebuilt arms in this country are done by Hartech in Bolton and I know they have invested a lot of time and money perfecting the process with high quality components and equipment. Most of the Specialist Independants seem to use them and I have yet to hear of a premature failure.

Pretty much all of the home repair kits that I have heard people use come back a short while later and they say it's failed again. That's not to say there aren't some DIY kits out there going strong after 10 years but no one shouts about that. Also, people who buy their cars cheap and then maintain them on a shoestring tend to sell then on quickly afterwards so we never know if the repair held up or not.

Could anyone who has done a home repair many years ago please state publicly that it's still working? []

 

[bighead]

you have a point there []

 

[os951]

Could anyone who has done a home repair many years ago please state publicly that it's still working?

At least two arms i did about 6 years ago are still good, have about 80Kkm's behind them after rebuild.
As i wrote earlier: Do not try to rebuild arms which are already worn out too much.
Most "factory rebuilt" control arms i have seen have been done in Slovenia, there's a company which makes quality rebuilds.