Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Just had the lower ball joint fail on the MOT.

Even the BL in the bad old days could make a better wishbone set up.

Hartech certainly saw a golden opportunity to make an improvement here.

It is almost beyond comprehension that if I could not do the work a pair of silly little joints could cost nearly £700 to correct at a garage.

Agree with you there, silly design and stupidly expensive to mend (replace by Porsche standards) !

However, at least Porsche ones last a little longer than those on my BL minis!

Had a couple of good friends die in a Mini crash in the 70's and have disliked the car since as they are so fragile, however my first car was an Austin Mini Seven and yes I had to shim the ball joints every year................but you could shim them they did not fall apart.

Would be childs play to bore out and fit a cassette type ball joint in the alloy arms.

You're right, they are fragile but you have to be aware of the dangers in any car really. I like steak and chips, beer and cycling too, all of which kill many more people

Shimming is a regular for me too, especially since they have bigger wheels now increasing stresses on other parts.

I had the ball joints done by hartech on my 996, a good service they offer really.

At least the 944 items lasted many years. On many other cars you can be lucky to get a decade out of them. Don't even mention MGB Kingpins or Triumph Spitfire ones for that matter or the Triumph IRS 'twitch' due to the driveshafts splines being course.

Yes you are so right, I guess we all forget that cars are made to make money not to last too long and be reliable for a decade.
The weird thing is that I hillclimbed and sprinted a TR5 for a while and yet never experienced the legendary spline lock.

ALL cars have designs that stink.

If you raced a TR5 (any pics? ) there is a chance that you had poly or nylon bushes in the rear of the trailing arm. For once in this application they are a very wise moved, and play a big part in reducing Spline Lock.

The reason it became worse is due to the specialists selling cheap crappy rubber for the rear trailing arms where the grade of rubber was softer than originally used! However, they are easier to fit. The general consensus these days for avoiding spline lock is to ensure the splines are well greased and in good order as well as fitting the SuperFlex bushes on the rear of the car.

I only got really down and dirty with the front suspension on the TR5, nylon bushed a TR6 A/B, Koni shocks and finally and most important beefing up the chassis mounting lugs as although no mags say it but TR5' and TR6's rip their front suspension off!!! scary eh.
The rear was standard apart from upratated shortened springs.

In this guise a standing start sprint on ordinary road tyres gave 1min 49 sec.

My car was then sold to a friend who raced it in the Post Historic championship and winning it in 84.

I dont know what further mods he did to it.

Pictures? mmmmmm yes but where?