Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

The primary projects this winter are to sort out the both front and rear suspension and brakes, safety first!

Pretty much finished the front now so thought I'd share with you all what I have learnt. My car is an '86 944 2.5N/A Lux (85.5 or Gen 2, this is important later on)

I had various knocks and movement from the suspension that really shouldn't be there so I got it on the stands and stripped the front end down. I expected one or 2 worn bushes and dreaded finding shot ball joints. Well, I found only one or 2 decent bushes and definitely had shot ball joints and both top mounts were buggered as well. This was looking like a big bill for the parts. However, I did some research which started out as looking for someone to refurb the alloy swingarms and replace the ball joints but lead me to a completely different solution. It turns out that the steel (vw) control arms fitted on the Gen 1 944 will fit the early Gen 2 cars e.g. cars up to '87 that dont have anti lock brakes as standard. After 87 the geometry was changed to accommodate anti lock brakes. From a budget point of view this was excellent news.

Cost Comparison
New alloy control arms from Porsche £280+VAT each ( £336 ) so £672 the pair
Refurbish exisiting approx £150 each so £300
Gen 1 Steel arms £17 each plus £12.50 each for ball joints, £59!!!!!!!!!

A couple of other things need to be changed in order to use the steel control arms i) the rear body mount for the arm needs to be from a Gen 1 car ii) the anti roll bar to control arm brackets as need to be changed for Gen 1. I got the whole lot from breakers for £40. So changing to the steel arms cost £99 for the lot.

Pros and Cons of the steel arms
Lets start with the Cons:-
1. They are a very little bit heavier (about 200grams) and not quite as stiff as the alloy arms
2. The caster adjustment is much more basic and therefor more difficult to be precise with (but thats an issue for the alignment shop to deal with)
3. They don't look as good (but 95% of the time you wont see them)
4. You cant use the upgraded chassis bushes now supplied by Porsche

Pro's
1. Significantly cheaper and much more readily available
2. The ball joints are bolt on and easily changed

The weight and stiffness I doubt will be noticeable for a normal road user, especially as many people who race or track these convert to the steel arms. If you want them to be stiff they can be relatively easily box welded.

To compensate for not being able to use the upgraded bushing from Porsche I have fitted Powerflex Poly bushes all round and added a strengthening bracket to the ARB mounts. Should provide the desired effect.

In Summary
a) Retrograded from alloy arms to steel control arms
b) Upgraded to Poly bushes
c) strengthened the ARB mount with an additional angled bracket
d) Replaced top mounts and bump stops
e) Refurbed struts, knuckles, hubs, disk protection plate, springs, top mount brackets, and brake calipers
f) Changed the wheel bearings and track rod ends
g) existing springs and shocks refitted as they were in good condition (had planned to fit Koni adjustable sports shocks and M030 springs but this will have to wait unfortunately)

I pretty much did all of the above for the cost of one new alloy control arm or the refurb'ing of both of them, I don't think I will miss them.

Some Pics

Good write up.

Nice. I did the same but used adjustable shocks from Spax and lowering springs. I'm glad the early cars have options aside from aging alloy wishbones.

DeLux, think your blog spot was included in my research

How have you found the spax kit? Exactly which option did you go for? Its one of the things i have been looking into.

Me like what you have done a lot
Modern alloy arms are a huge con to part you from your dosh.
Virtually all modern cars are built like this now.

Am I imagining it, or is/was there a UK company supplying modified steel arms with a rear bush tube welded on which allowes the later eccentric bolt and 944/968 caster block arrangement to be used? If the mod isn't too expensive then it seems to me to be an even better prospect. The freedom of a cheap bottom ball joint replacement is pretty dam good anyway frankly

Rob

Haha! That's cool, glad it was some help.

I went for the PSX kit I think they call it. Damping adjustable inserts front and shortened adjustable firmness rear. I'm still tinkering with the knobs (rebound) but it's amazing and I'm very happy. This year I plan to learn more about setting up the car which means more time on the track and then probably some time with a pro for next year to get setup spot on. But first I must strip and rebuild the rear suspension.

I've stripped 66kgs out of my car so far just by removing get the old rubber sound deadening & felt so the SPAX adjustable dampers have been very handy to have and considering their cost they're a good affordable upgrade.