Carpokes Porsche Forum

In 2012, I purchased a pair of rebuilt factory control arms and installed them on the my '87 944na. Back then, rebuilt units were less than $250/ea.

By 2014, one of the ball joints was loose again (the right side, iirc). So, I had the genuinely reputable shop doing other work to the car at the time obtain another rebuilt factory control arm from the same supplier as my 2012 purchase.

By 2017, one of the ball joints was loose again. The left side this time. Tired of replacing a whole control arm every few years, I bought a set of aftermarket tubular steel control arms with replaceable heim joint. But I've never liked them on my street-only car and I plan to sell them soon, hopefully to someone here.

This fall I decided to go back to stock control arms, personally rebuilding the pair I still have with the quality kit sold by Ian at 944 Online. Yesterday I started disassembling the pair of control arms I've had floating around since 2017.

This is the LEFT side control arm from the original 2012 rebuilt pair (if my memory and records serve me).
It has the factory ball joint bore and collar machined out, and a steel sleeve with collar pressed and pinned in, which I discovered only after destructive disassembly.

The prior machining means I can't rebuild this one with the Rennbay kit.

I started disassembly by drilling and tapping an M8 hole in the bottom, thinking what I was seeing was some kind of cap. I thought I could press it out against whatever the ball joint must be sitting on.

That didn't work, and heat didn't work, and poking at it with screw drivers and picks didn't work. After successful disassembly it's obvious why none of that was gonna work.

If brute force isn't working, though, you're not using enough of it. A hammer and chisel worked.

It looks like the bore was entirely machined out and the steel sleeve pressed in. The nylon cup (shown split in the above photos because of brute force) would have been placed around the ball joint, the ball joint inserted, the thick bottom cap held in place with some kind of press, and the bottom lip of the sleeve formed over it hold it all together.

It's quite robust. Still, it had no grease fitting and was not at all serviceable.

This is the Coke Zero rebuilt control arm (RIGHT side from 2014)...
It is assembled in the normal way - spring, cap, retaining ring, etc. However, instead of a bronze bushing for the ball joint to sit against, it uses an aluminum shim that is literally a soft drink can.

Someone painstakingly trimmed it to fit with scallops and relief cuts and a bottom lip. That shim sat directly in the ball joint bore, the nylon sleeve (shown still surrounding the top of the ball on the ball joint) resting against it.

Plus, the bottom of the assembly was sealed with black RTV silicone with flakes of crud embedded in it. Good times. At least this one is rebuildable.

In conclusion, I'm in need of a rebuildable LEFT late-offset control arm, if anyone has one.

WTS the tubular arms? Late offset I'm guessing?

naesjr wrote: Sun Oct 23, 2022 5:46 pm WTS the tubular arms? Late offset I'm guessing?

Yes, and yes. I do want to sell them, and they are late offset. They are Speed Force Racing from 2017, prior to when they began using the full plate. One side has left-hand threads for the heim.

They are currently on the car. I recently stripped them to bare metal and painted them blue, because I like blue. One heim joint is brand new. The other heim joint has about 1000 miles. The red urethane bushings are also brand new (Autofab BA125 like the original black bushings). The pins are in good shape as well. I don't have any photos of the pins, but I'm happy to provide pics once I remove these control arms from the car (which should be in about a week).

PM me with an offer if you're interested.

usury wrote: Wed Oct 19, 2022 10:19 am
If brute force isn't working, though, you're not using enough of it.

Words to live by.

DM'd you; I have a mismatched set of late arms and am somewhat local, I think!

What do you dislike about the tubular arms?

four0four wrote: Tue Oct 25, 2022 3:45 pm What do you dislike about the tubular arms?

Thanks for the DM!

You know, the tubular steel arms are probably great. The welds are beautiful and the construction is solid.

However, I've never really known how to set them up so I've never been confident in them.

The bushings were difficult to fit properly, and the adjustable heim provides way more camber adjustability than I'll ever need. I was never really sure if I had the heim joints in the factory location since fully bottomed out would be way positive camber.

Plus, I've never understood why one has left-handed threads, nor on which side that one belongs.

Since the control arms didn't come with an instruction sheet, and I could never locate one, I figured they are really intended for people who already know those kinds of things. I didn't want to reveal my ignorance previously, so I never asked.

Still, I'm committed to going back to stock control arms at this point. The rennbay kit is on my workbench and a left control arm is on its way.