[AJG]

Took delivery of two control arms from a breakers yard and had a sniff about them immediately. Initial reaction was a surprise to see that the arm underside at the balljoint pivot does indeed look as though it may be swaged over to retain the ball assembly inside. Strange, because I would have thought that an aluminium casting would not have the elongation properties to allow this without stress cracks, obviously not. I have seen those extra long replaceable ball pin shafts offered for lowered cars and I wondered if a slightly longer pin for standard cars might be of some benefit (Bob?) as I would like to use a sleeve design and attach the rubber boot over it and do away with necking the pin and still allow enough angular movement of it. Super alloy sleeve, CA104 (al. bronze) bushing and underneath the ball another CA104 bushing, no spring but a screwed sleeeve to adjust up to the bottom bushing then lock it in place plus a dust cap over it.

All this will require machining the arm pivot area beyond recovery to standard, hey ho. PS this arm has impressions of the ballpin swaged onto the lip where the boot goes over it, so even standard set ups can take the swivel assembly to extremes of movement. Thats why I want to make the pin longer. Implications?

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[AJG]

Further to above, I think that the 968 arms have a shoulder that the bottom cap (with has the spring behind it) sits on then the boss is rolled formed around it. This would account for the smooth finish on the under side of the casting at the ball pivot area and the "squash " would be controlled by the inner step so preventing binding the spring against the ball and preventing its required movement. I haven't machined the bottom yet to confirm this but when I tried to squeeze across the ballpin to the botttom end cap in a vice there was zero compression (944 assembly squeezed with a G clamp to allow circlip insertion). So I'm sure it butts up against a shoulder inside. That would explain Porsches claim of no repairability.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.