Yan

As posted on the 951 forum:

Hi!

I'm planning on rebuilding both ball joints on my 1986 951.

- Will a really worn ball joint cause the wheel to come off on our cars?

- The Rennbay rebuild kit is REALLY interesting. A friend of mine told that the "*****" themselves are also worn out and will cause a play even if I rebuild the boots and the external parts. How do the repair kits solve this problem?

Thanks alot for you help!

yoyoguy2

well, the wheels themselves won't fall off if the ball joint fails, but the control arm would separate from the steering knuckle. this would leave the wheels only attached through the spring and tie rod, which have essentially no stability at all. your tire would collide with the fenders as the car jolts abruptly downward, leading to horrible sounds and possible wreckage depending on your speed at the time. don't ask me how i know. i suppose if you were moving at highway speeds, the loss if the joint could have enough force to tear the strut out of the upper mount and break the tie rod end, causing the wheel to fall off with a lot of other things attached. this would, i think, be the worst thing that could ever happen, ever.

but, for this level of wear to occur is essentially impossible, the joints do not just "give out," at least not that i've heard of.

i think the ***** wear very little, the parts that break are the plastic "cups" and the snap rings, but i suppose it is possible for the ball to wear.

fezz

consider the SSI brass joints

http://www.ssiauto.com/index.shtml?/...formance.shtml

Travis - sflraver

You get all the extra components with my kits such as the lower plates, new springs, snap rings and a zerk fitting setup so your joints are serviceable. Our bushings, while not made of bronze are made from OEM type materials with a few extra goodies thrown in to prolong there life. If the OEM ones lasted this long why change?
I would direct you to www.rennbay.com but the site is down until later tonight. One RAID drive crashes, and crashes the next. Go figure.

Dave

UM, I don't know what you've heard, but I've spoken with several people who have stuffed a wheel through the back half of a fender due to ball joint failure. Even have one story on video tape! Maybe that's why NNJR checks the balljoints of all 944 series cars very carefully at pre-event techs.

seb928s

Rennbay kit is good but if you have waited to long and your pockets of the control arms are worn to much then your rebuilt won't last long. If you are worried about the actual ball joint you can buy the early set and use the ball joint out of that with your rennbay kit. The ***** themselves don't wear that much they do the damage on your control arms and will fall out if it gets really bad. Check your control arms and order the Rennbay kit it's great.

Marc Gelefsky

The rennbay kits are great, Travis has first rate stuff and is a pleasure to deal with.

However, I did the SSI kit and am very pleased.

Travis - sflraver

BTW, if anyone needs something from the site it will be back up as soon as the DNS updates. I switched everything over to a new host (Thanks to Matt Olde). If anyone needs any hosting done just ask Matt (from www.p-caronline.com). He hooked it up in my time of need!!!

AWolf

I did the SSI kit also and found it very easy to do and am very happy with the results. If I had to do it again though I might go with the Renbay kit w/Zerk fittings only because it would be nice to have easy access to them. How about a Rennbay kit w/zerk fittings and brass bushings!!!?

-Andrew

Travis - sflraver

I know for a fact that the guys at Rennbay give out replacement bushings (if needed, which has not ever come up) with out too much complaining.

We are also setting up a replacement program for the die hard racer guys. If you like to replace your bushings every time you go out and only want to pay $15 each time (for both sides) then that is the program for you. I had some info up on Rennbay but I may have lost it with the crash. I will have more stuff back up as soon as everything is up and running (tomorrow morning the way its looking right now).

Another thing, which this little site crash puts a bit of a damper on, is we were going to announce the geometry correction kits tonight. A big sale and all but that has to be put off until tomorrow as well. Some days I would have just been better off staying in bed. Geeze.

Yan

Thanks alot for you input!

I'm still interested in buying the replacement kit at Rennbay (hoping that my control arm isn't damaged ). Are they really that fragile?

Also, is it necessary to install the new Zerk fitting and Cap, Lower Plate and Lower Spring for a first rebuild? I thought that the standard kit would do the job.

Thanks again

Yan

One more stupid question...

Are the control arms and "*****" for later 1985.5+ 944s (all of them: 944 / 944 Turbo) all the same? I could get not cracked ones from a junk yard and apply the rebuild kit to it.

I own a '86 951...

Yan

Both last questions already answered by Travis. Thanks!

theedge

When you order the Rennbay kit, dont foget to order the new ball joint boots like I forgot to.

Almost ready to start taking the ball joint out and im looking at the old torn, cracked boot and thinking "Damn, sure is good im replacing that....... Or am I..... Oooops"

Travis - sflraver

You did not get the ball joint boots with your order? ball joint boots come with all orders. If for some reason they were left out PLEASE let me know and I will get a set out to you ASAP.