I have the notorioius left hand front clunk. Put the car up today and everything seems solid except a bit more play than I think is okay in the Ball Joint. I'll have it replaced soon. But in the meantime...

Can I drive the car?

Can I drive the car hard?

Can I race the car? (Not that I would - but I put it in for the complete spectrum of choices)

Thanks in advance.

RK

 

Im not sure about racing.. but i still drove mine.. decently hard for the street, and i'm still here talkinga nd my car isn't smashed.. Just don't ride it formore than a month or so, youll end up wearing the metal parts, and not just need lubrication. You can just do the ball joint rebuild kit for about 75 bucks for both sides.... you dont have to replace the pa rt.

 

I rode mine with both front joints blown for about 3 months. THis is an early car, but becuase of the design, the joints will not seperate on a Porsche. You should be okay, but the tire wear and everything is going to suck. I'd get some replacements or replacement lower control arms. The arms are easy to get on and off with 2 floor jacks (1 for the car, the other for moving the control arm).

 

Do not drive it with a clunking ball joint. Mine was doing the same, and i pulled it and the control arm was cracked, and the ball joint could have easily pulled out of the arm and sent the car flying off the road, into another car, guard rail, etc. Fix it first. If you drive around with it clunking, i will almost guarantee the control arm will crack. Also the ball joint it self was pitted. And i only drove it for about 50 miles with it clunking.

 

I too have a clunking. How do you tell if it is the ball joint or a strut bushing, or sway bar bushing?

 

I replaced left front control arm and ball joint in January, but since then have had an 'oilcan' type of noise at low speeds ~<40 mph. Am led to believe it is strut tops. What is to be done in that event???

 

There is a bushing/bearing assembly at the top of the strut that you probably need to replace then. Pelican or paragon has them. You will need a spring compressor and an air gun to replace.

 

Basically you pull it apart and see what it looks like. The sway bar bushing should only clunk if one is missing. For me it was a trial and error, but i am pretty much replacing everything in there, since once i pulled it apart, it was all shot.

 

Do not drive the car, especially not hard. If you go around a corner and the ball joint pops out of the control arm, three things can happen:
1. It comes back down in place.
2. It comes down infront of the A-arm
3. It comes down behind the A-arm

If #3 happens, your wheel will buckle underneath your car, and you will most likely take out the whole side of your car! This happened to a car at VIR a couple of years ago at a DE. It wasn't pretty.

-Z.

 

Okay - message received. Going in for new ball joints tomorrow.

Thanks!

RK

 

good thing you decided on that.

now to answer the questions

1) yes, probably for awhile - but it will fail... catastrophically

2) yes, most likely for a much shorter while - but it will fail... catastropically x2

3) yes, most likely for a very few amount of laps - and it will fail... catastropically x5

 

When the ball joints on an early car are replaced with bolted versions, does anyone know what the proper torque settings for these bolts are.
Thanks,
Fred