roco16

After lengthy worrying about my worn out balljoint pins, Travis rode in on his white horse and sent me a healthy pair (and I received them in 2 days, might I add). I can't thank you enough, and thought that you a public thank-you was deserved.

And now for the fun part....
I am having some difficulty assembling my balljoint kit. I install everything dandy up to the part where the snap ring goes in place. Now, it appears you gave me 2 options on the snap ring: a traditional snap ring, and a key-ring type with screwdriver tabs. Am I correct or is this for something else?

The problem lies in that without placing brutal force on my C-clamp, I cannot get the lower plate down enough to properly seat the snap ring. Several times I have gotten it to stick, yet in certain spots the ring isnt' seated--allowing the assembly to come apart when I try to move the balljoint pin (which was quite tight--> I could barely move it with my hands at all).

Any ideas?

Thanks <again>.

-Robert Combier

Randy_J

when we did 3 sets of control arms - 2 using the Rennbay kits and one with a bronze and SS pin setup - we found out that it was best to "clean out" the circlip groove before replacing everything and using the JB weld / epoxy to cover everything up.

In fact, I popped one circlip out at a DE (!) but fortunately did no damage to the arm or car.

Upon closer examination, what happened was that in prying out the OEM german spring clip, we had gouged out the circlip recess in afew places - more nicks and scratches than damage. So we used a thin cut off wheel in a dremel tool and used it to carefully clean out the groove and square up the shoulders in any places we nicked during disassembly.

That should help out. We had no problems compressing everything during reassembly, but then we were using a 20 ton hydraulic press in a machine shop! that made it easy to carefully and slowly compress the ball joint until there was plenty of room to pop the new circlip in place.

Unfortunately, cleaning out that groove means disassembly again, but it has to be done to seat that clip properly.

good luck! great products from Rennbay!

Travis - sflraver

Robert,

Thank you for the kind words. It's posts like this that make all of the hard work worth while.

A few of the kits as of late came with the choice of snap ring or spiral retaining ring. The spiral retaining rings are far superior to the original circlips or the snap rings. They offer a better seat and a full seal around the whole circumference of the groove.

The kits now come only with the spiral retaining rings. They are a bit harder to install but are a nice piece of mind to have in place. Go ahead and squeeze the c clamp. Tighten it down until you can't twist it any more. This seats the top bushing and gives you plenty of room to work with the groove.

If you need some tips installing the spiral retaining rings just email me or give me a call. I can talk you through it.

Serge944

Same thing happened to me!! First turn i take, a hear some metal hit the ground. Oh look, a spring...and a snap ring...oh the joy!

Maybe wasnt seated correctly...its been fine after redoing it. Ask 2tight for the nightmare story...

pearldrum944

Yes, Travis is a great person to do business with. I met him at 944fest this year and just bought a rear seat from him. I was informed that it came in the mail recently and the packing job was excellent. I can't wait to go home and put it in.(college) Thanks Travis.

washington951

yeah - wail on the thing. when i did mine, the first one i did - i thought it was fully seated, but it wasn't. luckily i beat it around a little bit and confirmed my suspicions - it popped out before i put it back on the car.

when i got it back in again, i used a flat blade screwdriver and a hammer and lightly worked my way around the ring - at one point, i heard and saw the ring move farther down and out into the groove. then i knew it was seated. worked my way around the 2nd one, but it was seated properly on its own.

its a bit nerve-wracking when you take that first drive, but that quickly fades away when you feel how much more solid the front end feels!!!

thanks travis!

Uranium-235

I just ordered 4 injector kits from Rennbay, my first Porsche parts purchase (haven't technically paid for the valves, gasket kit and belt/roller kit yet). Good experience, will go there again when needed. Thanks!

joseph mitro

i second the compliments for travis. his communication is excellent, and as a result i am awaiting my ball joints today. nice customer service does pay off.

special tool

I can't stand the guy. He bought some exhaust valves from me. First, he sends me the pay-pal in like 20 seconds, then when he gets them, he has the ***** to pm me saying how fantastic they are. What a pain in the *** that guy is.

Travis - sflraver

Alright guys.. this is too much. I had better start not calling people back, waiting 2 weeks to ship orders and generally messing things up before this post gets too long.

and S.T. ... the exhaust valves are in and working beautifully in the Turbo. I put the head back on with one of the cometic HGs... which I was a little worried about with all the leaking stories, and everything is perfect. The only thing that leaks on the head is ALL 4 INJECTORS.... from the bodies not the seals. I was not the one who took them out originally so I guess whoever did must have twisted/broke them when doing so.
I have a new set on the bench just waiting to be installed. Maybe I can get some driving time in on the car before the hurricane hits us... again (Ft.Lauderdale).

special tool

See what I mean - pain in the ***.

Chris_924s

Just dont go out for a few cocktails with Travis, next thing you know He's slipping a Rennbay shirt on you!!

roco16

I finally did get one of the balljoints in place with the new style circlip. To install it, I stretched the spring out until I could get a flathead screwdriver underneath the 'beginning' of the clip. I then worked it in place by slowing sliding the screwdriver around the circlip and into the ring groove. In order to seat the the clip ALL the way, I had to move my C-clamp off center to push one side of the endcap down further, allowing me to check to make sure that each 90° or so of clip was dandy.
It took a while but I trust it will hold.

My description might sound a little confusing, but it's one for the archives. :-)

Thanks again to everybody for the help. On to the (4th) oil pan gasket and oil cooler seals!

-Robert