God_Bot

Okay guys, so the major components seem fine, no play in the steering and I can't feel anything that's loose when I yank on various parts.

I figure that I'll get the sway bar bushings and struts/shocks. If I have enough left after that I'll look into some upgraded castor blocks.

I would like to make the jump to the Koni Yellows inserts, but I need to find them first. I keep finding the full assembly.

VirginiaF1

Sounds like a plan..
What tires did you go with to replace those 8 year old Goodyears?

God_Bot

Nothing yet, I've only looked enough to see that they don't make these ones in this size anymore. I'll start looking around and pricing my options after I order the suspension stuff.

I just put new tires on my DD so the 944 isn't getting much use if any at the moment.

God_Bot

Well here's an overdue update.

Got Koni Yellows installed on all four corners. I think I set them at about the halfway point in the adjustment. When I had all the shocks/struts laying together I compared them, they all compacted with about the same resistance and I thought that it would all be for nothing. Then I noticed that the Konis rebounded while both old shocks and one strut never uncompressed even after sitting overnight. One strut came about halfway back to uncompressed. It looked a little newer than the other and actually had a line marked right where I made my cut for the Koni insert!

Noticed one of the upper mounts had a faint noise so new strut mounts will probably come sometime in the next year or two, maybe when I get around to lowering the car.

Drove the car! Feels much better, the squatting with every shift is gone and corners feel a little better.

Grabbed the car to bring it back to work after lunch one day for an alignment and one of the tires decided to deflate over the course of one block. I ended up getting Falken Ziex ZE-912 tires in 215/60-R15 (same size as the TripleTreds that came off) because they were cheap. While I was waiting on the tires I stripped and sanded my wheels. Lots of finger sanding with 40, 60, 80 and 100 grit sandpaper. I decided to leave them at 100 grit and bare until the spring when I'll decide what I want to do next with them.








Now I still have quite a bit more body roll in corners than I'd like. I'm pretty sure the factory sized sway bars are on the car. I need to get under and decide just which bushings I need to replace but first I want to know which bushings I can change without needing another alignment? Will an alignment be needed if I get some larger sway bars? I need to reschedule my alignment still, it drives straighter than it did before I changed the struts but it still needs one.

My driver front wheel has a little play in the side to side like a wheel bearing. Looking at Clarks-Garage it looks to be a pretty easy change so I'll probably get that taken care of before an alignment.

william_b_noble

at that mileage there is a good chance you will benefit from some new ball joints - sort of depends on what kind of road the car was on mostly - I had one 944 where the joints were completely toast under 200K, and the one I drive is at 250K and they were just a little worn when I changed them

Van

Side-to-side front wheel play is usually a tie-rod - and that will need an alignment after changing. (A wheel bearing will *also* be top-to-bottom play. Top-to-bottom only play is usually a control arm ball joint.)

God_Bot

Thanks Van, I didn't realize that it could be something else causing the play. I'll get it back in the air and see just which play it is.

If it's the ball joint then I get a new one, I don't want to replace anything that isn't needed right now. Maybe next year I'll get new ball joints if these are still okay.

kev951

Why hasn't anyone said anything about .... spring plate bushings?? torsion bar mounts.... trans mounts... motor mounts.. sway bar links,....