I rebuilt the upper ball joint on my 1984 928s yesterday with the rebuild kit from 928 Motorsports. Wow!!! i bought the kit last winter and been more or less putting it off due to the amount of work I thought it was going to be. I didn't want to take the upper A arm out, like what was done in the video. So yesterday I decided to do the task. I decided to do it without removing the A arm. I took me about 2 hours to do the first side and about an hour and a half on the second one.

928 put together a great kit and this a fairly easy project to do. A whole lot easier than I anticipated. The hardest part I found on the whole project is getting the retaining clip on the dust boot.

The reason I rebuilt the upper ball joints is i had a little vibration over 75 mph. after inspection the passenger side upper ball joint seemed sloppy. I still have an inner tie rod to replace but I don't really have the vibration that I had previously.

928 Thanks for such a great kit. The parts in the kit are great and fit with absolutely no issues.

Thanks, James

 

Any tips / lessons learned from the install?

 

Itoolio,

1) the caliper bolts and ball joint nut are 19mm
2) I placed the front on jack stands so i could turn the steering wheel.
3) hang the caliper with a bungee cord out of the way don't let it hang by the hose.
4) I had about a 10" piece of 4x4 block of wood and a 10" piece of 2x4
5) after hanging the caliper and your ready to loosen the ball joint nut, put your floor jack with the 4x4 on it and put a little pressure on the lower control arm. I used the wood so I didn't bend the dust shield for the brake or the little wind deflector on the control arm.
6a) Loosen the ball joint nut and thread it all the way off, then put it back on about 6 good turns. The first one I loosened and then broke the ball joint loose from the steering knuckle and couldn't get the nut off, it would just spin the ball joint. I had to reset the ball joint to get the nut loose, then break the ball joint loose again.
6b) I jacked the lower control arm up some and put a piece of angle iron from the floor to the upper control arm and released some of the pressure from the floor jack. I then hit the steering knuckle where the ball joint attaches a few times with moderate force and it came loose. But you may need to use a ball joint remover. I don't think you want to beat on the knuckle to long or to hard.
7) I covered the brake caliper and every thing else below the upper control arm to avoid getting dirt, grim and metal shavings into any thing.
8) get the old epoxy off the top of the ball joint. I used a flat head screw driver, came off pretty easy. Use a stiff bristle brush to remove debris.
9) after the old epoxy has been removed I used a little PB Blaster and let it soak for a minute or two and wiped off the access.
10) I used a little punch and a hammer to slide the retaining ring back and forth to loosen it up a little. I then made sure the opening of the retaining ring was pretty centered with the inboard side of the control arm. Facing the engine bay.
11) I used a 7/64 Dremel drill bit and drilled an indention about 2 to 3 mm away from the opening of the retaining clip, and down far enough, just behind the retaining ring to get a pointed screw driver behind it to pry the ring out. As i pried the ring out some I was able to get a flat head screw driver under it and work the retaining ring out. GET READY because when the retaining ring comes out the cap and spring are going to pop out.
12) Clean everything real good. Clean the ball joint socket and the retaining ring groove real good. I even cleaned the old stuff and laid it out in the order I removed them.
13) follow the installation instructions that 928 Motorsports provides to put everything back together.
14) I used a 5" C clamp to put it back together with a 1" deep socket. my clamp wasn't big enough to use a small socket on the top so I didn't use a regular socket on the top. it didn't hurt any thing but if you want to use the regular socket on the top then you will probably need a 6" C clamp.
15) THE DAMN DUST BOOT. I put a little extra grease in the boot before installing it. I removed the retaining ring from the boot to get the boot in place. I used needle nose pliers to get the ring started and had to stretch it apart and keep working the ring into place. Be careful so you don't damage the dust cover. The retaining ring is coiled and you just have to fiddle with it to get it on.
16) insert the grease fitting and fill it with grease. "Read the 928 Motorsport instructions"
17) Epoxy, I used a hammer and wedged it between something and the upper control arm to get the control arm as level as possible. Even though it says five minute epoxy. do yourself a favor and give it about 30 minutes. go have a beer and a snack. After about 10 minutes I removed the hammer and the epoxy started to shift, so I had to re level the control arm.
18) use your floor jack and jack up the lower control arm some and re attach the steering knuckle to the upper control arm. press it up as much as you can and tread the nut back on. Put some more pressure on the lower control arm and tighten up the nut as much as you can. I then used the 2x4 and placed it on the top of the upper control arm and gave it a couple of good hits with a hammer to get it to seat. I then was able to tighten the nut the rest of the way with out the ball joint turning.
19) put the caliper back on and then your wheel.
20) Watch the video a guy made about doing the ball joint rebuild. He removed the control arm from the car to do, but I did mine while it was on the car with no issues. Watch The Video, and Read the 928 Motor sport instructions.

Hope this helps
Thanks, James

 

Hwymr do you have a link to that video?

 

James - thanks for the great write-up and the tips along the way!