bgrabner

I finally got my upper A arms out tonight on the '88 S4 - PITA but not overly difficult. The passenger side balljoint was pretty loose - the drivers side was somewhat stiff, but I figured better safe than sorry and decided to replace both A arms.

So here's the question - I have a used set of A arms ready to go on from another S4 that are in great condition - ball joint action is stiff but smooth. I really don't want to have to do this again, so I want to make the right move here with the replacement. I was doing some research though and came across 928 Motorsports recent post on new and improved A arms:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...all-joint.html

Does anyone have any experience with these? For the price it seems worth it to go with completely new hardware - it sounds like a stiffer ride but I prefer that anyway. Not planning on tracking the car though - just normal spirited driving. Should I save the money and put it toward something else, or would it be wise to put Carl's A arms in and not have to worry about it again?

Thanks!

Bill

ammonman

No personal experience with the product, but based on the other 928MS products I have purchased they will be top shelf. I doubt it will give any stiffer ride as the upper arm just serves to locate the top of the spindle as the suspension travels up and down. I would not go with used originals unless I replaced the bushings and boots.beforehand for fear of having to do the job all over again in a few years if/when the bushings go bad.

bgrabner

Thanks for the reply - I definitely would be replacing the boots and bushings on the stock A arms regardless, but I was thinking more of a WYAIT replacement since I have them off...

RED SHARK 1990

Hello how long did the job took? removal of both arms? I am going to installed Carls new version on mine. Thanks

slate blue

There is another option rebuilt OEM arms from 928 INTL. In Australia at least using non OEM arms would require a engineers certificate, you would also have to tell the insurers.

Greg

76FJ55

When I was doing the front shocks on my 85 I replaced the upper ball boots. The ball joints where still nice and tight, but since the old boots where torn, I wanted to ensure the ball joints still had suficient grease in them. I drilled a hole in the upper plate of the balljoint assembly and installed grease zerks in the factory balljoints similar to the rebuild kits available. this allowed me to flush out the old grease by pumping new grease through the balljoint assembly. with the zerk in place periodic greasing of the balljoint is possible and easy and should allow the balljoint to last almost indifinately.

Fogey1

I like this idea but have always worried about the shavings from the drilling and tapping abrading the cup and ball. How confident are you that they were flushed by the new grease and why?

Thanks

will

76FJ55

I am very confident that there are no metal shavings the will get to the cup and ball. the upper cover is metal and relatively thin then there is a plastic layer between the upper cover and the ball. When the upper steel has been drilled through the drill isn't very deep only a few mm, maybe 3 or 4, so the chips are never deep below the surface ans can easily be cleaned away during the drilling process. worse case even if a chip did manage to ge inside there is a small gap between the upper cover and the plastic cap. Chips would most likely fall into this area which aside from a rather small hole in the center of the plastic cap has no access to the ball itself. and lastly if a chip where to make it through this hole and between the ball and plastic cap it should embed itself in the soft plastic and never make it down to the ball seat where the high thrust loads are carried and where wear induces balljoint play.