Super Dave

I have a 85-1/2 944 with the unreplaceable lower ball joints. A local DFW parts house does rebuild them but for $200. I also have a 84 944 parts car with the replaceable lower ball joint type controle arms ($17 per ball joint). It appears that both control arms have the same bolt pattern and can interchange from the 84 to the 85-1/2. Even though I will not have the aluminum type arms I would rather have the $366 bucks to apply other places on the car.
My question is has anyone out there ever done this change over and how did it go? The cost savings from $400 to $34 just makes since.

David M
hpandsd@ev1.net

johnmshaw

I would love to know the answer to this too as my 86 951 has 2 crapped out arms.
anyone know the answer

Tabor

Skip does.

I think you just need the rear mounts and sway bars.

Skip

You can use the steel arms on all 944's to 86. I have them on my 86na (modified and strengthened for SCCA club racing by Markus Blaszak).

Here's a link

Here's a pic of them installed:


And here's a pic of the parts you need for the arms:


You'll also need the rear caster mounts (just the clamps, I got mine from a local recycler for $10), and the sway bar mounting apparatus (or, I had mine modified to use the cast arm sway bar mount so I could use a 30mm sway bar)

Awesome mod... now my ball-joint replacement costs a whole $13! The only thing you lose is the caster eccentric adjustment (easier to use than the sliding clamp bolt method, but none-the-less effective)

Good Luck!