im new here so bear with me guys. i get my car (86 944 turbo) 3 years ago. soon after it was in an accident . teh rear left quater was hit, right at the wheel. since this was never a daily driver, and being a full time college student, i neither had the time nor money to fix it up imediately. so it sat for a while, with what everyone thought was just some body damage and a broken rim, and torsion bar mount. well, last summer the body work was started on teh car and a new rim was put on it. the guy who did the body work said there was no frame damage and the car was good to go, just needed an alignment. now the wheel was visably off. but i trusted his judgement. so i drove it from teh shop to get it aligned. 2 feet outa the driveway the rear half shaft broke, back up his driveway it went. so i bring it to anotehr mechanic and we get a new axle for it. i figured the axle was damaged from teh accident. axle goes in fine, so my dad brings it to get it aligned. when he gets there the mechanic notices imediately something wrong with that wheel. this place was a certifeid porsche mechanic. they put it up and had the frame straightened. so it turns out the frame was defiantely bent. anways, tehy straigten it and align it to within specks, and my dad drives it 250 miles to surprise me with it. i drove it around for 3 days and then the same axle broke again. i looked underneth and when i grabbed the shaft it moved back and forth and side to side. the boot was loose and grease was on teh ground underneath from teh inside cv joint. so now my car is sitting in my driveway again with a broken axle again wating for me to get the cash to fix it again. BTW the axle was a brand new part, nota rebuild. any ideas what coulda caused this? could it have been installed improperly? also, is it as easy as it looks to replace these? wheres a good place to find one of these at a resonable price? i checked 944heaven i believe and they had good prices. also, i noticed on a pic of one axle there was what they called a stub axle too, the pics of the axle on 944heaven there was no stub axle?

ok now the second problem. my power steering went bad right before the accident. i went out to drive it one day and i noticed i ahd no power assist, and the fluid was empty. i filled it up and it was empty within a few miles. my dad had that checked out at the specialist too, and they quoted him $2k and highly recomended they install all new hoses and everything. honestly, im i wouldnt mind not having the power steering, ive heard of someone putting a steering collumn from an early 944 into a turbo to get rid of the power steering to save weight.

oh, and one more prob. when the moron did the body work he didnt put the factory alarm back in it. how can i get rid of it? the key switch is now inside the car and needs to have the keey in it to start the car. aparently its wired to the fuel pump. i tried crossing the wires but no luck.

sorry for the long post, and my general lack of knowledge. any help would be apreciated.

 

Well I'm no expert but it sounds like you have a fairly major problem in the rear end due to the accident. I've always been real afraid of cars that take direct hit in the wheels. It probably moved the entire rear end over. Just look at the wheel that got hit and everything it is connected to and you can see everything that could be affected.

As for the power steering, look to see where it is leaking from. You can rebuild the rack yourself for less than $100 and the pump for $20. You can also buy both already rebuilt but they are more like $200-$300. I just did my pump and it has cured the leaking problem. Unless the lines are leaking there is no real need to replace them.

 

thanks bro.

 

jc22

It's possible that the rear trailing arm is bent.

 

any more opinions/sugestions? im thinking i should fix the axle now and jsut sell it and look for another. but id hate to sell my baby if its something easy to fix. she was my first porsche.

 

is this something i would be able to determine myslef by looking under the car? could this be the cause of teh axle breaking twice now?

 

If you do sell make sure you disclose fully the history of the car. I can't blame you for wanting to get rid of it, I'd be thinking the same. Keep in mind that the next one may not be much better and depending on your "investment" you might think about replacing the rear suspension from a parts car. At least you know what you have.