PorscheDoc

Yea, i have been searching through the archives doing some research, but thought i would go ahead and ask.

86 951, all stock everything, power steering, etc. so early offset

Pulled the drivers side control arm and there is a nice crack in the housing around the ball joint. So looks like i will be putting in a new control arm. I have access to the steel arms off an 83 for no cost. My other option is to find another used aluminum control arm and put that in, and more than likely rebuild the ball joint while i am at it (the passenger ball joint is fine, just needs a new boot). Since i am a student on a budget, i am trying to weigh the total cost of doing one or the other. I am going to head to a junk yard in town to see if they have a cheap aluminum control arm sometime this week, so i will know the cost of that later this week.

Question is:
Is it a direct swap to go from the aluminum arms to the steel arms being both cars are of early offset. I have heard that they should be reinforced? Any advice on doing this, not doing this, etc?

Thanks for any answers to a repeated question.

J Chen

Yes Karl it is a direct swap. Just finish my
conversion including the new Red poly
bushings from Weltmeister. For added
strenght, it's better to seam weld the
steel arms.

smokey

Try Blaszak. It will cost a bit more, but you'll be set for a long time, and can replace the ball joints for $25.

Travis - sflraver

The only problem with switching to the steel arms is that you will have to fab up some new sway bar mounts on them. The early cars used a different mounting setup.

johne

Just a thought, VW Cabriolet's had steel arms which are the same as VW Rabbit's IIRC and VW Rabbit's have the same arm's as early 944's IIRC. The trick here is 944's have sway bar mount points and VW Rabbits don't. However VW Cabriolets do have sway bar mount points. I don't know if the mount point is the same, but it may be. And it is definitely worth checking out IMHO.

John

PorscheDoc

What all is involved in fabricating new swap bar mounts? I havent looked at the steel arms yet to know what i am dealing with.

Dave951M

Basically all you have to do is put a hole in the arm where the sway mount goes through in the same location as on the steel part. Then the area has to be reinforced a bit. Since you'll want to box the arms anyway, it's not a big deal. Also, you don't have to go through Blasack to get a set of boxed arms. Any decent welding shop can do the work. The "boxing" is just a strip of steel welded along the sides of the steel arm to add some reinforcement to resist bending.

Travis - sflraver

You have to drill a hole for the sway bar mounts and I like to cut off some pipe to weld around them to hold the rubber bushings in place.

PorscheDoc

Anyone have a picture of a steel arm they have reinforced?