My car is again pushing my buttons. In the hunt for the loose steering problem and intermittent knock I have now come full circle.

In the beginning, I rebuilt my control arms. I used the super-deluxe kit that I bought second-hand from a member on Pelican. It was missing only 1 pinch bolt and was otherwise unused. My control arms had 170k miles on them, and although I felt no looseness at all I decided they should be done as preventative maintenance. This way I could be certain that the sockets were good. Everything drove great for a while, until I had it aligned. Then my steering rack came loose, then I tore a bushing on the steering rack, then my front wheel bearings went...... Oh, I forgot, somewhere in there I had to change both inner and outer tie rod ends, and the intermediate shaft.

Finally I thought I had it all sorted out until I drove it from Calgary to Vernon. The looseness was back. So I got it back up on jack stands, and found that the play is coming from the ball joints.
Now this is really starting to test me. I have only put 7000 miles on them since they were rebuilt.
If I jack the car up and grab the wheel, there is significant side-to-side motion, perhaps 3-5* of rotation when viewed from the top/bottom. If I grab the bottom I can move it in/out about 1/16-1/8" from a neutral position.
If I remove the wheel and watch the ball joint while I twist and shake the rotor assembly, I can see that the spindle is moving towards/away from the car at the bottom. I can also move the spindle towards the front or the rear of the car by about 1/16". This play is present on both sides, but is worse on the driver's side.
In my head, there should be absolutely no play here. The pin is held straight up by the pinch bolt in the opening, and the socket should be a tight fit.
Am I wrong? Or are my ball joints f'ed?

I have done between 20 and 40 auto-x's on these ball joints, but I do drive nicely on the street. I have not hit any large pot holes or curbed the car.

 

I only got about 5 track events out of my rebuild kit, the economy version. Through much advice, I've switched to Rennbay's Track kit with the solid upper bushing. This eliminated my chucking from the ball joint, but some still remained. The rest of the play has been traced to the upper strut mounts. You can actually see the strut moving back and forth as you push on the wheel. Also, this shows up both as sloppy play in the steering and a clunking sound while cornering. I'd look there next.

 

I checked it out as best as I can, but it's very tough to tell whether the upper strut mount is loose when there is this much play in the ball joint.

I rebuilt mine with the super deluxe kit, I really expected a lot more from it
I will probably rebuild again with the track kit. I expect that the sockets are not damaged, but only the plastic is crushed. I will inspect it in a couple of days......
Until then I am trying to talk myself out of setting my car on fire.

 

Why exactly did you expect anything from a repair kit designed for something that is not intended to be repaired? I don't get it. It wears out you throw it away and get a NEW one.

You got a rod knock? Just pour in Marvel Mystery oil and be rest assured you're good to go!

No difference.

 

So you are trashing everybody who has repaired their ball joints?....
I'm sorry I didn't want to spend $500/side for new control arms when all that is broken is a small piece of plastic.
Rod knock means replacing rod bearings. Play in a ball joint means it's time to rebuild. It's exactly the same idea, so I don't see where your argument comes from.

 

I've also had "rebuilt" control arms last less than 10K miles. I'm not one of those people who thinks "Porsche knows best" on everything. But in this case I think they made the arms "non-repairable" for a reason. There's no magic involved in the repair kits, Porsche could have done the same thing but chose not to. I don't think they did it just to be a pain - which they do sometimes. They did it because they want the control arms *replaced*. They're cast aluminum and it's a highly stressed part - especially the ball joint socket. They want it replaced so it won't fail and cause serious damage. They have plenty of other designs with replacable ball joints, with this one they chose not to.

--Brian Morris
89 951

 

Here is more info http://www.arnnworx.com/ControlArm.htm it seems they don't last.

 

I bought the Rennbay 19mm ball kit. I had them rebuilt by a Dealership mechanic, and have not had one problem.

 

I bought the Rennbay 19mm ball kit. I had them rebuilt by a Dealership mechanic, and have not had one problem.

How many km on the balljoint?

 

if you want total bronze bushings, then go to www.ssiauto.com



They're also on sale for $124 a kit.

 

And you have a new steering rack?

 

It also depends on how much you lower your front end. The standard ones are not equipped to be lowered very much before the ball joint binds and fails. If you lower the car and push it hard on street or track you should get an aftermarket arm. I bought the ones from RacersEdge which after research looked the best option. These are not cheap but nor is my car or me.

 

Not a new steering rack, but I rebuilt this rack myself only 20,000km ago. I checked the rack in every way including for free play and it is absolutely fine. It was simply leaking from one of the end seals, so I resealed the rack.

The front end is at stock height. I have the M474 option, but I don't think that changes the ride height at all. I was running 7" wide front wheels with Fuzion ZRi's on them. I frequently pushed it to the limit, but with narrow halfway sticky tires I didn't think I was really stressing it that badly. Apparently the super deluxe kit is not meant to see any track time at all.
I am contemplating installing a new front suspension next summer, but the ride height will not be changed at all if I do.

I asked some questions about the ssi kit. I am curious about whether it comes with the bottom plates, springs, pinch bolts, etc. We'll see what they write back with. If it is a complete kit then $124 sounds pretty darn good to me.

 

The SSI kit was the one that broke a pin in the arnworx link above. Even though they have the bronze bushing it still has a weak pin - it is 17 mm and it has the groove all the way around the pin. The Charlie arms - and the rennbay track kits have a 19 mm pin with only a slot for the pinch bolt. I'm not sure about the other brands. I wouldn't use the stock pins on the track or autocross. Here's a broken one:

http://www.autobahnperformance.com/p..._balljoint.htm

--Brian Morris
89 951

 

My first rebuild failed quicky, since the cups were worn. I redid them with the Rennbay Track kit which has bronze cups and such. Might want to try that.