polar964

Have any of you folks had your wishbones replaced recently? If so where did you go to have the work done and how much did it cost?

I see that Berlyn Services price is £185.38 including vat which would appear to be the best price i can find. However, I would require a full wheel alignment afterwards and therefore it would make sense to have the complete job done by someone well experienced and competent especially with 964's to do the work.

I know Alex had organised a day with Chris Franklin at Centergravity earlier this year, whom specialise in wheel alignment and geometry, unfortunately i missed this event. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Cheers

Pesty

you are in north wales. I think the mechanic I use can replace the worn bushings with powerflex poly eurofane ones. Im sure he can do the alignment afterwoods 2. I imagine price would not be too far off that price for the complete job.

he is based in warrington

Strega(UK)

Am just in the process of poly bushing mine. There is a kit on E-bay for £110 for both arms and the front anti-roll bar. Any more expense would be down to labour so try having a go yourself!

boxsey911

Is that Bert's price for one wishbone? If so it's pretty good and then you just need them fitting. I don't think replacing the wishbones should affect you're alignment but I'm happy to be corrected by someone if this is wrong.

I believe the cost of a mechanic replacing the bushes is almost the same as fitting new wishbones because of the time involved. So the only way to save money is to buy the new poly bushes and fit them yourself. If you're not going to do this, make sure you keep the old wishbones as you could get these refurbed with new bushes to use at a later date or sell on (I'd be interested).

p.s. Yes, Chris Franklin is very good for things like this and if you want an alignment done anyway.

dfinnegan

The wishbone (drop links) are not alignment elements.

Edit: The above statement is wrong! I was thinking the wishbone was the bent drop link in the front. Of course, it's not. Sorry.

I'd like to hear more about the refurbishment of the wishbones.

bawmnot

Hi Paul, I had wishbones replaced a few weeks ago, but it was along with the dampers/springs, so difficult to figure out how much it would have cost doing the A frames alone. £185 is a great price, but 964 wishbones seem to be in short supply at the moment - Bert didn't have any in stock when I enquired (along with quite a few other places), so I'd check with him direct.

I think I did get a quote for wishbones alone, but the info is at home - I'll try to dig it out and let you know. Interestingly, compared to what others are saying here, I seem to recall an alignment was recommended when replacing wishbones alone (9m).

Cheers

Andrew

boxsey911

Good information about refurbishment of the wishbones in this rennlist thread:

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...light=bushings

At the end it suggests the alignment should be checked as Andrew has also heard (thanks for correcting me )

Superunknown

Wishbones are selling for £162 each not inc vat from type 911. So for 2 it would be £380 and you would have to factor in labour cost to fit. Surely getting the bushes changed for power flex ones would be the cheaper option??

dfinnegan

Thanks for the link to the bush replacements.

Upon reading that thread I realized that I was thinking of the bent drop links and not the wishbones. So, my statement that these are not alignment elements is incorrect. The alignment elements do connect to the wishbone and having changed the bushes I expect an alignment check is in order.

However, I truly do not know the correct answer to the question on alignment!

My apologies,
Dave

Computamedic

You would certainly think so, but the thing that screws up that logic is that the wishbones are designed without the facility to change the bushes so getting the old ones out and leaving the housing clean enough to take the new Polyflex ones is no mean task. The wishbones have to be removed and the old bushes removed on the bench with a hacksaw and tenacity. If you are not doing the job yourself you'll land up paying for 3 times as much labour compared to just changing the wishbones for new ones. There's not much in it TBH.

Regards

Dave

Red rooster

"getting the old ones out and leaving the housing clean enough to take the new Polyflex ones is no mean task. The wishbones have to be removed and the old bushes removed on the bench with a hacksaw and tenacity. If you are not doing the job yourself you'll land up paying for 3 times as much labour compared to just changing the wishbones for new ones. There's not much in it TBH."


Dave ,

If I can do this job , anyone can ! Getting the OE wishbones on and off is a PIA,

while the poly bushes make it easy . I only did that replacement bush project to , primarily , make my life own easier ! and have a superior wishbone system.

A 964 , suspension touched or not , needs a good alignment every year if you

want proper handling/tire wear .

Geoff
----------------------------------------------------------------
KS400200,the oldest 964 on Rennlist,unless you know differently !

Computamedic

Geoff,

The point I was trying to make was not to detract from the effectiveness of the Polyflex bushes but to highlight the fact that it only really makes sense - in terms of money saving at least - if you do the work yourself, or by someone you don't have to pay by the hour.

I'm sure there are many 964 owners who may not have the facilities, space, tools, inclination or knowledge to do jobs like this. Personally, with my driveway, I'm hard pushed to take a wheel off, much less fiddle with suspension. I'm sure you wouldn't even try it with a wishbone in one hand and a hacksaw in the other!! Forget workbenches, vices, etc. etc.

I recall when I first raised the subject with J Z Machtech and they put every obstacle in the way to make the job more expensive - they just didn't want to do it.

Regards

Dave

boxsey911

Dave, although I've not had to do the job yet, from what I've read elsewhere I would agree with you that the time involved in replacing the bushes is a significant factor. Therefore I'm inclined myself to get hold of some used wishbones first, strip the old bushes out and put in new poly bushes so that they are ready to go straight on. So minimising the car 'downtime'.

warmfuzzies

& on that note, if anyone has a Nearside arm for sale, please PM me, this is the route I'm going down.

Kevin.

Strega(UK)

From start to finish it took about an hour to replace the bushes in the arms, I did have to get the rubber inserts pushed out on a press first however, then it it was a matter of hacksawing through the outer part of the bush, cleaning up then fitting the bushes.

Jota engineering down near me are going to be doing arms on an exchange basis soon I believe.