johntorg

I have a new shop that can make up some new boxed 944 steel front control arms for early offset 944s. They did such a great job, I thought I'd have them make up one or two extra sets. They are based on new aftermarket steel arms and are "boxed" on all three sides and painted black. The arms accept a replaceable ball joint. Price is $225 per pair shipped to the lower 48. I can include new replaceable ball joints for $15 each. If you need a single control arm (wreck?) Its $120 shipped. I am not making any money on this, just doing a favor for those looking for 944 race control arms.

I am now having the fabricator reinforce the "barrel" that goes over the front bushing, although I have not seen any failures in boxed rods

Chads996

I assume these are early offset only? Even so, great solution.

C.

johntorg

Yes they are early offset only. Actually it is probably possible to lengthen steel arms to late offset dimensions if the chassis mounting points line up. Has anyone tried this?

Potomac-Greg

I'd be tempted by a set of late offsets.

johntorg

If anyone wants to be the guinea pig for late offsets let me know. The approach would be to cut off the ball Joint mount and splice in a 30mm section, then box the sides all the way out to the ball joint mount. If anyone has already tried this or knows of any problems with this approach let me know. Given the flimsy nature of the OEM control arms, I'm pretty sure that a spliced and welded one could be made stronger than stock.

aben8057

would these fit an 86 951 or only 944's?

Van

'86 951 = early offset (so it will work)

johntorg

Van's correct. Will fit any early offset 944 or 951.

johntorg

For those who don't know, the reason for using steel arms is that they don't break, like the aluminum arms do when a car is lowered. Charley and Fabcar and a few other replacement arms are available, but at a significantly higher cost. My 944 Cup car has raced since 2002 on the same set of boxed steel control arms. If I didn't hit the turn 9 wall at Road Atlanta, they would still be working.

944Cup

If anyone is in need of late offset aftermarket arms, a new edition to the market is a product made by High Strung 44 that look like this:



Price is $725 per pair. More affordable then the Stock aluminum, Charlie arms and Fabcar. They are chromoly steel control arms with adjustable end links on the inboard side, to allow improved adjustment of camber and caster,plus spherical Teflon coated self lubricating rod ends, OEM 3-bolt Moog ball joints, and sway bar mount bushings.

We're doing a grp buy with another 10% off . If interested, email me at: cup944@aol.com

Techno Duck

I have an old issue (maybe 2 years old) of one of the UK Porsche publications. There was a company in the UK Which was doing exactly this. The article basically went through the control arm options for the 944. I looked up the company which was mentioned but could not find any info about it on there webpage, nor did anyone on Rennlist or Pelican seem to know anything about it or have run them. I just looked for the magazine but cant find it unfortunately.

Techno Duck

I found the info about those modified steel control arms for late offset cars. Its from Issue 158 if 911 & Porsche World. Quoting from the article

"Porscheshop has modified Golf-style steel arm to fit any of the later cars - including the 968. 135GPB each. Note laser cut (and TIG welded) plate to place ball-joint in correct position plus modified rear mounting point to the chassis"

Essentially they welded in a place where the balljoint mounts to make up the offset difference, and the rear mount was modified so the later style caster blocks can be used with the control arm. I can scan the article also if anyone is interested. The place selling the arms is

www.porscheshop.co.uk

johntorg

I would really appreciate it if you could scan it in and Post it. If possible could you send a copy to my e-mail address. I was signed up for the High Strung 44 arms and will eventually go that route. But my budget is a little tight now. Since I decided to transfer the good parts from my wrecked race car to an 87 chassis, I may ask Danny at Fabworx to whip me up a set in the interim.

Techno Duck

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...s/SCAN0007.jpg

Click the link for the full size scan, i figure it will save anyones modem from exploding inadvertently . The article is really 4 pages, but the other 3 pages are just instructions for swapping the arms and a writeup on the differences between the aluminum and steel arms, nothing really useful. The big thing about the article was seeing the modified steel arm for late offset use...the picture is the 2nd row, left most picture.

While the steel arms are not nearly as elegant as the aluminum or aftermarket options, i think they are the best bet in terms of cost / function. I do like the looks of the HighStrung44 arms and the price of them is great. But am in no position to buy right now. I wonder if tabs for the 968 control arm mounted brake scoops can be added onto the HighStrung44 arms also? Im also on a tight budget right now but hope to address me suspension completley this summer with aftermarket arms (Was considering the RacersEdge and now the HighStrung arms also) and finally going full coil overs.

johntorg

That looks pretty straight forward. What doesn't seem to be mentioned is changing the swaybar mount to the round type. I'm not sure how the early 944s with steel arms mount the sway bar. Not necessary in my case since I am using weltmeister sways (Bracket shown in the picture above). I also think I may be able to used the original rear mount for the bushing/Castor block, since I'm using Racers Edge bushings. If I'm correct, I should only have to weld in the ball joint extension.