Early Pinch bolt type front struts - Ball joint issues |
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Early Pinch bolt type front struts - Ball joint issues |
bdstone914 |
Sep 30 2018, 04:25 PM
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#1
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bdstone914 Group: Members Posts: 4,537 Joined: 8-November 03 From: Riverside CA Member No.: 1,319 |
Porsche used the pinch joint ball joint from 1969-1972 on 911's and 914's. They abandoned this design is favor of the taper pin type that was used until 1989 in 911's.
Here is an example of what can happen to these struts as the ball joint pin can wallow out the strut. I do not know the history on this set as I found them when looking for a good pair. The late Cap'n Krusty (John Larson) told he he changed out dozens of these ball joints and struts due to the weak design in the early 70's. To get away from the early struts on a 914 you need to change struts, rotors, calipers, brake pads, brake backing shields, flex and hard lines. I you are restoring an early car check your struts. I have also seen the threads for the pinch bolt strip in the housing and a bolt and nut are used. Attached thumbnail(s) |
Chi-town |
Oct 16 2018, 10:59 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 850 Joined: 31-August 18 From: Disneyland Member No.: 22,446 Region Association: Southern California |
As per our conversation at the swap meet I'm moving forward with trying two different trains of thought.
1. Figure out why Porsche couldn't get this to work when quite a few other manufacturers have been using them for decades. 2. Is it possible to save undamaged units and convert them to the wedge style bolt? After ordering a brand new ball joint from Pelican and installing it my first observation is that Porsche used the wrong size bolt. The factory shouldered 10mm bolt does not come into contact with the ball joint. I need to do some final measurements but I believe the solution maybe as easy as a drilling and tapping 11mm or 7/16-20 bolt or drilling all the way through to be able to use a lock nut on the back to prevent loosening. Doing this would load the ball joint tightly into the housing just like the later wedge bolt does. I'll need to figure out how to bench test it to be sure. |
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