914 Front Suspension Rebuild, Rebuiling the front suspension Options

[westgl]

I dropped the complete front suspension on my 1974 914 today,

I pulled the caliper, & rotor, back plate off.

Then I took out the double taper bolts so that I could pull the shock/axle tower off of the ball joint at bottom of shock tower on the a-arm.

1. I could not seperate them as easily as the manual says, anyone know how to get those apart.

Then I took out the tensioning screw so that i could get the torsion bars out as I have new ones and remove the old rubber bushings, the rubber bushings appear to be bound to the a-arm/mounting flange and are not easily removed.

2. How do you remove the old rubber bushings as the a-arms do not come off very easlily.

Anyone have any tricks/tips

Thanks

Gary

[MrKona]

You can remove the rubber bushings from the a-arms with heat. Put the a-arm in a vise, heat it up with a torch until the rubber bushing crackles and smokes (it stinks). You then twist them off.

Then of course, you have to decide what to replace them with. There are several bushing options that have been discussed a lot... varying from cheap to expensive! I'm sure others will write in, as I'm currently in the same boat and trying to decide which type of replacement bushing to use.

[ConeDodger]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Burn them off... Just heat them up until they expand and you cannot stand the smell then what I did was slice them with a box knife and peel them off...

You can remove the rubber bushings from the a-arms with heat. Put the a-arm in a vise, heat it up with a torch until the rubber bushing crackles and smokes (it stinks). You then twist them off.

Then of course, you have to decide what to replace them with. There are several bushing options that have been discussed a lot... varying from cheap to expensive! I'm sure others will write in, as I'm currently in the same boat and trying to decide which type of replacement bushing to use.

[VaccaRabite]

Then I took out the double taper bolts so that I could pull the shock/axle tower off of the ball joint at bottom of shock tower on the a-arm.

1. I could not seperate them as easily as the manual says, anyone know how to get those apart.

For the ball joints, its pretty easy.

Mount the A-Arm in a vise, and use a LARGE pipe wrench on the weird sorta castle nut that holds the ball joint to the arm. It will scar the nut a little, but it should be reusable. Mine were. Don't buy the Pelican ball joint tool.

Zach

[jaxdream]

I got the zdmak nut socket and had good sussess with it , I've seen on evlbay a group from the upper northwest that's selling some form of rubber a arm bushings for 911 / 914 made by a comp out of Germany called URO , anybody have any experience with this product , fair pricing compared to the Neatrix rubber bushings. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

Jaxdream

[PanelBilly]

So what are you going to do, now that its all apart. rebuild to stock or improve?

[westgl]

So what are you going to do, now that its all apart. rebuild to stock or improve?

I have been buying and stock piling parts during the winter, But the time has come

I have for the front;

Elephant racing Polybronze bushings with easy centuring devices,
Elephant racing monoball cartridge
Bilstein hd strut inserts,
Turbo tierods & new rubber covers,
New wheel bearings,
Zimmerman rotors,
rebuilt Ate Calipers,
19mm Ate brake master cyl,
Weltmeister adj. 22mm sway bar,
steering rack spacers
23mm hollow torsion bars (I did not buy new seals for this yet)

That might do it for the front suspension, well beside a good clean up and a good painting with zerorust

I was thinking, while the front was out I will install Stainless steel brake line from Brake resivoir down, and install S.S. fuel tubing since the gas tank is curently out

Since I will be installing a 40K mile 2004 subie 2.5L motor now would be a good time to run my waterlines,

and maybe install a new fuel pump anyone have any ideas on what fuel pump to use with a subie motor

Thanks

Gary