A question (or two) for the assembled brain trust:

How many hours should a competent shop need to repack or replace CV joints on one side? Same question re rear wheel bearings.

Thanks. I am swamped with work and may have to farm this work out, so I wanted some idea of what to expect.

If it's a competent garage with all the shop tools it should take them max. 3hrs - for both. It took me 5 hrs for both in my home garage and I don't have all the tools and I took my time.
Which shop do you want to use?

You can not repack the rear wheel bearings you either replace them or leave them alone!

The CV's are easy if you have the tools! With an air/power tool and the proper 12 point you can remove both axcels including putting the car on jack stands, in about 25-35 minutes. Inspecting and repacking is about 30-45 minutes (unless you find a problem)and reinstalling is about 25-35 minutes including removing the car from the jack stands! When Lennie and I did his I think the whole job of removal/clean & pack but not reinstall was less than 2 hours with lots of beer/smoke breaks and Lennie did most of the work!

That depends, is your car one of the 45% that have a severely stuck outer stub axle?

Is this a 914 shop? Or a 'generic' shop? I have special tools I've built for replacing rear wheel bearings which make it much easier. A generic shop is going to struggle a bit with how to approach rear bearing replacement.

THIS^

I've destroyed stubs trying to get them out. Ain't no fun.

The price is going to depend on both the mechanic's skills and the state of the existing parts. There's a lot of variance w/ mechanics and a LOT of variance in 36 year old parts

The guys I have used for some other work are at Powertech, here in N NJ. They are strictly a Porsche shop and do a fair amount of work on 914s. Good shop, but they are also pretty pricey and keep only "banker's hours" so it's kind of a pain to get the car over to them.

I've been reading about the stuck axles. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

Before I tear into this, how do I know if I need CVs? I hear a light clicking sometimes when on trailing throttle or coasting in neutral. I used to hear a squeal at certain speeds, but it has more or less gone away. Bearing?

I never used Powertech but have been told they are good and $$$. they do a lot of 914s and race them. They should know all the tricks and have tool to do the job.

Clicking is a bad sign. My guess is you only know once you take all the CV joints aparts if you have tor replace them or repack them. New CV run about $80 a pop.

most of the porsche garages i found are focused on 911, hence, they will charge you the same price for working on a 914.

btw, why don't you give chris a call at Tangerine racing. they do mostly 914 and do a great job - I have used them. If you call ahead, you might arrange to have it done while you wait and it's a nice ride up tp CT.

I had a machine shop push and press rear wheel bearings for $40 each side. Guy had no problems and didn't flinch when I showed him the swing arms. To my knowledge, he had never seen 914 arms before.

I removed the swing arms myself and delivered the swing arms and bearings to the shop. Dropped them off before work and picked them up at lunch.