Gentlemen,
I bought one of Rich914's fantastic strut down Boxster setups and am going to get new Ball joints and put on turbo tie rods. Respray control arms etc. I have spent my kids college tuition (only slightly joking) and want to get parts that are a good quality OE or OEM part for the best bang for the buck. Any ideas of brands, wholesalers, retailers etc. would be very much appreciated. Now, if I can just figure out how to get the Castle nut of without the special tool I will be ready to rock:)

Spray the threads down with PB blaster or liquid wrench and let them soak over night, the use this special wrench, 36" ! Mine came off real easy. Good luck.

On the OE 914 Tie-rods & Turbo Tie-rods the best are the OEM Lemforder (sp?), try to stick with OEM/OE-Porsche parts as you said.

Don't waste your time & $'s with the much cheaper repros ... unless you just enjoy rebuilding it over .... & over .... & over ....

JMHO!
Tom
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Not sure on this conversion could you tell me why it is an upgrade,I do know about junk copy parts however ...some lessons learnt in the past lol.

Get in touch with Eric at PMB Performance

http://www.pmbperformance.com/catalog/item...565/1478286.htm

That.s where I got mine....Lemforders.

Putting them on this weekend...

So......after installing the sway bar and new turbo tie rods here are a few lessons learned list at least for me.

1. Get the Weltmeister backing plates and tack weld them in. This eases installation as there is no way you can accurately drill these parts and then compress the bushings to install the caps and bar. This will also keep the bolts from shifting around and tearing the thin wheel well later.

2. Leave the tie rod ends off the rod after installing the new rod into the rack. Slip the bellows over the tie rod and then snap the bellows into the collar on the turbo rod. Take some bearing grease and lightly grease the rack where it is slightly tapered and grab the bellows with both hands, (this is a little tough on the drivers side) and slightly twist and push the bellows until it has landed and slipped onto the rack.

3. Connect the tie rod end to the strut and tighten the nuts with cotter pin. Now move the strut so that it now compresses the bellows. Use the HF "dental pick" set to pull the edge of the bellows into the groove on the rack. Take spring holder that you should have just moved near the center of the rack from the old bellow and take the pick and pull in into the corresponding groove on the bellows to the rack.

4. Lastly...check your "fing" ball joints carefully. I thought I didn't have to replace mine but the passenger side is shot. See pics. and a question from various searches:

Leave the castellated nut on the ball joint and try and remove the tapered pin first?
I have banged on the freekin pin and it will not budge. Frustrated as I was ready to put everything back together today and no sense not replacing it. It looks to be original.

Some pics.

Bad ball joint

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Sway bar install:

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Sway bar install:

Zinc paint....touched it up later in the well.

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Harbor Freight MIG welder....$85 bucks and worked like a charm. I have another welder at the house but the amperage is too high for the thin 18 gauge that makes up our cars for the most part.

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BTW.

Big pipe wrench as posted seemed to do the trick quite nicely for most of the installation. Getting the sway bar in with the bushings was the most work. Wish I had just planned to replace the ball joints...now I'm gonna have to wait for them in the mail. Biggest challenge now is to get the locking pin out and the old ball joint out.

Nuther pic of the strut and ball joint. Assuming I can push the strut up once the pin is out and then push or separate the ball joint from the a-arm.

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I undo the ball joint pin, leaving the nut on the end completely protecting the threads, soak overnight in PB Blaster, then heat the pin with torch, and smack with a 3 LB. hammer. It usually pops out without too much struggle. Use another big hammer to back up the opposite side of the strut, by the pin, so you aren't just moving the whole strut around. Enjoy!

Yep...PB Blaster.

Popped right out.

Thanks.

Now have to wait for the new Lemforder ball joint. Supposed to come this Tuesday.