Recently, I found the left front strut on Elwood clunking when I moved it. Seems the ball joint was moving in the bottom of the strut. The ball joint setup is the pinch type, and it is too damaged to repair. I wanted to keep it stock. So I talked with the machinist that is helping with the adapter plate for the 4.0. I suggested a sleeve, but that wouldn't leave enough structure on the ball joint. We came up with the idea of replacing the casting in the bottom of the strut with a later wedge pin type strut. Porsche put them on starting in 72 for safety reasons.

So I gave him the two 914-6 struts, and two /4 struts with the wedge type ball joint connections. He was able to remove the ball joint mount from the /4 struts, and put them into the /6 struts. He told me that to remove the old bottoms from the /6 struts, he had to set them up in the lathe and turn them as slowly as possible, and the 4k lb lathe started to hop anyway.

The welds looked factory when done, and now Elwood has the updated, safer ball joints in him.

So if you find yourself in the same situation, contact Zims Autotechnic at 817-267-4451 and they can fix your factory /6 struts up to use the wedge type ball joints.

Sorry for no pictures, mine would have looked just like ball joint replacement picts.
Maybe my machinist (he is a member here) can throw some pictures up.

Thanks Clay

I didn't take many pictures of the process

This is after cutting off the original "Pinch bolt" bottom in the band saw, the rest of the material inside the strut must be removed

so in the lathe it goes,

I am also working on making new wedge bolt strut bottoms from scratch, so we don't have to cannibalize original struts

These will be hardened 4140 ChroMoly

This is the prototype and its still not done so I apologize for the bad surface finish

Couldn't you have removed the spindle off the -6 tube and slid it onto a -4 tube?

yes but pn is important

some people have all of the skill!

That's why we replaced the ball joint mount in the spindle. The strut still has the original 914 part number on it.

This applies to all 911 and 914 models through 1971. The 1972 models came with the wedge ball joints.

We even discussed making a wedge pin that has a bolt head on it so it looks like the pinch type setup.

funny but we have at least 16 nos RIGHT front 914-6 Strut housings but no left ones, must be the left one that gets all of the ball joint abuse over the years

Somewhere, in some lost Porsche warehouse is 16 NOS left 914-6 struts.

Thats easier said than done
My attempt to " Just cut the welds and press 'er off " well... lets just say that didn't work like I wanted it to
(hint: there is no good surface to press against on a 914-4 spindle to take it apart ,with out possibly damaging something)

Not to mention the way the -4 spindle is welded to the tube is very difficult to cut all the weld out with damaging the tube

And I'd also have to cut and transfer the brake line tabs and that would be just way to much work

Marky approved!

[/quote]

Thats easier said than done
My attempt to " Just cut the welds and press 'er off " well... lets just say that didn't work like I wanted it to
(hint: there is no good surface to press against on a 914-4 spindle to take it apart ,with out possibly damaging something)

Not to mention the way the -4 spindle is welded to the tube is very difficult to cut all the weld out with damaging the tube

And I'd also have to cut and transfer the brake line tabs and that would be just way to much work
[/quote]


I just tried to remove the spindle from a 4 cylinder strut can as well. I had the same exact problems. It did not happen. I was able to remove the spindle off a 6 cylinder can though. The welds are different.

You also have to remember, I have to pay him for this type of work. So "way too much work" translates to $$$$ for me.

If the wedge bolt strut was desired but originality of the part numbers was not an
issue, then the simple way would be just to get 3" brake-caliper spacing 911 struts
that had the wedge bolt (not sure of year range).

Not just for 914/6, I have two 914's with 914/6 or 911T struts, which IIRC are the same 914 part #.

So it’s important to have an original part number on a non original part because ???

The majority of the part is original. The only reason I had the ball joint type changed was for safety reasons.

And our objective for the car is to keep it as original as possible.

the time old question of:

original yet broken
Or
slightly modified yet working

That being said , you could also replace the bottom with a "like" bottom
the biggest reason to use the wedge bolt style is its quite a bit more durable (not that Clay will be tracking his -6) , from what the original bottoms looked (fit ?) like, they were what I would consider unsafe.

The pinch bolt style suffers from being able to stretch and deform when the pinch bolt is tightened (over tightened ?) eventually the gap/ split will distort and close up and will no longer tighten up correctly on a ball joint

ETA: looks like Clay beat me to it

be sure to refinish them in the correct gray color, not black on 914-6's

I understand it’s a good fix and a good modification. I’m just wondering at what point do we stop using the word original on a modified part.

Rusty had them powder coated gray, and I didn't have to fix it after the repairs.

Well, just do about 40 track days and/or autocrosses per year for ~40 years, and they'll come off.

Or maybe you have to be Terry Zaccone for that to happen...

(It was very strange to see the whole hub and spindle fly off the car and bounce across the autoX site!)

--DD

Grey
Off topic here but seems the right crowd to ask.
If Bilsteins were ordered on a six when new what color were the struts/ dust covers ?

So sorta like old top mount battery terminals...

I like this idea, how many guys are sitting on old 3” spaced, pinched struts that aren’t getting used? Don’t know the cost of the mod but could be cheaper to get a set of pinch style and do the mid than finding the ever shrinking stock of 3” wedge style struts out there.

The standalone wedge mount is ideal.

been cutting off wedge ends , every pair of 4lug struts I recycle

It can be done for around 250 a pair if you have donor struts or an additional 100 each for ChroMoly bottoms

@nacho