I've had six 914s, four of which were drivers, but somehow I've managed to steer clear of diving into any front-end projects. Never quite had all the tools I needed, or the parts budget to do it right - and it's a job that intimidated my younger, less organized self.

Well I finally ran out of excuses as I've collected all the parts and tools to fully restore the front suspension along with the car's entire brake system. It's all well neglected and worn, including the brake system which has frozen adjusters on the rear calipers along with a very spongy pedal.

The rear suspension is coming out, eventually. It's already running Koni yellows with 180 lb springs. When I got this 914, I was under the impression the front was also setup with larger torsion bars and Koni yellow inserts, but that ended up not being the case.

My poor car is in desperate need of some bodywork and paint, but I've made the cabin a pretty nice place to hang, and at this point sorting the mechanical bits is far more important than exterior cosmetics.

I love these 4-lug 15x7 ATS wheels that my buddy Dug found for me -
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Up she goes -
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Worn tie rod inner bushings -
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After a fair amount of fussing and cussing, I was able to free the lower steering column. It was all straight-forward from there and the lot came right out -
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Growing up we had pickle forks, but I've got a "thing" I'm contending with that makes swinging a hammer a bad idea, so I had to end up getting low impact tools like this -
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Speaking of tools, this worked perfectly with my impact gun -
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What a dirty mess. The drop-cloth collected most of the crud and since it's old I'll just end up tossing it vs trying to clean it. I kept all the dirt out of the steering rack, but I needed to check to see if the grease was dried out - which it wasn't, and I can't feel any play in the outer bushings (whew!).
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Rack grease -
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So much for there being Koni yellows in the front to match the rear.
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Mulholland by Interpart, the 100k mile shock! Not so sure about that -
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The rack cleaned right up -
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Getting the cruft off the struts and shining up the spindles, then it's off to get powder coated with the other major components.
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Well, so much for not using a hammer on this job. All for naught as the mighty hammer with a torch and then a slide hammer did absolutely squat. I had to bring them over to my pop's and used two pickle forks to get ball joints out -
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Not sure what's up with the extra spindle pic as it's not showing up in the post edit page.

BBQ Time!
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Found out tonight the car's rocking stock 4-cyl torsion bars. Pretty sure I have a set of 911 a-arms with 19mm bars, but I won't have time to confirm for a few days.
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19 mm anti-sway bar. I really need to clean up the wheel wells -
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Time to get all the big bits off for powder coating once I sort out if I'm using the stock a-arms or if I'm going to use the 911 arms with the larger bar. I have a friend with /6 torsion bars I could buy too, so I've got options.

Here's all the parts that are ready to go on, once the parts come back from coating/plating - except for the Koni yellow inserts which are on their way now -
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It's going to be pretty stiff with the Konis, 19mm bars, poly-bronze ER bushings, and 180 lb springs in the rear - however it's been running on the front bump-stops since I've had the car so it can't be worse than that, right!?

Looking good!

Thanks Andy!

Your car is like the evil twin to my car! Love it!

You're well on your way.

Nice and organized always make for a fun project. Nice job.

I did some digging around and found I had another set of complete a-arms in my parts storage. Could they have the upgraded torsion bars I'm looking for?
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Wahoo, bigger bars! Oh wait, I didn't want to go this big. I was hoping to find a set of 19.5's, but instead got 21's. Crikey.
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Fortunately, I have a friend that could use them on his IMSA car. He's also hooking me up with 19.5mm bars, so it all works out.

I've got my pile of parts that need powder coating ready to go. With the Elephant Racing Poly Bronze bushings - Does it matter if the attachment spots on the a-arms get coated or should I make sure they tape them? If so, do I tape them in advance as a way to make sure the folks doing the work know not to coat those surfaces? My tape won't be oven proof, but it lets them know to tape there, right?
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In case it's not obvious -
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Randy, Randy, Randy! Call Chuck at Elephant and ask him if it is an issue or not. I am sure you are not the first person to go this route. It has been a while since I put the Polybronze bushings on my car. My arms were rattle canned. I remember his directions specified using JB weld to epoxy the steel sleeve onto the a-arm. There is definitely room for that goop. Talk to your powder coat person and see how thick the layer usually adds. Also ask him how he wants you to indicate where you don't want the powder coat. Maybe he will give you the special tape.

Wait, the ER poly bronze require JB weld in the trailing arm?

Randy, You may want to consider Elephant sphericals or the Rebel Racing ones they were patterned after. I have the stock torsion bars off my SC collecting dust. Think they are 19 mm and are yours if you need them.

Andy, Andy, Andy! I just purchased a roll of PET heat resistant tape from Bezos so I can tape both the a-arms and spindle area in advance of dropping off the parts. I saw the note about JB Weld in the directions too, and I think it does adhere best to bare metal.

Thanks for your reply!

We're discussing the front a-arms and I'm not sure about the rear trailing arms.

https://www.elephantracing.com/suspension/i...nstructions.pdf

"2 –Clean up the ends of the control arms.
Be sure to remove paint and any surface irregularities on the
section that contacts the race. The control arm end should be
clean, grease free and smooth to the touch. Use sandpaper and
degreaser as needed to ensure good adhesion in step 3.

3 – Fit bearing races onto control arms.
To accommodate for manufacturing variation in control arm shaft,
races are made slightly oversize. Races are glued to the control
arm and the gap filled using a two-part steel epoxy such as JB
Weld, not included.

Coat the inside of the race with a thin layer of JB weld. Similarly
apply a thin coat to the entire mating surface of the control arm.
Your goal is smooth thin layer on both mating surfaces that will
completely fill the space between race and control arm with no
voids.

Press race on with a twisting motion until race butts against the
control arm flange.

VERY IMPORTANT –
Be sure to clean ALL adhesive off the race
and flange. Even a tiny amount will interfere with the bearing fit.
Allow the JB Weld to cure."

I already have the non-spherical ER poly bronze bushings on the work bench, but the sphericals look great. Rebel Racing makes a great product too.

Thanks for the SC bars offer. I'm all set with my buddy bringing me his extra 19mm bars in trade for the 21s, but thank you. They're 914-6 bars, so I'll need his 911 a-arms too for the different splines.

Cheers!

Ah ok. Thanks. I've been eyeballing the sphericals for the front and poly bronze for the rear... I hate stiction lol...

Really glad you started this thread. It'll be a good walk through for me before I make final decisions about my car.

I'm stoked you're getting something from all this! Please pipe up if you have observations or questions.

Who are you using to do the powder coat? Do they do blasting too? I am going to need some things done one day.

Another fan of the rebel racing or spherical bearings vs the poly bronze. I have the poly bronze on my 930, I’m going to swap out for the rebel racing product (I have a set on the bench) ,and use the polys on my track car.

The polybronze require maintenance every 5k miles, it’s basically a consistent mess of grease down there.

On a track car I’m ok with it cause of the constant inspection, cleaning, maintaining, disassembling, etc. but on my weekend drivers its a PITA.

If I were you I’d resell the polys and upgrade to rebels or sphericals.

I use Vader in Rohnert Park. Soren Andersen used to have some guy come down weekly from Ukiah that he swore by, but I haven't reached out to him in a while and am not sure if that's still happening.

I appreciate the advice, thank you! I'll likely just deal with the grease and maintenance for the time being. Elephant racing calls for inspecting and lube every 10k miles, which is more miles than I've put on the car in the past 15 years.

Should the torsion bar ride height adjusters be painted or powder coated? I'm not sure what they're made from, so any help would be appreciated.

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I've plated and powder coated. Either works fine. If you powder coat, you just have to make sure you keep the powder off the splines and threads. Paint should be fine as well. Cerikote would be awesome.

Awesome, thank you