I've had a pair 3" strut housings in my garage at least 2 years now. I have the struts, hubs, calipers and caliper rebuild kits. I tried to do a search on the 3" spacing for the calipers and found a lot of stuff. All very interesting, some helpful, but not exactly what I was looking for.

I assume that my struts are pre-74. If I recall correctly, I can use my existing strut cartridge in them from my stock 914 front. How do I know if that's correct? What do I need to look for to determine that?

Where can I find an exploded diagram of the 911 front end, so I can make sure I have all of the bits that I need?

I have a ton more questions, but those will suffice to start.

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

I believe that your 914 strut should fit , just set them side by side , measure all the structural dimensions , cartrigde cap - external or internal threads . As far as a place to look for exploded diagrams , I use dcauto - dcauto.com- they have the systems broke down and pretty good diagrams , auto atlanta does the same for parts searches. Are you going to use 911 a arms with 911 torsion bars ?? Should be some what stiffer than 914 . Good hunting.

Jaxdream

Thanks Jaxdream. I'll look there.

I have the A-arms, and the T-bars that came with the struts. I'm not sure I want to switch. I need to consider it. If I do, I will need to weld on the u-tab for my 914-style sway bar. The A-Arms came with an underbody one, which I won't use.

I too have the 911 a arms that I am going to use , is the reason that I asked. I just cut off the under body swaytbs and gonna weld on u tabs , I got what appears to be an old tarret 19mm swat bar adustable arms that I plan on using. If you use the 911 torsion bars , you have to use the 911 a arms because of the difference in the splines on the ends of the bars, 914 are different than the 911 spline. Good luck!!!!

Jaxdream

So I did some more leg work tonight.

Here are some lousy pictures:

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These are the strut housings. I "think" that these will use my existing 914-4 strut. Can anyone tell? (I know the picture sucks, I htought I had it on macro, blah blah..)

Here is the bottom of the strut. Will this work with the stock 914-4 ball joints? Or is this one of those "while you're in there" things that I should just change the ball joint?

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Lastly, here's a really lousy picture of some nuts and bolts. I have:

3x Brass banjo fittings.
3 x caliper to banjo bolts
10 x m8 nut/bolt/washer combos (not shown). Dunno what these are for.
2 x caliper to strut grade 8 bolts (need 2 more)
6 x strut to dust shield bolts.

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I have another post coming with the diagrams to show what I have and/or what I am missing.

Here's the diagrams:

This is the strut diagram. The red marks show what I'm pretty sure I have:

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Here is the brake diagram. The blue shows what I need:

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I have 10 of the m8 nut/bolt/washer combo but not sure what those are for. The diagrams at DC auto say I need them, but it doesn't say for what?!?!?

Thats a good Q Joe. I have been sitting here trying to think what you would use those for.

Ball joints are the same , but it's one of those I'm in here , might as well replace things , it all depends on the condition of what you have - is the rubber boot tore any ? are they loose in any way ?? Remember that if you are going to use the balljoints from the 914 a arms that they will have more weight and stresses put on them from the 911 parts not to mention the wheel tire combo you will eventually use- ball joints= money well spent and new pins are reasonable too. You are close to pelican parts so shipping would be reasonable too , I live close to AA and dc auto , so my ship charges are in line with the region I live in - shipping is part of the cost of parts also , there are no walkin Porshe parts places close , where I live .Just keep digging and trying to make some well informed purchases , like others here , I have bought parts that I will not use . In the course of gathering , my ideas and updates have changed , yours may also. You getting the front together , what about the rear ?? What type of brake setup , hub setup ?? Cv joint axle setup??Do you have a narrow body or flares ?? Keep up the hunt !!!

Jaxdream

The 911 struts you have are the early pinch bolt type which require an early ball joint.
If your car is a 73 on which has a wedge pin you will need to get the early ball joint.

Here's what's on the car already:

Turbo Tie Rods
19mm Brake Master
SS lines.

Wheels will be 15x6 "flat-6" fuchs. Body will stay narrow.

I am not ready to contemplate the rear setup yet. Likely I will keep that as simple and cheap as possible. Open to suggestions, but not yet.

I want to rebuild the calipers this week. I think I should be able to get all the parts together to swap out the front end in one night.

Cleaned up the struts tonight and found the part number on the strut. They say 914 341 091 00 and 914 341 092 00.

I just looked them up and I have 914-6 front struts!!

Um... Is that a good thing?

Also, how do I tell which calipers I have? They have 3 inch spacing, but I want to make sure i Know which ones I have and which rebuild kits I need.

Send a pic to Eric. Worked for me Joe...

Thanks Eric. Not a bad idea.

BTW: looks like you all had fun on the Rt66 run.

Not this Eric, that Eric, no Eric...

I know, I know. LOL

Actually this post is for Eric Shea, and hopefully he can help me out.

Here are the calipers that I have. I got them with the aforementioned 914-6 struts. They are steel and have 3" spacing.

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(continued next post)

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So my questions are:

1) Which rebuild kit do I need for these? I have 2 kits with the 901 351 964 11 part number on them. Not sure if that's correct.

2) Which rotor can I run with these? Obviously, I'd like to run vented rotors up front. But with these struts being 914-6ers, I am concerned that the calipers are too and therefor I am looking at a solid rotor.

Any/all help appreciated.

You could look up the strut insert for your 914 and it usually shows if it also will fit the 911 at least thats what I did on my bilsteins that fit the 911 boge struts I have. In my case I had to get the different caps to hold the larger shafts of the bilstein struts. I started a thread on it awhile back.

Upon closer inspection, the calipers look to be in very good shape and not in need of a rebuild at this time.

Cleaned them out with some alcohol and compressed air. The pistons move nicely. Put some dot3 back in, and sealed them up. Ready to go.

Next: Ball joints. I need to get some of the old style joints to work with my struts. Bummer, but it's a while you're in there job.

So all I need now are 2 caliper bolts, ball joints, inner and outer bearings, rotors and pads and I think my front will be ready to rock and roll!!!

Damn! So that is what happened to Andy's old camera... You get it cheap Joe?

I deserve that. Thanks Rob.

It's actually my wife's camera and it's a decent one (Canon). The problem is that I have no clue how to work the damn thing.

OOpps !! My bad I didn't look at the bottom of the strut in the pic .
Jaxdream

Look for a setting on the body that says AF/MF. I think you have it set for manual focus and in that low light you will have a hard time setting it. Nice project though. What wheels are you going to use Joe?

15x6 Flat Fuchs

mmmm... sexy old school. Nice. Whenever I see them on a 914 I have to check and make sure it isn't a real six.

So I blasted, primed and painted my struts. Here's the blurry evidence:

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I think all that I need are:

Inner bearings
Outer bearings
Rotors
pads
ball joints & pins
2 x caliper bolts (caliper to strut)

and to figure out how the hard lines need to connect to the calipers and my fronts are done!! (I think)

They bolt the rotor to the hub check fitment if you have rotor and hub.
Jaxdream

LOL

Yeah, found this out last week when I was helping a friend replace the rotors and pads on his 911SC. Funny how seeing everything in place clarifies things.

Can anyone confirm the part number for the early ball joints that I need. I have it as:

901-341-049-00-M69

Please let me know.

Thanks,
Joe