jpmurphy99

Hi all,

I'm in the process of replacing the shocks on all four corners of my 86.5. I chose to go the shop manual route of removing the upper a-arms in the front which worked out pretty well for me. It appears that the driver's side upper arm had been replaced at some time. It was relatively clean and its ball joint boot was intact. By comparison, the passenger side a-arm had a torn boot and looked like you'd expect it to look after 25 years and 145K miles.

When I got them out, I found hat the passenger side a-arm was basically seized. I could not rotate the arm up and down on the y-axis inside its bushings. I'm pretty sure that's not normal. The driver's side a-arm, on the other hand, moves freely within its boots with zero resistance - albeit a little squeaking. At first, I figured that's how it should be but my father suggested that there should be some resistance or, at least, a tighter fit which got me to second guessing. Frankly, I have no idea how it's supposed to behave since I've never held a new one. Can someone out there who has seen one in good shape give some advice on how it should feel in your hands? I was planning to replace the bushings on the passenger side but I'm now wondering if I should be replacing the bushings on both sides.

And one more question...the ball joint on passenger side spins freely with zero resistance. I'm assuming that this is because the lower retaining ring for the boot is gone but I honestly don't know how a bad one would feel. There does not appear to be any play in the ball joint. It just spins by hand with absolutely no resistance. The drivers side ball joint, by comparison, gives a bit of resistance when you attempt to spin it by hand. Of course, the lower retaining ring on the boot of the driver side arm is intact. So my question is...w/o a lower retaining ring to hold the boot in place, is it normal that the ball should spin freely with zero resistance? Or, better yet, how would a bad ball joint feel?

I've been using the resources of this board and those who post here to tackle this job as well as 3 others I have going at the same time (MM,OPG,TB). As usual, I couldn't do this work without all of the existing technical advice available here just by searching. Before I make a poor decision on rebuilding (or not) these control arms, I'm just hoping to get some advice from those who've been where I am before. Thanks in advance for the help and sorry for the long post

Bill Ball

That's the bad side. Once the end nuts are tightened, the bushings should not rotate except for the rubber elasticity. The rubber is bonded to the center and outer shell. There's no stated torque for the end nuts. I did mine to 60 ft lbs with the arm held horizontal. Check that the end nuts are tight.

The freely moving joint may be dry (lost all its grease) and/or be a bit worn. I think there is a spring in this joint (not positive, never taken one apart) so free play cannot be evaluated easily. Anyway a good joint will be stiff, more like the driver side.

jpmurphy99

Thanks Bill - I ran out to the garage to try tightening the bolts on the drivers side a-arm and they were fairly loose. After tightening to 60 ft lbs, I could no longer rotate them by hand. Do you recommend thread locker to keep them from coming loose again?

I also pulled the boot off the freely moving ball joint (p-side). Without removing the boot from the other joint to have something compare with, I just can't tell if they are worn or how worn. I guess this is something I should have checked before pulled everything apart. Have you had any experience with the rebuilt upper a-arms sold by 9298 intl? They look pretty pricey until you compare them to the price of new ones.

chrly924s

You should probably rebuild the joints while you have them out. 928MS has a great kit for this with the instructions. A few hand tools & a Dremel are all you need.

Veer12

Sound Good!!!!!!!

Landseer

Have they resolved the issue of providing wrong, as in completely incompatible, boots with that kit?

chrly924s

I don't know. I originally ordered new boots from Roger to replace the torn ones on my car. When I took the arms off to replace shocks I discovered that when the driver's side balljoint failed on the PO, it ruined the upper balljoint. So, I replaced that A arm & rebuilt both. I used the boots from Roger because they looked like the ones I took off.

jwillman

I just got my kit Friday and will be installing next weekend. Will post results.

Glen McCartney

I installed the 928MS ball joints last fall, very easy to do. I didn't use the boots in the kits, I got the audi boots, worked like a charm.

jpmurphy99

I could be wrong but I was under the impression that the the 928MS kit won't work for my 86.5. Is that right?

BC

Kit will not work with 86.5

jwillman

Where did you source the Audi boots?

Bill Ball

Yes, I put a pair on my car. They are nicely done. It can be hard to evaluate if you need new/rebuilt upper or lower arms. Mine had some in-out movment with modest prying, but the bushings were not obviously broken - just a bit softer than new. This was at over 200K miles and 20 years. Most of the suspension bushing probably deserve replacement even though nearly all seem to me to be in pretty good shape. If there is any looseness or the rubber has separated, then they certainly need to be replaced.

Bill Ball

jp:

Lafayette, CA? I grew up on Carol Lane and have been back in the general area since 92. I'll drop you a PM.

Mark Anderson

We stock the boots http://www.mailordercentral.com/928i...=431 407 377 A