Rear suspension rebuild

[55Outlaw]

Hi, It all started with a noise from the passenger side of the car which lead me to believe it was the rear wheel bearing. So as I dug in I decided that all the rubber bushings all needed to be replaced on a 44 year old car (the car is a 1971 911T Targa). I ran a thread asking for advice on what color the different suspension pieces were supposed to be finished in from the factory but I didn't get a lot of response, so based on pictures from the 911 registry and what was left of the original finishes left on the pieces I decided to get started.

[classic]

Good start.

Are you replacing with rubber, or something else? I've been very happy with my elephant raceing rubber.

Check your bars for rust, if any they are toast. It looks like you may have one stuck, you can drill a hole in the end cap to punch it out. New caps can be purchased new.

I missed your other post, but for finish most of the area that you're doing was had painted black. Most people go for satin black powder coat, and goals zinc on your hardware.

Hope that helps.

[55Outlaw]

I started this thread after the work is almost complete to maybe help someone else out who is thinking of doing the same. I did use Elephant Racing rubber for the spring plates, drop link bushings, sway bar bushings etc.

[55Outlaw]

So I sent everything out to be powder coated that I thought should be black and while I was at it I had the brake rotors done and the exhaust in a temp silver coating.

[55Outlaw]

Then all the hardware went out to get gold zinc plated. I have my own black oxide kit so I did the cv joint bolts and the brake caliper bolts in black oxide.

[55Outlaw]

One of the hardest parts of the project was getting the control arm bolt out and back in, you practically have to pull the motor and transmission. I removed the muffler, disconnected the ground strap, tach cable and the clutch cable. You have to move the motor and transmission as far back towards the rear of the car as possible to facilitate the removal and installation of the bolt.

Very important part that I almost forgot! You have to disconnect the shift linkage at the nose cone.

[55Outlaw]

I mocked everything up after I chased all the threads that could have any remnants of powder coating.

[classic]

Nice work.

Did you fit new Schnoor washers, the little serrated ones?

I would have gone for new bolts on the CV, but you should be fine.

[55Outlaw]

The CV axles are brand (not remanufactured) new so all the bolts are new but when I cleaned them up the black oxide was cleaned off so I decided to make them look new again.

[55Outlaw]

Control arm and spring plate are back on! Here I am using the long bolts that come with the Elephant Racing spring plate bushings to help pull the spring plate onto the car. Their web site is very imforitive and helpful. It took me quite a while to get the old spring bushings off so I would suggest buying their bushing removal tool.

http://www.elephantracing.com/index.htm