Project Porsche 987.2 Cayman S: Getting the Suspension Together! Part 1

Howard unbolts the front of the trailing arm from the chassis.

We noticed that the toe link and the ball-joint were really stuck into the upright and the usual method of hitting the area near the shaft could not break them loose. We had to get a gear puller to get them apart. This meant we had to take the assembly off the car and use the puller on the bench to get the ball joint off.  We think this is because the Porsche parts are so beefy.  For instance, a 350Z who’s alloy parts are thinner usually come apart with a single good tap with a ball-peen hammer.  The Z’s upright also flexes like crazy and causes severe brake knockback as well with sticky tires.

To get the upright out we had to remove the axles. Here Howard unbolts the CV joint from the transaxle stub shaft.

Now the assembly is almost ready to be removed.

The upper strut bolts are removed.  The meant we had to disassemble the car’s interior.  Since we are going to do some engine work later this was not an issue.

Japanese cars usually have two bolts holding the strut to the upright via ears welded onto the strut tube.  Porsche has the strut tube go into the upright and get clamped in place via some pinch bolts.  This is much stronger and stiffer but it is more of a bitch to take apart.

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