Wandering Wheels
 

Any front end specialists out there? My 1984 944 has been brought in to be serviced a few times to diag the 'crawling' effect. The car pulls toward the crown in the road and occasionally knocks at the right wheel resembling an old Ford ball joint when driving over small bumps or cracks in the road. My mechanic has now installed a ZF steering rack and lines, wheel bearings, alignment, balanced all 4 and insists that there is nothing else wrong with the front end, other than he suggests trying front and rear control arm bushings. I've told him that I still experience the 'rattling/knocking' that closely resembles the sound (and feeling in the steering wheel) of a worn ball joint but he insists that the ball joints are fine. (Struts/strut-mounts are good.) My front end is still sloppy and still knocking over small bumps. Any thoughts before I have him install bushings?
Frustrated and going broke.

My money is on a bad ball joint as well. If there is a knock when you hit a bump, it is almost always a balljoint. The only way to really check it is to pull the spindle off the ball joint and check for play. The control arm bushings could be an issue (especially the rear caster blocks...upgrade to the 968 M030 blocks), but they don't usually knock. You might have a couple issues causing the problem. I would have him remove the control arm and verify the ball joint first. The good thing is that the early ball joints are cheap and easy to replace. Might as well replace the bushings and the ball joints all at once on each control arm.

Thanks again Doc.