will 924 trailing arms work?

[Natefank]

so my local pick and pull has a 87 924, and i searched on here and it seems as if the later 924's and the 944's have the same arms. is this correct? i wanna make sure before i go down there and get em

[flat]

Actual trailing arms are the same, but the 5-bolt brakes were an option on the 924s, so it may have the 4-bolt drum setup. If it has the 5-bolt brakes, they are the same as 83-85 944NA

Lanner

[Natefank]

ok so i did some more research on the 924 and all 924's after 1985 were S models, so im deffinately gunna go check em out

[evilC]

Our 1303 super has now got full 924S suspension, alloy arms and complete front struts and all with 5x130 bolt pattern .

[Natefank]

well the car was gone when i got there so ill have to wait for another. EvilC did u use the 924S spindle or the super spindle?

[evilC]

Complete 924S struts and brakes. The early 944/924S LH spindle even has the drilling for the speedo cable. You get a very tough front end that was designed for a heavy front engined car. There are one or two twiddles but all in its easier than all the machining of the beetle spindles if you try to retain them.

Clive

[Natefank]

what do u mean by twiddles?and what did u have to do to the spindles if anything to make em work on a super? i know on the 944 u need the special ball joints and have to do something about the camber

[evilC]

The 924S/944 spindles will bolt direct to a 1303 two bolt strut. The 924S/944 strut will fit straight onto the car as well, which is what we did as the 924S struts were in much better condition and looked of better manufacture, besides you get the strut camber adjustment as well. I converted the top bearing to the 944 mount i.e 4 bolt instead of 3 bolt on the basis that the 944 mount was stiffer in a 1303 application.
Modifications:
Bottom ball joint - The VW ball joint at the end of the TCA is too small so you need to change this to the Kersher ball joint that is the standard VW press in with a larger dia stub rod connector to the spindle. We didn't do that because I loathe press in ball joints, so I fabricated a new TCA that allowed me to use the standard 944 bolt on ball joint.

Steering arm - The steering arm is set lower than the 1303 one so the steering track rod fouls on the AR bar. The solution to this is to reset the trackrod end so that it enters the steering arm from the top instead of the bottom. However, the hole is tapered so you will need a bush with a tapered hole to go into the steering arm. The standard camber nuts, I am told can be used. On ours I had some bushes made and we pressed them in.

AR Bar - If you lower the car then the AR bar ought to be flipped so that it enters the TCA at a more favourable angle to prevent strain on the bush.

With 944 struts you wil have two sets of camber adjustment, the VW one at the inner end of the TCA and the 944 one at the strut bolt position. I found that we needed both to get the 1 3/4deg of neg. camber that we have. I will get around to fabricating some new TCAs with compression struts so that I have a better camber adjustment and be able to dial in caster as well, which the 1303 doesn't have. Fabricating TCAs is easy and should not be dismissed especially as the existing VW one looks very flimsy. The 944 spindles/struts naturally lower the front by 1" that is no bad thing, ours also have 40mm lower springs that give a total lowering of 65mm thats very useful particularly as it lowers the roll centre.

Clive

[Natefank]

wow thank you very much