I've read so much about poor quality parts from FCP Groton on the 700 series forum that I decided to rebuild the front suspension our 93 944 completely with the cheapest that they had to offer including ball joints and tie rod ends and complete bushing replacement. The only concession that I made was for a set of urethane bushings for the sway bar link rod. This car has 251K miles with the original factory bushings, struts and shocks, so it was definitely time to do something! Front end shudder while braking was awful.

I recently brought an 88 744T home for parts and found a set of new gas strut cartridges in it. One in a box in the trunk and one in the left front strut. Thinking that these would be great for a cheap rebuild project, I used them for the cartridge replacement on the 944. To top off the cheap rebuild, I replaced the rear shocks with a set of Gabriel Gas units from Autozone.

The only problem that I ran into was the front tie rod ends had rust welded to the tie rod and had to be taken off with a lot of heat and a big pipe wrench.

The car was finished today. I aligned the front with the old reliable long straight edge and a tape measure; then took it for an hour and a half test run. The car has never handled so well! Of course I do not have bragging rights to exotic components, but I do have quite a savings with my total cost at $130.00 for the suspension rebuild on the the front end (Thanks you FCP Groton!) and $47.00 for both rear shocks.

I know someone will tell me that I probably won't get more than 20 or 30,000 miles with these parts, so what? That is a problem for next year... or later.

Kindest Regards,
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Will Dallas, www.willdallas.us, www.willdallas.org, www.willdallas.com 86 245 DL 205K miles, 93 940 250K miles, 88 765 GLE 149K miles, 87 745 , 86 244 DL 200K Miles, 88 744T 200K miles