Front end changeover in progress..., 8/8- Alignment woes Options

[jk76.914]

I'm finally getting rid of the 4-to-5 lug adapters and doing a real Porsche 5 lug front suspension. Contrary to normal practice, which is normal for me, I guess, I'm installing real 914/6 struts with new Bilstein inserts. I bought the parts about 5 years ago on eBay, and the kit was all-inclusive, with freshly painted struts and new ball joints, bearings, rotors, pads, and brake hardware, and rebuilt M calipers. My excuse is I didn't know any better at the time, or I'd have looked for a later 911 set with the later bearing type, but alas, I own it now and everything is in real nice shape.

I think I'm good to go on parts and tools, but I'm trying to find out the torque requirement for the lock bolt for the ball joint. It's an M10 x 30mm x 1.5mm pitch, going into steel threads in the strut; presumably the lower part of the strut, below the tube, is forged.

Looks like an M10 grade 12.9 bolt is good for 50 ft-lbs, but I don't want to chance stripping out the threads. Nor do I want the BJ to pop because it's too loose. Does anyone know the torque spec? Thanks! Picture below-

PS- any tips for installing this type of strut? Thanks!

[jk76.914]

Got the driver's side strut out. The castle nut on the bottom of the ball joint broke free with a few whacks and the big drift (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) .

I dropped some green Loctite on the threads of the big insert retainer nut on both new struts- you could see it getting sucked into the threads and disappearing. Also got the hole in the tab reamed out for the later style brake hose, and repainted. The new strut is in on the passenger side, and torqued. I was able to get 150 ft-lbs with the cheapo eBay ball joint socket. I'll have them tightened up to 180 (per manual) when I get it aligned as soon as it's on the road.

The only glitch is the sway bar alignment. It rubs the strut when I allow the control arm to hang free. I noticed it's about 2.25" from the mounting plate to the square end on the driver's side (plenty of clearance) but over 3" on the passenger side. I found a thread ( http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=85891 ) where a member was advised to tap it over to center it, that it just relies on friction in the bushings to keep it in place, I guess. I'll try that tonight.

You can see how close the lever (flush with the tip of the sway bar itself) comes to the strut. And this is with the control arm jacked up quite a bit. They interfere when it hangs free.