Cross-member cleanup

As part of the current front end suspension rebuild, it was time to remove the front cross-member and give it a serious clean and degrease. As you can see it was nasty!

Due in part to the previous power steering leak that was fixed when I first bought my 944, the drivers side (this is RHD european car) was covered in a thick coating of grime. The cross-member is easy enough to remove by undoing the four 19mm bolts located on the underside. (Obviously the engine is out and all the attached suspension parts are removed).

For this job I thought I'd try some GUNK foam degreaser that comes in a spray can - which turned out to be more of a spray on liquid degreaser and less of a foam...

...thankfully it did quite a good job of shifting the muck. After using the whole spray on can and reverted to the red backup can of GUNK - which doesn't do as good a job as the 'foam' stuff.

It took a lot of elbow grease to remove virtually all of the grime off using a small 'toothbrush style' wire brush and copious amounts of degreaser and water - but the results are satisfactory:

The reinstallation is aided with the use of a hydraulic jack to hold it in position while the four bolts are tightened up. The left side of the cross-member has oblong holes, so attaching the right side first avoids any locating issues.

All the other front suspension parts have been dropped off at a sand blaster!

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Living with a Porsche 944

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