just got an '88 944S!!

Ah yes, I've been searching for months. Years. I gave up my hope for the Turbo cars because all of the good ones were well out of my price range. After many, many missed attempts on n/a cars i finally stumbled across this car, a 1988 944 S with 80,000 miles on the dot on it (working OD). I got it for $2,500. Yea yea, you are probably saying, wow--rancid pile of poopay for that much. Well, it does have some dents and there was an obvious (unprofessional to say the least) break-in attempt with a screw driver, leaving bare areas on the paint that must be fixed. Also, the car needs ball joints and a motor mount, but she runs like a champ!! No timing belt records so I'm going to go ahead and change all the belts and water pump, to be safe. No dash cracks, interior is perfect. Shifter seems vague i think i need a bushing. The car came with 928 wheels and new tires too! After all is done, ill probably end up spending about a grand on parts, it's good I do my own service. Im so elated that I have something that blasts my 9000 turbo to such a great extent in handling that I had to post. Any suggestions with the ball joints? I know i need to press them out....I havent been able to find replacement ball joints (the joints are clunking/snapping badly), just the kits with boots and the nylon cup rings...or a new control arm (ouch! spensive!). One final thing, there is a very slight table-saw type of noise who's pitch is dependent on speed coming from what seems like the transaxle area. Could i be frying a differential slowly or some input shaft bearings?? I'd like to know from some of you more experienced 944 chumps.

Thanks, Evan

Hey I had a 87 's' and it had a bad ring and pinion. $550 for the parts, $75 for a gasket kit, and a weekend to change it-good luck!

for the ball joint rebuild kit, I found a site
www.rennbay.com
They have COMPLETE kits and very helpful people. I think the instructions for the project are even posted on the web site.