Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

In a change to the listed programme (broken bolt removal), I decided that I might as well risk breaking a load more bolts and make it worthwhile trip for my mate who runs a business specialising in broken bolt /glow plug/etc removal by attempting to remove the central exhaust section from the manifold to the back box connection, the associated hangers and the heat shield in preparation for the torque tube removal and the the clutch replacement.
However, I am pleased as punch to say that not one of the exhaust bolts or even the centre heatshield screws gave me any grief whatsoever
Waylander commented that I should have bought a lottery ticket with none of the exhaust bolts breaking but given that I had broken a bolt yesterday, albeit on the rear torsion bar assembly, I felt that luck was not totally on my side and I've not purchased a lottery ticket just yet.

All is not good news however, as the rubber mounts are in a dreadful state with severe corrosion resulting in delamination between the rubber and metal sections and on others having corroded away to such an extent that the remaining steel is bending under the load and would likely have completely failed in the not too distant future.

Looks like the wallet will be taking a battering to get this all sorted.

I'm a day late with this update as it ended up being a very long day and I could not face firing up the PC by the time I got home.
The centre exhaust section heat shield was cleaned up with the wire wheel and then the rust spots treated with Bilt Hamber hydrate 80. I then turned my attention to the passenger side spring plate and the removal of the remaining bolt and the rubber bushes. Despite repeated soaking with de-blocker, and a home brew of ATF and acetone, nothing had persuaded the nut & bolt to come undone. I broke out the Mapp gas, cooked it until it was cherry red and then using the 3ft breaker bar, persuaded it to crack loose and then used the impact wrench to get it completely off.
The next job was to tackle the bushing removal. I pondered this over a mug of tea but made a novice mistake of not referring to that well known mechanic, Google Search. Had I done so, I would not have wasted the next couple of hours cutting slits in the rubber and prying off increasingly smaller chunks of rubber. Just as I was about to completely set fire to it, I got a message to say that my friend was back home and I could pop over with the Torsion bar housing so he could remove the broken bolt that had stopped play the other day.
I'd like to say it was straight forward and done in 5 mins - only it wasn't. It put up a really good fight but ultimately, it was defeated and I could complete the disassembly. We felt the need to celebrate and as I was driving, I had an alcohol free Czech beer- believe me, it tasted far nicer than it may sound! Whilst the bolt was being persuaded to come out, I had looked up the options for the rubber bushing removal and the one with the most recommendations involved using heat on the spring plate assembly to the point that you could hear the rubber start to pop and then simply slide it off, followed by cleaning off any residue with the wire wheel. With the Mapp gas torch already to hand, we gave it a go and after a good 3-4 minutes of cooking, the rubber was starting to fizz & pop nicely and it came off in only large lump with not too much residue left in place to clean off afterwards. f only I had done that when at home on the passenger side spring plate assembly! Would have save a bucket load of time. Oh well, you live & learn!

Today, the centre exhaust heat shield got painted and I managed to get three of the four rubber bushes off the spring plates. I ran out of Mapp gas to do the remaining bushing so that will be a job for another day. Where I had removed the bushings, I got all the residual rubber cleaned off with the wire wheel. I've still got the actual plates to clean up & once this is done, I will get them off for replating. I bagged up & labelled all the nuts bolts & washers that have been removed over the past days and put them away. A good afternoon's work.

Awesome work and great write up, following!

Thank you. Its really nice to know that it's not just Crank case and Pauly following along!
I probably should really have started my own thread but as I'm too challenged to be able to post pictures, I hope my descriptions paint a good picture of what is going on.

Not so much progress today as my plan to do a nice round trip pf dropping and collecting stuff from the powder coaters and dropping stuff off for Aqua blasting was down in flames by 10am Instead, it was just the powder coaters which at least got the very sad looking torsion bar housing out of the car and replaced by a lovely shiny rear cross-member and equally shiny gearbox mount brackets.

Does collecting parts count as doing work on the car Admin might disagree but for today, it will have to as that's all I managed to get done

Unfortunately, there will be no Porsche related activity this weekend as my social secretary has mismanaged the diary and scheduled my attendance at a BBQ on Saturday On Sunday, there will be some Porsche content as I know that Waylander has his his lovely 968 on Display at Capel Manor classic car show- its just off the A10 (London bound side ) exit from the M25.

Enjoy the weekend.

You do know it would be a lot simpler, if you just bought Simons 3.0 turbo instead .

probably
However, the bank manager, he say ‘No’ besides, I’ve never really wanted a turbo car of any description, it’s always been the 944 S2. I don’t know why, it just has.

Done my handbrake shoes the other day, hadn't done them in my 15 years of ownership. They were in a sorry state........

OS pair had no friction material left and NS had some but it pinged off when I disturbed the shoes! A bit fiddly, particularly the twisty spring retainers as the hub gets in the way so you need to angle in the pliers which isn't ideal. Swapped out my adjusters for a shiny new looking set I picked up and can report the handbrake is now spot on for upcoming MOT later this week.

Stuart

An S2 you say, oh dear...

Disappearing post experiment.

It didn't get mysteriously lost! Well that ^ one didn't. Maybe this one will.

Lets wind the (digital) clock back first...
The clock was not getting a permanent live when switched off. It never did work when switched off for the whole time I owned it.

After lots of head scratching, removal of the trim and clock, still couldn't work it out. Which lead me down the route of spending a weekend initially studying wiring diagrams and then the DIN - Deutsche Industrie Norm, the numeration (common across Europe) and colour coding.

Something I should have probably done waaay back but nonetheless, worthwhile to an extent that so much has been revealed and de-mystified. I also came across '12v' which is a laymans website containing all sorts of useful information. This, I had discovered previously when I had an immobiliser issue. Very useful:

https://www.the12volt.com

What I had discovered is that at some point in it's life, the light grey and blue pins in the Bosch connector block had been switched - probably an accident considering the back of the block clipped off rather easily. Problem solved.

More recently, I the drop link on the n/s door snapped. Damn job. I elected to purchase 2 sheets of door membrane from VW Heritage parts at a mere £7 per sheet and it's perfect (1 is enough if you decide to do this yourself as it will do both doors) and some double sided sticky tape - the cheap stuff, not the 3m, it's far too strong*.

*Sorry Waylander, that other stuff was very impractical.

I also elected to remove the window. A job which gives you excellent access and it is per the Porsche manual. Something I was a bit loathed to do but is actually pretty straightforward. That is, 'straightforward' as far as Porsche jobs are. It also allowed me to lubricate and clean the glass.
I have to now do the drivers door microswitch. Pesky damn things them Porsche door handles but soo much easier with the window removed.

I bought an assortment pack of those fantastic solder butt connectors and this lead to another big job - sorting out the audio. The antenna to the screen had snapped off long ago and I tried in vain to cautiously solder a new one on but failed. The other issue was that all the wires including the speakers were put together (after chopping off the Blaupunkt connector block) by some previous owner and they used female and male bullet connectors creating a knot as big as your fist, all wrapped up with copious quantities of insulation tape. Only 1 speaker was working. Pioneer one's. I presume that wasn't standard factory fit?
I bought 4 relatively inexpensive Alpine speakers and set about sorting the audio and soldering in a connector block (using heat shrink) for a more modern Kenwood which I got for a mere £35 from the scrapyard including bluetooth, a USB port and of course, I can connect my phone to it. I also fitted a digital booster which runs off a live from the ignition when switched on only.
The whole job took 2 and a half days. The rear one's were a pig to fit and would probably have been much much easier if I had removed the glass but I managed. Just like I managed to partially remove the left hand door card when I could not open the passenger door. I read various posts and was expecting a mare but got access and opened the door within an hour.

Anyway, the last in this long post was the buzz I was getting at 4000rpm ruining a drive. Balance shaft belts a tooth out?
Well anyway, I removed everything you need to remove to get access and it was all lined up perfectly. But it made no sense. I consulted the manual, Clarke's garage write up and numerous posts on various forums. The only thing never mention was a post which stated that the two keyways for the balance shaft sprockets should be at 12 o'clock when the engine is at TDC. I could not tell without removing them.
When I originally got the engine and replaced almost every ancillary - water pump, seals, sump gasket, belts, pulleys etc etc etc, I meticulously took notes and pics and I marked the sprockets with white paint and red paint with a clear 'T' for top and 'L' for lower when I removed them. Now, unusually (and in my defence your honour), both sprockets were stamped with an 'O'.
I removed them to discover that they were not correct. After re-assembling, the car runs beautifully smoothly and pulls like a train. She is so addictive, she is my Heroin. I did a 120 mile drive on Saturday swooping along semi empty and very bendy Galloway roads. What a transformation.
Can I assume that the previous owner of said engine never took it above 3800rpm and it was like that for some time? I dunno.

I was also having cold start issues and that was thankfully, just the DME temperature sensor. Genuine Bosch one fitted for just £13. Problem solved.
I also had to replace a Lowe idle control valve... which I replaced with another Lowe. It was that long ago I fitted it, it was way past warranty. Pity but sourced from Germany for 63 Euros including p+p. Arrived in 10 days! Perhaps customs missed that one.

Next up - getting the flywheel re-faced. Bollox (cheaper than a new flywheel which is a snip at £401) as I have pretty bad clutch judder when coming down the gears not up. Yes, the engine mounts are new and the gearbox mount I rebuilt with liquid Poly, shore hardness 85. It's pretty solid.

There's always something to do on an old Porsche.

Great stuff! There are always jobs to do on an old Porsche. Akin to the Forth Road bridge, as soon as you're done painting it, you need to start again!

I am currently enjoying stopping with ease on hills with my newly added friction material in the handbrake shoe department. I can confirm metal on metal does not work particularly well.......

Only have a small list of jobs currently. There is a new fuel filler hole gromet wanting fitted, NS front indicator seems to have slight water ingress, re-stick my front scuttle area cover, attend to a slight wiring problem in the OS door mirror and fix the damn temperature gauge. 2 points on that lot, firstly - the temperature gauge I've given up on after years of trial and error. Tried gauges, clock pods, rugby balls, PCB's, wiring harness......problem always comes back. Secondly - I'm clearly not looking hard enough for more issues!

Oh, I forgot the new bowden cable needing fitted to the OS door interior handle. A Heath Robinson repair is currently keeping the broken one in check for now.

If you have followed my extremely long thread on PCGB, Turbo Engine Rebuild (there are more but that one has most of the journey in it), you will know I've done a lot lately, just got a no advisory MOT, and am just about to embark on a 750 mile road trip with the Mrs. We have a splendid route planned, here (near Glasgow Airport) to Coniston Water for a bit of Bluebirdy stuff, then onto Morecambe, York, Scarborough, Whitby, Blyth and finally Dunbar before back home, with activities and an overnight at each place. This is what all the work was for!

Said thread if anyone bored - https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/thr ... ld.123001/

Stuart

Good luck and enjoy!

Cheers!

One thing I am not sure of for my trip. I've got new rubber all round but can't guarantee that a puncture won't happen. I will take tools and the trolley jack, but all I have is the original space saver tyre, which I doubt will inflate, and a can of tyre weld and a compressor.

Anyone used tyre weld in an emergency? Clearly don't have room for a spare front and a spare rear (different sizes) and a tyre machine in the boot. It will be tyre weld or a flat bed if I get a puncture.

I do have breakdown cover so can get ferried to my hotel and then seek a tyre repair or a new tyre from there. Not sure I have any other options.

Stuart

Yes - tyre weld is perfectly good.
The only downside is fussy tyre fitters as some of them won't touch a tyre that's had tyre weld in it; they can't be bothered to clean them up and will give you bollox about not being repairable. Oh and it can jam up the valve but that's not much of a problem.
My local tyre outfit are fine with it.