50-something degrees on Jan 1st? How could I NOT take a drive.
Happy New Year everybody! Wishing you all peace, joy, and successful automotive endeavors!
50-something degrees on Jan 1st? How could I NOT take a drive.
Happy New Year everybody! Wishing you all peace, joy, and successful automotive endeavors!
Took advantage of another unseasonably warm day to turn a couple of wrenches:
Here's hoping your warm-no-start issues are permanently solved.
Porsche is the answer when you have to get to the gig with your bari sax (can't do this with a Miata).
Now, or course, an electrical gremlin popped up - the parking lights won't turn off. I washed the car yesterday, so I'm thinking something may have gotten wet and is shorting out (or the relay, or switch failed). Disconnected the battery at the gig venue to save the battery so I can drive home.
...ahh, the beauty of a self-healing car. No issues with the lights when I got home, so stuff either dried out, or completely fried...
The last time I drove the car, the speedometer decided not to work. It had been a bit jumpy prior to its demise. Pulled the speedometer from the dash and put a drill on it to make sure it worked (I've had it apart, so there's always the possibility that I berkeleyed-up something) - it did.
Ordered a new cable and took advantage of some nice weather today to replace it.
Nice to have a working speedometer again. If I never have to crawl under the dash of this thing again it will be too soon...
An "exhausting" weekend...
Ready to do battle with the exhaust system.
The tailpipe was a little rusty, and a bit crusty in the middle...
Tried undoing the bolts first, but in the end, the reciprocating saw won the day.
Yeah, that doesn't look good, either (the rear hanger is supposed to attach to here
Turns out the center hanger for the exhaust wasn't really doing anything, either:
It's supposed to look like this:
Yes, It's like a $16 part, but I didn't feel like ordering one and waiting, so I decided to do the Grassroots thing and make my own.
Compared to the fabrication I've seen from others on this forum, I feel like a kindergartner with a box of broken crayons who was asked to draw an exhaust hanger, but it's reasonably functional...
Feel like I won the battle of day 1...
Day 2...
With the exhaust out, I had good access to change the transaxle oil.
The fill plug was a little stuck - constant pressure with a breaker bar was going to strip the plug, but the impact on low got it out.
Rear exhaust hanger fought me a bit, but that's what chisels are for...
In the end, I got the new exhaust installed.
Started it up and it sounded ok. Rain tomorrow, so I'll give it a test drive Tuesday...
This is all sorts of awesome.
Took it for a ride this evening. Much quieter inside the cabin. All those rusty joints must have been leakier than I thought...
That's awesome. Great job on the exhaust. What a task
Re: The parking light situation.
Some (all?) Porsches have an actual parking light feature. I forget exactly how it works, but if you have the light switch in a certain position, turn on the left turn signal (seriously, I know that part is correct), and remove the key, it activates some or all of parking lights.
I'm sure that this is explained in your Porsche owner's manual, but I'm also sure that none of it is clear or obvious.
That is a feature for parallel parking. Turn on the turn signal then take the key out, and the lights on the traffic of the car will stay on. It uses the turn signal lights, but with the key out they won't flash, just stay on.
AKA why German vehicles have batteries the size of a small refrigerator.
In reply to TED_fiestaHP :
A feature I haven't tried, but could explain an issue I had where I thought the electrics were shorting out after a bath. Forgot to check if the turn signal stalk was on, or not.
For the picture above, I had just left the car running...
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:Re: The parking light situation.
Some (all?) Porsches have an actual parking light feature. I forget exactly how it works, but if you have the light switch in a certain position, turn on the left turn signal (seriously, I know that part is correct), and remove the key, it activates some or all of parking lights.
I'm sure that this is explained in your Porsche owner's manual, but I'm also sure that none of it is clear or obvious.
My e30 is supposedly like this. I keep forgetting to try it though. I remember first hearing about it on Mercs actually. Wonder if it's just the germans.
Snuck out to a cars and coffee this morning. Technically, a "Voitures et Cafe" - there's a large contingent of French-car enthusiasts in our local "club" and they organized the event with a nearby French bakery. Lots of quirky French cars and we got croissants! The Porsche gets parked in the back...
Panhard 2-cylinder
A face only a mother could love
Nice Peugeot 504 convertible
And croissants, of course
That 504 vert! Swoon.
As I've been driving the car a bit, it's been getting progressively buzzier, so much so that I fear it's starting to shake itself apart. The last time I crawled underneath it, it looked like the engine mounts were original and nasty, and the sway bar and control arm bushing could use some love, too.
Time to prepare for battle:
(I'm still using air tools, but realizing that smaller, battery-powered things would be really nice)
Everything I've seen online about the engine-mount job shows the control arms to be in the way of removing some mounting bolts, but since I'll be replacing those, I decided to remove them and the sway bar first to get them out of the way. Opens up access to the lower engine mount bolt, and to the subframe bolts, which I'll need to remove so that I can get a little more clearance to remove the mounts.
Removing the front control arms was pretty straightforward, except for a bolt "interference" issue with with the steering rack:
If you jack-up the suspension to normal ride height, you can just squeeze the bolt through.
This sway bar bushing has seen better days
All sorts of access now to get to the subframe bolts
That dent in the control arm (not supposed to be there) made removing the driver-side sway-bar mount a bit of a challenge, as it sort of pinched the top nut (which is why I had the sledge hammer and long screwdriver)
Got out the hoist to support the engine (it doesn't quite reach where I need it to going in from the front)
When I was hooking up the hoist, I realized that one of the things that was rattling in the engine bay was the engine lifting bracket, whose bolts also clamp down a lid and gasket at the backside of the camshaft.
One bolt was missing, and the remaining two bolts were about 2 threads from falling out. Also a decent-sized oil leak from back here as a result of that gasket not being tightened down. Got that tightened before hooking up the hoist.
Then fun could begin - attacking the engine mounts! Bottom bolts came off, no problem. Then I started in on the bolts that secure the mount to the mounting bracket (2 on each side). On the driver's side, I could get my full-size ratchet on one of the bolt heads on top, and hold the nut at the bottom with an open-ended wrench. For the other bolt, I needed a stubby ratchet, which I didn't have, so I made do with a cheap no-name ratchet I had on hand and a reciprocating saw.
And now I have a stubby ratchet and was able to get the second bolt out.
Unfortunately, by this time it was getting dark, and weather was moving in, so I packed it up for the night (old car covers come in handy).
Stay tuned for part 2: passenger-side engine mount bolt removal, new control arms with bushings, and new sway bar bushings...
Nice work. I'm enjoying your thread.
Had a couple of minutes last night in the garage to assess parts.
New control arms were available as a "kit", with bushings and ball joints. With the once-a-year PCA discount at Pelican Parts, the price was pretty reasonable. The new ball joints are bolt-in, which is nice. The originals were riveted.
Decided to start assembly by pressing in some bushings.
It may look sketchy, but it worked
The tubing bender made the perfect spacer in the vice to allow the bushing to poke out of the hole.
The mounts for the other bushings carry over from the old arms and have a date with a wire brush and a lick of paint before they get installed.
Turns out I bought the wrong sway bar bushings, though - need 23mm but bought 20mm. New ones are on order, along with new tie rod ends as the boots looked cracked when I was crawling around under the car the other day.
Now I have to get back to those engine mounts...
Suspension pieces, oil leak edition:
Which bracket was under the oil leak?
Which sway bar bushing? (Both bushings started out the same - same part number)
Three baseball tournaments for the kid (including one in Nashville) plus some crazy weather has kept me from a getting back to the car until today (there is a benefit to early morning local tournament games).
Finally got the engine mounts out. The passenger-side mount had collapsed so much that I couldn't get a wrench around one of the mounting nuts cleanly, but I finally wrestled it out. You can see how badly the old mount collapsed compared to a new one.
On the old mounts, the mounting holes at the top are not threaded, so there's a bolt and nut. On the new mounts, the holes are threaded, so there's no nut required. Unfortunately, the original bolts are too long to work with the new mounts, so I've got to wait until the hardware store opens up tomorrow to get some new bolts and start the re-assembly process.
It's small progress, but progress nonetheless, and I'll take what I can get...
Nice work! I just did front control arm and sway bar bushings this spring... Ended up having to make new mounts for the sway bar bushings as I wanted poly, and its yet another NLA part.
Where did you end up sourcing your muffler from? Mines not as bad as yours, but its not long for this world either.
Nice work so far, had several 914s and two 356s, a;ways seemed like the Porsche maintenance was never really done.
Where is the "Voitures et Cafe?" Thinking of going to the one at Larz Anderson later in the year wen the car is closer to being "done."
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