The Dirty 911: The Project Begins...

In reply to dlmater:

Yeah, but there wasn't one of those out in his front yard.

I live on a dirt road where speed limits itself.

Great thread, really enjoying this one.

Any idea on a final sales price, or just going to eBay it?

The plan is to do a "No Reserve" auction on eBay with a starting price that I can live with if there's only one bid. I suspect that it will be one of the lowest priced, non-parts car 911s on eBay when the time comes.

In reply to Woody:

Why not sell us all a $10 raffle ticket?

stroker wrote: In reply to Woody: Why not sell us all a $10 raffle ticket?

I'm game

Raze wrote:

stroker wrote: In reply to Woody: Why not sell us all a $10 raffle ticket?

I'm game

If you can convince 590 of your friends to play along, I might just do that.

I'm in for more than 1.

Sign me up.

I'm down.

How many members are there on the site?

I'll buy 10 tickets. Better odds.

I'm in for a fe w chances too

I'm in for a $50 bill.

Slow down guys... there's more work to be done first.

I started off this morning planning to complete the brake job and flush the brake fluid, but I discovered that I didn't have the right fitting on my Motive pressure bleeder, so that job will have to wait. Instead, I finished up the pedals by reconnecting the clutch cable and throttle linkage and installing some new (used) pedal pads. Nothing really photogenic here.

A few weeks ago, I stopped by a local Porsche race shop when I was looking for a used door handle. I mentioned to the owner that car would start but had a rough idle. He told me that there is a relay under the passenger's seat and if it goes bad, the car will idle poorly. I decided that it was time to look into it.

I started by removing the passenger's seat, which was not absolutely necessary, but would make the job easier. The seats on my '87 use allen head bolts, but this car uses hex bolts. I discovered that, sometimes, you need crappy tools. The only 10mm socket that would fit down between the rails and still engage the bolt was from my thinnest, cheesiest set. It's important to note that you need to remove the front bolts first in order to get the seats to slide far enough forward to access the rear bolts. When you reinstall, do the rear bolts first. Also, it's worth pointing out that all Porsche seats are made by Recaro. Even the cheap seats feel great.

I found the relay and when I tried to remove it, it just came apart. Perhaps I had found the source of the rough idle. Hmmm...

When I tried to remove the guts of the relay from the plug, I found myself with two more problems. First, one of the wires had come out of the back of the plug and, second, one of the male terminals of the relay had actually broken off inside the plug.

I stressed out over this for a minute or two, wondering where I would find a Porsche relay plug to splice in, before I remembered back to my Jeep days. Jeep heater fan relays tend to melt down and take the plug with them. When it happened to me, I cut off the remains of the plug and added female spade connectors to the ends of the wires. I carefully labeled the old plug, numbered the new connectors as I crimped each on onto the old wires and then replaced the relay with a spare.

I padded the bracket with some insulating foam to reduce vibration and loosely, but securely, attached the relay with a cable tie.

I am in the habit of cleaning any grounds or electrical connections that I find. While I was under the seat, I removed the plug from the Jetronic control box and cleaned the contacts. There were 14 tiny connectors in there, which represent 14 possible points of failure. With a quick pass of a small file, they were a good as new.

I also polished the large ground lug underneath the box.

The car starts right up and idles much more smoothly now. As soon as I get the right fitting for the brake bleeder, I'll flush out the old fluid and bleed the lines. My fuel pump bracket and stone guard should arrive by Tuesday.

I just swapped the seats in my 944 and they came with new allen bolts, so I have some spares of the originals if you need them.

Thanks, but it looks as if these are original. Allens would have been easier, though.

Mine were Allens on both sides for what it's worth. I haven't seen hex on any 80's Porsche seats.

Offers valid any time, I can easily toss them in an envelope. Otherwise they're just spares for my junk drawer.

Woody wrote:

NOICE!

Two more notes about this dixie-wrecked thread.

You drive a Cayman S and are spending your free time tinkering on an inexpensive 911. That doesn't make any sense at all and I hate you.

Second, raffles can be illegal as a mofo in some situations and can bring all kinds of pain, so everyone stop talking about how many tickets you want, unless Woody himself wants to look into it.

P.S. GFJ.

This is an excellent write up, I am thoroughly enjoying it. This is my new favorite thread. Kudos Woody, your work is impressive. Can't wait for more updates!

J308 wrote: You drive a Cayman S and are spending your free time tinkering on an inexpensive 911. That doesn't make any sense at all and I hate you.

I'm cheap and I like to fix things.

They're not raffle tickets, they're contributions to a friend. Said friend will randomly give one of his friends an old, used car sometime in the future.

I cheated.

After investigating various methods of bending aluminum, I broke down and brought it to a friend, who is more skilled than I am. He said that it took him about thirty seconds on his finger brake and he refused to take any of my money for his help, bringing the total cost of my replacement floor board to, approximately, nothing.

I was going to paint this before installing it, but I think I'll keep it bare and leave his reference marks in place.

He has had some prior experience bending aluminum.

Wow Woody, yours turned out nicer than mine. I'll have to get a pic later. When we lived in SC there was a shop that built fire engines and ambulances, the guys there made my floor boards for free. I don't think my cuts are as clean as yours, but I think mine are a little thicker.

Your going to have enough work into this thing you won't be able to sell it.