1983 Porsche 944 - Time for some restoration
Discussion
Tired and frustrated that I need to save money so can't splash out on a new fuel pump.
Moving house at the end of next week so need to save some money in order to pay the rent and sort out all the utility bills, also means I don't get to see the little 944 at the weekend like usual.
How much more work does yours need before an MOT?
Just remembered my other car needs retaxing by the end of the month and a new MOT in Feb, that'll teach me for not selling it yet.
Moving house at the end of next week so need to save some money in order to pay the rent and sort out all the utility bills, also means I don't get to see the little 944 at the weekend like usual.
How much more work does yours need before an MOT?
Just remembered my other car needs retaxing by the end of the month and a new MOT in Feb, that'll teach me for not selling it yet.
I need to wire up a switch to the radiator fan, refit the glovebox, refit the sunroof trim and thats it. The 968 side sills I bought off ebay are crap and need a lot of work to fit them and with xmas near I might leave it untill Jan and spend sometime fitting the sills whilst I`m off over crimbo. I booked a romantic weekend in Paris for the other half as we havnt been away on our own since the twins arrived 11 years ago so its that and xmas pressies taking priority.
About time I updated this. Not made much progress lately due to the freezing cold weather and not wanting to lie/sit/hang upside down in the garage whilst trying to unseize ancient nuts and bolts. Apologies for the quality of the photos, I was playing about with my new phone but it turned out to be pants.
I decided it was time to make some more progress towards getting the engine running so I got myself under the back end of the car and drained the fuel and loosened everything that's going to need replacing. First was removing the fuel pump which is completely dead and trying to get the pipe connections un-rusted. I also removed the filter from inside the tank and gave that a clean up, still got to figure out how to remove the floaty bits of crap from the tank. Also removed the fuel filter, sadly I can't reach any further up the line as the gearbox is in the way so I plan to drop that out and look into the fuel lines further with it out of the way once I have gotten a better jack.
Here's the pipes put back in place just to stop any fuel dripping out of the car onto the garage floor and as you can see the fuel pump (which was once blue) has seen better days.
So with that end of the car waiting for parts/more manpower I decided to move back into the interior and have a look at why various bulbs have stopped working and managed to find 1 blown bulb and have to put new connectors on various others which has left the interior looking like this now
I've also pulled the fuel sender out but not managed to find out why that isn't working yet, might leave that for when the engine is actualy running but I did fix the boot light whilst I was in there. I also have an oil leak in the engine somewhere but again I think I have to wait until the engine is running before I can trace where it is coming from.
Here's a picture of what the front end looks like at the moment, it's seen better days and I need to replace the front bumper as it's a copy which doesn't fit properly.
I decided it was time to make some more progress towards getting the engine running so I got myself under the back end of the car and drained the fuel and loosened everything that's going to need replacing. First was removing the fuel pump which is completely dead and trying to get the pipe connections un-rusted. I also removed the filter from inside the tank and gave that a clean up, still got to figure out how to remove the floaty bits of crap from the tank. Also removed the fuel filter, sadly I can't reach any further up the line as the gearbox is in the way so I plan to drop that out and look into the fuel lines further with it out of the way once I have gotten a better jack.
Here's the pipes put back in place just to stop any fuel dripping out of the car onto the garage floor and as you can see the fuel pump (which was once blue) has seen better days.
So with that end of the car waiting for parts/more manpower I decided to move back into the interior and have a look at why various bulbs have stopped working and managed to find 1 blown bulb and have to put new connectors on various others which has left the interior looking like this now
I've also pulled the fuel sender out but not managed to find out why that isn't working yet, might leave that for when the engine is actualy running but I did fix the boot light whilst I was in there. I also have an oil leak in the engine somewhere but again I think I have to wait until the engine is running before I can trace where it is coming from.
Here's a picture of what the front end looks like at the moment, it's seen better days and I need to replace the front bumper as it's a copy which doesn't fit properly.
Edited by MadRob6 on Thursday 12th September 21:50
Stripped down the front brakes yesterday as the only way of moving the car at the moment is by pushing it and with the brakes half seized it wasn't easy.
Drivers side caliper had a split seal and was fairly rusted inside and gave me some grief and the brake fluid was in various shades of disgusting when I flushed it out, milky on top, murky in the middle and black on the bottom...nice.
Here are some pics of the drivers side front piston before and after giving it a clean up.
Drivers side caliper had a split seal and was fairly rusted inside and gave me some grief and the brake fluid was in various shades of disgusting when I flushed it out, milky on top, murky in the middle and black on the bottom...nice.
Here are some pics of the drivers side front piston before and after giving it a clean up.
I got fed up with the fuel pump the other week and decided to pull it apart as I had nothing to lose from it. Turned out that some rubbish had built up in the pump mechanism and seized it up so I undid the 4 torx screws holding the base together and now the pump has sprung into life!
After putting that back on I found out that the reason the starer wasn't working on the key was because the ancient immobiliser was stopping it despite being deactivated using the fob and a key. A quick bypass later and the car was attempting to start. After plenty of turning over she spluttered into life and made a nice smokescreen from the exhaust before settling down to a fast but lumpy idle. Gave the car a few runs up and down the driveway to try and work some of the crap fuel out of the system and get down to the fresh stuff and things were going well until more spluttering came and then the car would just die whenever I touched the throttle. After working some more fuel through the car sprung back to life but then created another nice smoke screen out of the exhaust which turned out to be an airlock in the coolant system
Today the car is running much better after some more fresh fuel so I ventured into a not quite dry enough field just to get some warmth in the engine and some life into the other parts including the brakes and managed to resist from any sideways nonsense, this got cut a bit short by the fact the heater was stuck on and I was being slowly roasted. Turns out part of the heater control box has snapped off and the cables are just flapping about behind the centre console so need to try and find a replacement for that.
Also dismantled the passenger side window regulator as it was making a terrible noise when winding the window down. Turns out the motor wasn't screwed on properly and was a bit seized up inside. After a whole lot of grease and WD40 later both windows are nice and quiet.
Not sure if anybody is still reading this but I'm going to keep on jabbering on here every so often anyway.
After putting that back on I found out that the reason the starer wasn't working on the key was because the ancient immobiliser was stopping it despite being deactivated using the fob and a key. A quick bypass later and the car was attempting to start. After plenty of turning over she spluttered into life and made a nice smokescreen from the exhaust before settling down to a fast but lumpy idle. Gave the car a few runs up and down the driveway to try and work some of the crap fuel out of the system and get down to the fresh stuff and things were going well until more spluttering came and then the car would just die whenever I touched the throttle. After working some more fuel through the car sprung back to life but then created another nice smoke screen out of the exhaust which turned out to be an airlock in the coolant system
Today the car is running much better after some more fresh fuel so I ventured into a not quite dry enough field just to get some warmth in the engine and some life into the other parts including the brakes and managed to resist from any sideways nonsense, this got cut a bit short by the fact the heater was stuck on and I was being slowly roasted. Turns out part of the heater control box has snapped off and the cables are just flapping about behind the centre console so need to try and find a replacement for that.
Also dismantled the passenger side window regulator as it was making a terrible noise when winding the window down. Turns out the motor wasn't screwed on properly and was a bit seized up inside. After a whole lot of grease and WD40 later both windows are nice and quiet.
Not sure if anybody is still reading this but I'm going to keep on jabbering on here every so often anyway.
Keep going with this thread, even if only a few people post many more are reading it. 
I agree with everyone else, once you have sorted the essential issues & got the motor running properly take the car back to black.
You can do most of the prep work yourself. A black 944 with black Fuch's and polished lip - lovely.
I agree with everyone else, once you have sorted the essential issues & got the motor running properly take the car back to black.
You can do most of the prep work yourself. A black 944 with black Fuch's and polished lip - lovely.
190E Matt said:
madrob6 said:
sprung back to life but then created another nice smoke screen out of the exhaust which turned out to be an airlock in the coolant system
How would an airlock cause the smoke?Haven't done much with the car today. Pulled the instrument panel out to check out the famous gear on the odometer and indeed it had slipped along the shaft so it wasn't engaging, problem is the gear has cracked and was fouling on the worm gear so need to have another think about that one.
Luckily whilst poking about behind the dash I must have nudged something because now the mirrors work at last! Figured I'd have a go at tidying up the filthy dash vents and all was going well until I went to put the cleaned vent back in and the damn spring washers popped off and flew down into the system somewhere never to be seen again so now I'm stuck with flappy vents. Something else to be added to the needed parts list.
On a more positive note I found out why I was sat with my knees wrapped around the wheel. seems that one of the previous owners was a tad on the short side and had fitted some aluminium spacers to the bottom of the seat to bring the height up. After removing I can drive the car so much easier now as I don't keep hitting my legs whilst trying to turn the wheel.
Not sure if you are still trying to find workshop manuals / wiring diagrams online
This site may help you
http://www.cannell.co.uk/Manuals.htm
This site may help you
http://www.cannell.co.uk/Manuals.htm
Didn't get much done today due to not really being in the mood.
Decided to try and refit the slotted rear valance (not an original, just a fibre glass copy) so removed the towing eye from the rear and noticed it was only going in by 1 thread so cue me lying on the floor on my back with a can of WD40, some mole grips, and a hefty screwdriver slowly twisting it back and forth until it would screw in nice and smoothly all the way. After doing that lot I removed the rear bumper and bolted the valance to it with some new bolts as when I removed it previously the only way to do so was to snap the old bolts. Managed to get one side nicely bolted to the wheel arch but the other side wasn't having any of it as there is a bit missing which should attach. Instead of having to put up with a rattly bumper I decided to just remove it again and come back to it another day.
The only other thing I did was to bleed the one caliper that I haven't pulled apart and rebuilt and got some more nice murky brown liquid out of it. I hadn't rebuilt that caliper as it wasn't seized on like all the others, seems instead it was seized off. After bleeding it though it seems to have woken up and now upon braking I get a nice grinding noise of the disc trying to smoothen itself out again and now looks slightly shiny. Still got to get rebuild kits and rebuild them all properly and replace all discs and pads but might wait until I've replaced the brake lines.
Decided to try and refit the slotted rear valance (not an original, just a fibre glass copy) so removed the towing eye from the rear and noticed it was only going in by 1 thread so cue me lying on the floor on my back with a can of WD40, some mole grips, and a hefty screwdriver slowly twisting it back and forth until it would screw in nice and smoothly all the way. After doing that lot I removed the rear bumper and bolted the valance to it with some new bolts as when I removed it previously the only way to do so was to snap the old bolts. Managed to get one side nicely bolted to the wheel arch but the other side wasn't having any of it as there is a bit missing which should attach. Instead of having to put up with a rattly bumper I decided to just remove it again and come back to it another day.
The only other thing I did was to bleed the one caliper that I haven't pulled apart and rebuilt and got some more nice murky brown liquid out of it. I hadn't rebuilt that caliper as it wasn't seized on like all the others, seems instead it was seized off. After bleeding it though it seems to have woken up and now upon braking I get a nice grinding noise of the disc trying to smoothen itself out again and now looks slightly shiny. Still got to get rebuild kits and rebuild them all properly and replace all discs and pads but might wait until I've replaced the brake lines.
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