Early last wk I pulled the LH ECU from the passenger footwell. I contacted a friend in our club who has an 87 S4 and asked if he was done repairing it (he was doing some of the same fuel lines I've done). He said it was still apart and new parts weren't scheduled to arrive for 2 wks. So much for trying my ECU in his car.
On Wed I packed it up and stood in line at the Post Office to send to a guy in AZ for analysis and rebuild if broken. His website said to send it to his PO Box if you used USPS, so I did. It was scheduled to arrive Sat. Sent Louie an email stating I'd sent him my ECU and arrival date. Checked the tracking # Sat morning and it had arrived on Fri, so I sent him an email saying it had arrived. Got a response back from him saying he had closed his PO Box on Wed, but the Post Office would forward it to his mailing addr. OK, but it wouldn't be until Mon before he got it. He emailed me late Mon and said he'd received my ECU. He said my ECU had the original board that always fails, however, his diagnostic tool was broken so he couldn't verify if my ECU was good or not. I had to decide whether to chance him fixing a good ECU and wasting $495 or having him send it back and have someone else test it and fix if broken. I don't need to throw $500 out the window, but figured it makes my car worth that much more if it's repaired, knowing it won't fail in the future. I let him know this morning to go ahead and put the new board in. He just emailed me and said the ECU was done, it was in the mail, and should arrive on Thu. Fingers crossed it solves my starting issues. Based on what the shark doesn't do at ignition, the symptoms point to the LH ECU.
While the ECU was off being worked on, I did some more work on the seats. I found there's a crank tool in the tool kit that's used to crank on the seats to move them fwd & back. Currently my seats won't go fwd enough with the power button to get to the rear bolts. I cranked on the driver's seat with the crank and got it fwd enough to get to the bolts. Got them out and the seat came out. Success! It was dirty under the seat, so I had full access to get the droppings and dirt removed and gave the carpet and floor a nice shampooing. I also shot some penetrating oil on the seat's threaded bars that are used to move the seat back and forth. They had a bunch of crud on them. Then hit them with a wire brush.
Feeling good about the driver's seat, I moved to the passenger seat. I had the seat as far fwd with the crank that I thought I could go but it still wasn't far enough fwd (there are 4! bolts holding the seat in the rear). I could get to 2 of the 4 bolts. So my plan was to spray the threaded bars with penetrating oil and then run the seat back and forth a bit with the switch. It wouldn't move with the switch, so I was going to run it back a ways with the crank. Part way into my motion I hear a crack and two of the plastic teeth on the gear go flying into the footwell. Great. Why did I think things would continue to go well? Thinking I'm really screwed, I went back to the Internet for more knowledge. Supposedly I can take the cable out that drives the seat and stick a vise grips on it and manually turn it. We'll see. I haven't gotten back to it to see if that's true. My seat adventures were Sat & Sun.
Yesterday I removed the steering wheel. The stitching has let go. Took it to my upholstery place. Was hoping he could stitch it back together or replace it with new leather. Unfortunately, the color appears to be like my Granite Green exterior - the dark parts of the interior can look gray, green, or brown depending on the light (the seats and carpet are a bone color). Got a call from the upholstery guy this morning and he can't restitch it because the leather has shrunk and he doesn't have leather hydes hanging around, so I retrieved it up today. He would be able to stitch it up if I bring a new leather kit for it, so I started searching the Internet this afternoon. It may be hard to find a match for my color, but I have a few leads. The search continues...
I still need to measure the thrust bearing play. I've been reading up on how to do it, but haven't mustered the courage to do it yet. Maybe tomorrow or Thu.
On a positive note, I found $2.99 under the driver's seat. I parlayed $2 of that into a PowerBall ticket but none of the #s hit.
Here's some pics of my steering wheel. They don't really accurately depict the true color.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Got the ECU back yesterday. Put it back in and connected it up. Connected the battery and turned the ignition to ON. Heard energizing noises. That was new (and positive). It was evening, so I waited to go further til today.
This morning I hooked the battery up again. Had a hose coming out of the fuel pump / fuel filter to see if gas would come out. It was dry before, meaning the fuel pump wasn't getting electricity. Turned the ignition to START for a few secs and then checked the hose. Fuel was coming out! That's new & positive. Hard to see in the pic, but that's gas dripping out of the hose.
Hooked the fuel line back up to the fuel filter so that gas would be sent to the engine. Sprayed the throttle body with a shot of starting fluid and gave it a try.
Have some fuel leaks to track down, but today was a significant milestone.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
I like how you have Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" playing in the background on the video.
BTW, how's your Visa card holding up?
Just wonderin'..........
TO
It was rather ironic "Frankenstein" happened to be playing on the radio. Some things you cannot script.
The Visa is holding up well. The ECU rebuild was $500, but well worth it. Next big expense is the timing belt, but I'm looking at some options that will be cheaper than the $2500 to have it done. Tires, windshield, and a trans flush are on the horizon.
Getting it to run is such a major hurdle. Now anything I do will be to address issues and will feel like progress.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Got the exhaust buttoned back up on Sun, but wasn't happy with a couple of the bolts in the kit, so I bought some longer ones on Tue and finished the job to my satisfaction.
Then moved on to measuring the thrust bearing play in the flywheel. Apparently 85 and newer 928s with auto trans have an issue with the flywheel moving on the 'drive shaft'. It moves forward on the shaft and puts pressure on the thrust bearing. If not checked and the pressure released, the bearing will wear out and ruin the engine. Earlier 928s don't have this issue because Porsche used shims to keep the play out but decided in 85 that the clamp alone should be able to do the job. It didn't on some cars and caused a panic across the community (not unlike IMS).
So, you start by removing the bell housing cover's 6 bolts. You'll recall 4 of the bolts are easy and 2 are impossible with the exhaust in place. But I had the plate off. You measure the length of teeth showing before releasing the clamp.
Mine looked good as there wasn't much showing - 4.51mm. The guy who wrote the tutorial on RL was sitting at 7.5mm. Next step is to release the clamp. Wasn't looking fwd to this considering my past experiences with nuts & bolts. I'd given it a couple of shots of AeroKroil a few days ago. It was an 8mm hex bolt and I used a breaker bar on it. Was very careful and it came loose. The flywheel moved slightly backwards, releasing the pressure on the thrust bearing.
I measured the teeth showing and came up with 3.88mm. The flywheel only moved .63mm back. Very good. The author's moved 2mm.
Next test was to measure the distance between the flywheel and the engine. I came up with 40.24mm, which meant the flywheel was quite a ways from the engine. The author's was 19.xx mm. The next step was to push the flywheel fwd and measure how far it traveled. Was supposed to be a max of .4mm. As hard as I tried, I couldn't get it to move fwd. I used a pry bar on several places but it wouldn't move. I wasn't going to push my luck, so I called it good. Tightened the clamp back up and painted some teeth so whoever owns her next yr can check for movement.
Put the bell housing cover back on with only 4 bolts, which is acceptable and necessary if you want to remove it next time w/o having to drop the exhaust. That completes my underside work for a while. I need to chase down a fuel pump leak and then I can pull her off the jack stands. Will be able to turn her around in the garage. She's backed into the garage b/c that's how she came off the trailer, but I'd like to have her turned around and centered better.
I went out for a walk to enjoy the nice weather late this afternoon and started formulating a new check list of repairs. I've been so focused on fuel lines and starting for so long, I've almost forgotten the other things that need attn. Now I can work on them.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
I have a fuel leak at the outbound side of the fuel pump. After doing some Internet research, I found there is a check valve there and it might be sticking open. So today's adventure was to remove the fuel pump and then the check valve, clean it, and see if that eliminated the leak. Unfortunately, to remove the fuel pump (the blue tube), you have to remove the fuel filter (the silver canister).
I got the check valve out. It was only finger tight so I was hoping that might be where my leak was. Since I had it out, I shot it up with some Aerokroil and carb cleaner. Put it all back together and flipped the ignition switch. Still a few drips. Tightened the cap a bit more but to no avail. Oh well, I went upstairs and ordered a new check valve and copper washers - $34 incl shipping.
Next I pulled the driver's seat out of the basement and greased up the threaded rods that make the electric seat move fwd & back. Then got it in the car and bolted down w/o getting a hernia. Tested out the movement and it was much improved (I also did some work on the switch while I had it out). Still have the passenger seat to work on but that's for another day.
Then got her down off her jack stand perch, drove her out of the garage, and turned her around in the driveway. The light was good, so I took a couple of pics. You could see the green much better in the sunlight, but it doesn't come thru as well in my pic. While she was in the driveway, I took advantage of the nice weather and gave her a quick bath. And then a couple more pics, but the light was fading. She's now better situated in the garage. When my friend and I dropped her off the trailer back in Nov, we didn't have the option of getting her nicely situated - she went where she wanted to go and that was that.
Now that she's on the ground, I can loosen the wheel nuts (they're tremendously tight and I'm probably going to need a cheater pipe to get them lose) so I can remove the wheels and bleed the brakes. She had stopping power when I was turning her around, but I'm sure the fluid is VERY old and well past the 2yr requirement.
Tomorrow it's supposed to snow.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 04-11-2020 at 09:21 PM.
In an effort to bump start the economy, I ordered $550 worth of parts from our site sponsor. The stash included various fan belts, brake pads, the high pressure power steering hose, an automatic trans filter and gasket, along with a gear oil syringe (new tool #13). The fuel pump check valve also arrived from a 928 specialist vendor.
I thought I might be able to save time by just pulling the fuel pump off w/o removing the fuel filter, but alas, it wasn’t possible so I removed both. Got the check valve and new copper washers into the fuel pump and re-installed. Turned the ignition and let the pump fill. Bumped the starter and the engine cracked to life. Shut it off and checked the fuel pump. Dry as a bone. Problem solved – no more fuel leaks. I think the old check valve was stuck open. I’ll keep an eye on it for a while. Trust is earned.
Next item on the agenda was some wheel and wheel well cleaning. Put the shark back up on jack stands and removed the tires. The inner barrels were all filthy with 30 yrs of grime.
Used my usual products to cut thru the grime but it took a bit more elbow grease than normal to clean them. However, I was a bit disappointed with the results. They all looked like this.
Turns out the black was paint, not grime. I tried several toxic fluids from carb cleaner, brake cleaner, and even some lacquer thinner to remove the paint but to no avail. Took some 800 grit sand paper and wet sanded 1 wheel.
Looks presentable but too much work. Need to rethink another solution for the other 3 wheels.
On to cleaning the wheel wells. They too had 30 yrs of grime. Each one took a couple hrs to clean, but they turned out ‘well’.
before
after
before
after
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 04-25-2020 at 06:32 AM.
Now that everything is clean(see previous post), time to move on to a brake fluid flush. I gave all the nozzles a squirt of AeroKroil and crossed my fingers. All 8 easily broke loose and I got the flush completed. The fluid that came out looked a bit like Coke, but now has a nice amber glow. Maybe the normal maintenance items were going to be more routine.
Next up was changing the brake pads. It looked like a simple system, even simpler than a 987.
You pinch the retaining ‘spring’ with a vise grips and then swing one of the ends free from the caliper. Carefully disconnect the pad sensor and remove the pads. I started with the left rear caliper and it took me a bit to figure out the best way to do everything, but the old pads came out and the new ones slid right in. Easy peasy. This shouldn’t take long. On to the right rear.
The spring and sensor weren’t a problem. The inner pad wasn’t either. But the outer pad got part way out and became stuck.
It wouldn’t budge any farther. The caliper was held on by 2 19mm bolts. Based on previous history, I wasn’t looking forward to the upcoming fight. Got a breaker bar and ½” drive 19mm socket onto both bolts and thankfully both came loose. With the caliper free, I was able to hammer the offending pad out. The new pads slide right in w/o issue. On to the left front.
The outer pad gave a bit of a fight. They have a couple of holes drilled in them, so I looped a couple of wires into the holes and then stuck a long screwdriver into the loops. Gave a good pull and the pad came out. The inside pad wasn’t as cooperative. It didn’t want to come out at all. I decided to chip the material off the pad to give it more wiggle room. Surprisingly, the pads on all 4 wheels had quite a lot of material on them (they looked almost new), so removing the material on this one would give it a lot more room to maneuver. But it would only come about 25% out.
The front calipers are held on by 2 bolts with a 10mm hex indention in them. Once again, not looking forward to pursuing that fight but I got my 10mm hex socket out along with the breaker bar. Gave the 1st bolt a careful push and it turned! Except it was the socket turning inside the bolt, which was petrified and not budging. Didn’t bother trying again and fully stripping it and since the 1st bolt wasn’t coming out, no need trying the 2nd. I had to get the pad out with the caliper in place.
So I put my thinking cap on and decided to build a puller.
I looped a couple of wires over the plate and then screwed the nuts to move the plate up. It got the pad out a shade further but 1/3 out isn’t good enough. The plate started to bend, which caused the carriage bolt heads to slip off the caliper. Rats!
At this point I decided to try the right front. Maybe that side would cooperate. I don’t normally like to take both sides apart so you have no reference point to look at, but these were so simple it wasn’t going to be an issue. Got the outer pad out with a bit of a struggle, but the inner was just like the left side. I chipped the material off it too. Here’s a shot of how much room it had but still wouldn’t come out. Also note the caliper hex head bolts.
Having the pad at that much angle should have been enough to release it, but it was just as stuck as the left side. So I went to O’Reilly’s and got one of their loaner gear pullers. Got the smallest one they had. Tried sticking one of the arms down the opening, hoping to catch the pad on the hook of the arm. But the arm was too fat and it wouldn’t fit. Double rats!
Got on the Internet to see how much slide hammers were. There was one at Home Depot that had an attachment that looked like it would work perfect. But it was $55. I didn’t really want to spend that much, I wasn’t sure if I needed another new tool (already up to 13 new tools on the project), and wasn’t sure when the next time I’d need a slide hammer. Took the gear puller back to O’Reilly’s and asked if they loaned slide hammers. They said yes! But the only attachment they had that would kind of work was shaped like a V with hooks on the ends.
The V was too short and fat to slide down the pad side and hook it, so I had to come up with some way of wiring it to the pad. I tried several variations of wires but each would break. However, I could see it was slightly moving the left side pad. I tried a thicker wire in the pad and then wired one of the V sides to it. It took a couple of wire reloads, but the pad finally submitted.
Moved to the right side with the correct formula. Took a couple of attempts but that pad finally came out too.
Now all I had to do was slide the new pads in and I’d be done. Except they wouldn’t slide in. Even if they did go in, they would never slide back and forth. So fired up the bench grinder and took some extra material off the edges. Once they easily fit, I added a dab of paint onto the exposed metal. Popped them in and buttoned them up. Finally done!
What should have taken me the better part of an hr took me 4 days. When I originally looked at the pads, I thought about not changing them since there was so much material on them. But there’s no way they would have worked properly being rusted in place. At first I thought maybe they were cheap Chinese pads that were a tad oversized and easily rusted from not being used, especially when the new rears slid in without problems. But since the new fronts had trouble going in, I’ll have to rethink that. At least the next owner shouldn’t have issues the next time they need changing.
When I got in and pumped the pedal a few times, the pedal became rock hard and I mean ROCK hard. Looking fwd to trying the brakes on the street. They should be really good.
Onward and upward.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 04-25-2020 at 06:23 AM.
Keys
Because of the age of the 928 and the complexity of the key, it is basically impossible to have a key made at a regular locksmith. I have a stubby key that requires a sturdy key ring to be able to turn the key in the ignition. According to Rennlist, the best place to get a replacement key is a place in Australia (yes, down under). You send them a couple of pics of your key and they make a key from the pic. Supposedly they’re very good and highly recommended. The other option is to go to the dealer, go thru the Spanish Inquisition about ownership, fork over hundreds of $$$, then the VIN is sent to Germany for a key.
So I sent a pic to Australia and got a quick reply back. He can make a replacement key from my pic and presented me with several options from a duplicate Porsche key with a light, to a key with a head on it that’s just plastic. During our correspondence, he mentions I have the ‘short’ key and I know what he’s talking about because I’ve seen the various keys that come with a 928 in the owner’s manual.
However, I didn’t know the significance of the short key and my new friend explained it to me. It’s kind of like a valet key in that it will start the car but won’t let you lock the car with it. Now it makes sense why in one of my earlier posts, I found the key wouldn’t unlock the trunk. If I wanted to send a lock to Australia, he could decode the 4 extra tumblers and create a ‘long’ key for me. I needed to think about sending my trunk lock half way around the world.
I got an idea. There’s a guy in Atlanta that’s parting out an 89 S4 that I’ve purchased a few items from. I asked him if he’d sell the ignition cylinder, 2 door locks, the trunk lock, and the key(s) for those locks. He said he would. Right after I rifled off my IM to him, I did a search on Rennlist and found a thread from 2002 where a current 928 specialist will take your VIN and create a key, after proof of ownership. I contacted the specialist and yes indeed, they still do the service. It will cost $135 for the key.
Thinking over the options, I think the prudent selection is the 928 specialist key. The cheapest option would be replacing all the locks, but I’m not looking forward to removing the door cards with their 30 yr old clips. Plus, the next owner would not be able to do the VIN type key replacement anymore. The 2nd best option is Australia, but with COVID, I’m a bit uneasy having my lock circumnavigating the globe. The only ‘issue’ with going with the specialist is they want proof of ownership. Since my shark has been comatose for so long, I haven’t been able to go to the DMV yet for a title in my name. In Neb, if you buy a car from out of state, it must be “inspected” before they issue a title. It’s basically a VIN check to see if it’s a stolen car and the chance to add $10 to their coffers. The specialists weren’t too keen using the title from the previous owners along with the bill of sale. So I’ll have to wait a bit longer before I get the long key.
Windshield
It appears some youngster took a bat to the windshield, so it needs replacing. Or maybe it was the previous owner who snapped at a routine maintenance job that took 4 days. I’ve called my glass place twice. The nice office lady has taken all my info, says she will give it to the owner, and he’ll get back to me. Which he hasn’t done. My last call to him was a week ago Fri. After talking to the lady, I did a search on Safelite because an old thread on RL mentioned them. I surf thru the various option pages and get to the price - $300. To be fair, I gave my glass guy til Tue to get back to me. He didn’t, so on Wed I rifle thru all the Safelite pages and order up the windshield. They going to come this Sat to put it in. In the words of Wesley Snipes in ‘Major League’, “This is good, this is really good”.
An hr later, I get a call from Safelite. They no longer have that windshield in stock. The only option is for them to go thru the dealership and it will be $1500. Ouch! His recommendation was to just go to the dealership myself. It would still be $1500, but if they order the wrong windshield, it’s their fault not mine. Pretty honest on his part, turning down $1500. But I’m not ready to spend 5X what I originally was going to spend. I contacted my key guy in Atlanta who was parting out the S4. I asked if he was interested in selling his windshield. He said he was planning to sell it. Great! I mention mine has the radio antenna embedded in it. He responded and said his didn’t. I think the 89 928 had the shark fin radio antenna on the roof, so his wouldn’t work in mine. Rats! The search continues.
Steering wheel
I’d removed the steering wheel because the stitches had come out of the leather.
Took it to my leather guys who said they couldn’t re-stitch it because the leather had shrunk. I thought maybe they could find a hide that matched and stitch it up. Except they’re not that kind of shop. Did some searching on Rennlist and found a place in MI that did steering wheel leathers. Contacted him and he had several potential options for my color. Just like the outside color that changes in various light, the interior has that same kind of properties – it can look grayish green to brown depending on the light. He was going to send me some samples. I should note the interior code for my car is QG. From my searches, QG is a no-description code that doesn't have a name associated with it, like burgundy or blue or black. I haven't been able to decode what it translates to, so the code is basically worthless.
I’ve also been following the adventures of Casey Putsch on YT since he recently bought a 928. His 928 also had the steering wheel that needed re-skinning. He got his new leather and did a video of him stitching it up while his wife gave him a haircut in the driveway. He mentioned the place he got the leather from and I went out to the site. He listed an available color of gray-green. I contacted the guy and he sent me a pic of the color.
That’s my color! I ordered up the leather and it’s on its way. Once it arrives, I’ll have to decide whether I’ll try stitching it myself or take it to my leather guys. Stay tuned…
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 04-25-2020 at 09:55 PM.
Wheels
Nothing I tried would dissolve the paint on the inside of the wheels, so I got the 800 grit sand paper out and finished the other three wheels. They now all look like this.
Sunroof
Moved on to the sunroof. When pushing the button, you would hear things trying to happen, but the sunroof wouldn't move. As you can see here, the sunroof was a tad high on the left rear and seemed to be poking on something about an inch from the rear. The sunroof was loose on the right side.
I pulled the cover off the sunroof motor / trans area. I removed the motor and tried running it via the switch. It worked fwd and back. Then removed the trans and connected it to the motor. The trans worked when I did the switch. So the sunroof mechanism is bunged up. 928s are supposed to come with a sunroof wrench which is used to manually open and close the sunroof, but this is one of a very few items that's missing with my car. However, I have a friend in our club who has an 87 S4 5spd and he was wanting to give it some exercise and see my S4 (we live approx 50 mi apart). He brought his sunroof wrench with him. I replaced the trans and inserted the wrench, turned it while my friend pushed down on the sunroof. It moved! With a little work, we got it all the way open.
It will take a bit of work to clean the tracks, but getting it open was progress. And all the mechanical / electrical parts work.
Here's a pic of my friend's 928. It's very nice.
Trans Fluid
Time to move to the automatic trans flush. I put the Mistress up on ramps to give me plenty of room to maneuver under her. Once I got her up in the air, I found 2 problems:
Problem 1 is an electrical line that was broken in 2 places. I'd seen this line hanging down before, but now was the time to address it. Discovered that it's the line for the trans kick-down (dropping to a lower gear when you step on it and it evidently also changes the timing). Problem 2 is apparently the seal in the front of the trans that was leaking. That's not good. Will have to think about this one. Here's what the kick-down line looks like when removed.
The end of the wires wasn't a big deal, but the broken wires by the rubber elbow cover was going to be a problem. My plan was to splice some new wires inside the cover. I moved the elbow away from the connector and discovered the connector came apart with screws and revealed two female ends with wires soldered into them. I unsoldered the wires and soldered 2 new wires into them. Put it back together and it was good as new. All I have to do is splice it to the existing wires.
I decided to move ahead with flushing the fluid. Addressing the seal will mean removing the trans. I'm not ready to tackle that job. Maybe the seal will expand after driving a bit?
I'm at my max for pics in this post so I'll continue in a 2nd post.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 05-08-2020 at 08:56 PM.
Trans Fluid pt II
I pulled the drain plug on the trans, then removed the pan. The torque converter also has a drain plug. I thought the torque converter would be inside the trans pan area but it's separate. In fact, the area where the leak is is where the TC is located.
You rotate the flywheel until the TC drain plug appears in the open area of the grates. After about 20 min of going under the front of the engine to rotate the flywheel and then crawling under the center of the car to look at the trans and not finding the drain plug, I asked my neighbor to watch for the drain plug while I turned the flywheel. It took a quarter turn for it to appear. I thanked my neighbor for his help.
I drained the torque converter and let the trans drip overnight. The existing fluid didn't look too bad - had a nice red look to it. The old filter didn't look very dirty either. The next day I cleaned up the parts, put the new pan gasket on the pan, and put everything back together, including a new filter.
Now for the hard part - refilling the trans. Porsche in their infinite wisdom put the reservoir next to the trans and also next to a muffler. And unlike a normal car, there isn't an easy way to access the reservoir unless you crawl under the car. To fill it, you have to remove the reservoir cap, fill the trans, start the car and let the torque converter fill, add more fluid, then run the car thru each gear, fill again, and then put the cap on before shutting the engine off. If you shut the engine off before putting the cap on, fluid will gush out. However, the cap is at an odd angle and tough to put on under ideal conditions, but you'll be dealing with a hot trans and an even hotter muffler. I wasn't looking forward to that and procrastinated a few days.
I posted on RL to see if there was another way. Turns out there is. Porsche put a 90 deg port on the trans with a check valve.
With the proper attachment, you can connect a hose to the port and push the trans fluid in. But I don't have the proper attachment. Someone said you could attach a hose with a clamp. It just so happens the tube I used to fill the trans on my Cayman fit nicely on the port. I put a small hose clamp on it. Would the fluid push the check valve open or would it squirt out the end of the hose? I'd just purchased a giant syringe from Pelican and it came with 2 lines - a solid and a flexible line.
The solid line fit right inside my trans tube, so I attached it to the hose with a hose clamp. I put the flexible line into the gallon of trans fluid (it requires 2 gallons). I'd connect to the flexible line, draw a syringe full of fluid, then attach it to the fill hose. First try worked like a charm - no spilled fluid and the check valve opened. It all went in the trans. I pumped the 1st gallon into the trans. That filled the reservoir to a good level.
Time to start the engine, which sucked a bunch of fluid into the torque converter. Put 2 more quarts in after starting the engine. Ran her thru the gears. Put another quart in and ran it thru the gears again. Put another quart in. Shut the engine off. The reservoir was at the proper level and didn't leak.
While the engine was running, I checked for gas leaks. No leaks around the injectors and the fuel pump was dry too.
I planned on replacing the high pressure power steering hose while she's on the ramps. Should be simple - a banjo bolt on ea end of the hose. But I did some research and found you have to remove the alternator to get to the front bolt of the hose. And to remove the alternator, you have to unbolt the fan shroud and move it up so 1 of the alternator bolts can be removed. To get to the rear hose bolt, you have to remove the sway bar hold down and let the sway bar swing down. I might sleep on that job (for a few days).
Next up are the plug wires and the last fuel line replacement.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 05-09-2020 at 06:32 AM.
Steering Wheel
I ordered the leather for the steering wheel a while back. A good week went by after ordering and I hadn’t received it yet, so I called the guy. He remembered I had ordered the gray-green leather. He said it was about ready to send. OK. Another good week goes by and I still haven’t gotten anything. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve just flushed $100 down the crapper? Call him again. He apologizes and says he’s been extremely busy. Says he’ll ship it out in an hr and get the tracking number to me. A couple hrs go by and no email. The next morning there’s an email from him with a tracking #. Thank goodness. The leather actually arrives a day early and it appears to be a perfect match. The kit comes with 2 curved needles, silver thread and instructions. Besides the wheel sections, there’s also pieces that will need to be glued onto the base of the wheel. While I haven’t had a haircut in 2 mo, I’m not going to attempt sewing and gluing the leather onto the wheel even w/o a haircut occurring. I’m going to see if my leather dying guy will do the sewing. I want it to look nice now that I have the proper leather.
Spark Plug Wires
I purchased a set of wires a while back and set them aside for the proper time. There were various colors available but I chose red. When it was finally time to do the plug wires, I found that set to be not a very good replacement. They were too long and looked sloppy. The guru in Dallas had a set of wires that were an exact match to the factory wires and even came with the plastic clips that hold the wires in formation. So I bit the bullet and bought a 2nd set of expensive of plug wires. They arrived and looked perfect. The red set is going to ebay.
This particular iteration of the 928 engine has 2 distributors – one on each cylinder bank. Here’s the engine with the spark plug wires removed.
You would think the wires for the 4 cylinders of right bank would go to the right distributor and the 4 cylinder wires of the left bank to the left distributor. But that would be wrong. Porsche decided to route the wires from the 2 center cylinders of ea bank to the opposite side’s distributor. So cylinder wires for 2 & 3 of the right bank go to the left distributor and cylinder wires for 6 & 7 on the left bank go to the right distributor. To keep the wires organized as they cross over the front of the engine, Porsche created a fence that’s bolted onto the front of the engine. The left hand wires go behind the fence and the right wires go in front of it. Took several attempts (like 5) to get everything spaced properly and ensure they’re sequenced properly (7 above 6 and 3 above 2), but once it was all aligned properly it looked factory.
I also took advantage of having access to the last fuel line I needed to replace while the plugs wires were removed and the radiator hoses unhooked. Here’s a pic of the new line on the left and the old line on the right.
The old line connected to a regulator on the left side of the engine, went under the thermostat housing, snaked its way into the intake valley, then over the right cam cover and connected to the incoming fuel line (the actual fuel flows the opposite direction but easier to describe it this way). The old line on the right has a small section that is rubber and this is the problem area. As the rubber gets old, it can crack, causing fuel to spray on a hot engine. Not good unless you like 928 BBQ. The new line just goes in an arc and eliminates all the snaking around. Once I had the spark plug wires all connected, I put the new fuel line on.
Here are the results.
And here’s the finished product with the radiator hoses reattached.
I filled up the radiator overflow tank and was ready to test fire. She started right up and ran well. I check for any fuel leaks with the new line. There were a few tiny drops around the fitting at the regulator. I figure I can give the nut a small turn with the wrench to tighten it up. As soon as I touch the nut, it squirts gas. Poof! The center of the engine starts on fire! Crap! Normally I’m prepared with a garden hose and I have Punkin out in the driveway out of harm’s way. I have neither, as I was in a bit of a hurry. I rush to shut the engine off (I have to open the door since the windows don’t go up and down). The flames are still going. I had a bucket of water handy that I’d been using to clean something. Luckily there was enough water in the bucket to dowse the flames and I didn’t need to crack open the fire extinguisher. I figured I’d have all kinds of problems with burned wires to now track down. Amazingly, there appeared to be 0 damage. Wow! I tightened the nut, backed Punkin out of the garage, and got the garden hose ready. She fired right up (in a good way). No issues with running and no more pesky droplets.
I was in a hurry prior because I wanted to take her out on a test run in the neighborhood. So now I’m wondering if that’s a good idea. Still no fuel leaks. I decide to take a 5 gallon bucket half full of water, along with a gallon jug of water and the fire extinguisher on my test drive. Decide to venture out of the neighborhood and into rush hr traffic to go to the local gas station for a dab of fuel. Everything went well other than she died a block from the return trip home, but instantly restarted and got me back.
Sorry, no video of the fire but here's a boring video of the test drive adventure, if you’re interested in watching.
Sunroof
Yesterday I worked on the sunroof. I cleaned the opening, which was very dirty. The tracks were grimy so I sprayed some carb cleaner on them to clean them. There were a couple of spots on the track rails that had their paint worn off. I assumed this was where there was extra rubbing, so took a hammer and 2x4 and knocked them down a bit. The sunroof moved better manually but still not free enough for the motor to do the job. I’ll need to do more research as the article I have on removing the sunroof must be for a different model yr as nothing he’s saying is matching up. There’s only 1 video on YT but it’s for an 83 and it’s different. Back to the Internet.
Title
I found out the inspection site is open for business, but the DMV is closed. You have to put your paperwork in an envelope and drop it in a box. The DMV folks will then handle your paperwork and mail the newly issued title to you. Things never go well at the DMV under “normal” conditions and I can see LOTs of potential problems with this system, so I need everyone’s positive energy on this as I get the nerve up to give up possession of the title, bill of sale, and the power of attorney from the seller into a drop box. What could go wrong? Thanks in advance for positive thoughts.
But my friend dropped his 09 Cayman S off this afternoon. I need to clean the interior, take some pics, and write the ad, so the shark is on the sidelines for a few days as I prepared to sell his CS for him.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 05-18-2020 at 04:37 AM.
Title
I dropped the title off in a drop box at the DMV mid-May. About a week went by and I got a phone call from the DMV. The nice lady said I needed to print off a Cert of Title form from their website, fill it out, and drop it into the DMV box. I had just put my info into the envelope and wrote my name, address, and the fact I only needed a title on the envelope. Hadn’t seen any form on their website. So I asked the lady if everything else looked OK and they just needed the form? YES, I was told. So I find the form, print it off, fill it out, and drop it into the DMV box. This is a Tue so I figure maybe Thu but probably Fri for my title. Not in the mail on Thu or Fri. Sat I see the mailman drop a fat envelope into my mailbox. I rush to see and yes it’s from the DMV.
I open the envelope and the cover letter says I have 30 days to respond or my info goes to the back of the line. I look at page 2 and it’s a Cert for Title form with the signature and address block highlighted to be filled out (you know how they like to use those yellow highlight markers at the DMV). I was shocked that I’d missed that and was certain I’d filled those fields out as I looked it over carefully when filling it out. I notice the other info in the form has been typed in. I didn’t do that. They filled out the form and sent it to me. I guess the DMV’s left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Also attached was my bill of sale. Great, now they’ve got my info separated too. I sign and fill out the address and head back to the DMV to drop the bundle into the box. I estimate Wed at the earliest to get the title.
Monday I get a skinny letter from the DMV. It’s my title. HORRAY!!! Once again, left hand – right hand, as there’s no way they could have processed the form I dropped off on Sat and gotten the title into the mail and to my house by Mon afternoon. At this point I don’t care, I have the title. On Fri I got another letter from the DMV returning my bill of sale. Was glad to have that back.
Key
Now that I have a valid title, I could pursue getting a key made based on VIN. The company in NC needed proof of ownership before they’d get the process started. So I call them Mon afternoon. Get vm, leave a msg. Try again Tue afternoon. Same thing – vm, leave msg. I took a chance and texted them a copy of the title and my driver’s license along with a msg about wanting a key. Wed afternoon I was just about to call again, when the nice lady called me. We got all the details worked out and then she said something encouraging – that depending on where this order landed in the schedule, it could be a week for the key to arrive. I thought the website said 4-8 wks, so this was very good. We’ll see, but it’s ordered and on its way.
Steering Wheel
I had called a few upholstery shops about sewing the new leather on my wheel. The first 2 said no, but I found a shop who said they’d have their upholstery guy look at it if I brought it down but he wasn’t in (it was Fri of Memorial w/e). I contacted them on Tue and was told the upholstery guy wasn’t in and they didn’t know when he’d be back - as in multiple days. Hmmm… It’s an upholstery shop and the upholsterer’s whereabouts are unknown? That’s a bit odd and maybe I need to rethink this. I call several more shops in the greater metro area. No one wants to do a steering wheel. They all show fancy interiors they’ve done on the websites, why can’t they do a steering wheel? I find a shop who says he might be able to do it and he’s relatively close to my house and it’s on the way to the DMV, so I stop by for him to look. He did qualify on the phone that he’s getting old and his hands aren’t as steady as they used to be, so he might not want to do the job after looking at my wheel but I need a break so I stop by. Didn’t take him long to decide he didn’t want the job. He said if he did take it, he would’ve had to charge $300 due to all the hours it would need. I think back to the website where I bought the leather. They would have done the job for the $300 too. At the time I thought that was rather high, but if no one locally wants to do it, I might have to send the wheel to slowpoke in FL. I mention my curious experience with the other shop that can’t find their upholsterer and he wrinkles his nose and says he wouldn’t recommend them. He said that shop takes on work they’re not qualified for and the results aren’t good. I didn’t get the impression he was dogging them because they’re his competition, rather he’s just an old guy w/o a filter. Good to know.
I expand my search and call a shop in Lincoln. He says he might be able to do it but would want to look at it first. The next day I needed to go to Fremont to inventory some Porsche parts a friend wants me to help him sell (keep an eye on the classifieds), so I decided to make a big loop out of it and go to Lincoln from Fremont. Tory looks it over and says he thinks he can do it but it will be around 8 hrs of labor - $150-175. And it would be 4 wks. I was fine with the price (I didn’t tell him the other est) but would like it a bit sooner. I didn’t expect him to drop everything he was doing to work on this but that was a bit long. He changes to 2-2.5 wks. Works for me. I’ve received a few phone calls from him asking intelligent questions, so I somehow feel hopeful. If he can make his estimated time frame, he should be done sometime late this wk or early next.
Windshield
I was watching a WatchJRGo video on YT recently. I follow his series already, but he’s just bought an 87 944 for $500 and he’s nursing it back to life. In one of the comments, someone suggested he use carparts.com to locate some part he needed. The site searches salvage yards for your part. I inputted my shark’s info for a windshield and 8 (EIGHT!) locations said they have one. Some even as low as $150. Oh happy day! I call the first on the list (based on mileage from my zip). Yep they have it. Nope, they won’t ship it. 2-8 same story. No one will ship. How does your local windshield shop get their windshields? Is there some windshield fairy who makes them magically appear overnight? There has to be a way to ship a windshield. Regardless, they won’t so I need a plan B. I think about renting a vehicle and going on an epic road trip. However, the closest ones are in the 800-900 mile range (there was one listed in Alaska but I didn’t call them). When budgeting for a Wheeler Dealer trip, I est $225 / day for costs (hotel, gas, food). I would need 4 days based on the mileage traveled and when you get the cost of the rental and windshield thrown into the equation (some in the $300-500 range), you’re looking at around $1100. Porsche of Omaha wants $1300 for a new one delivered by Stuttgart's windshield fairy. May have to bite the $1300 bullet.
I was at the dentist on Thu and reconnecting with the office people after the quarantine. They asked me what I was working on and I said the shark, but I was having a hard time finding a windshield. One of the ladies suggested a local shop in an OMA suburb. I called them Fri but they couldn’t help. I decided to go thru the list of windshield shops locally as the only one I’d tried was Safelite. Obviously got a lot of NOs, but one guy says he’ll contact some of his buddies on the east coast and see if they have one. Since we’re talking about windshield shops, I imagine the windshield fairy will be able to do her magic if one is located. Fingers crossed.
Sunroof
My friend with the red 928 emailed me photos from the 928 shop manuals on how to remove a sunroof. Getting the headliner out is step 1 and almost the hardest. It’s held onto the sunroof by 3 screws that are very small and recessed back in the sunroof just beyond my hand’s length. I loosened them and then removed them with mechanical fingers. Not looking fwd to putting them back in when reassembling. The sunroof comes off next and is held in place by 4 bolts in front and 2 screws on the side runners. I pull 3 screws per rail, raise the rail and pull the header bar out (it keeps the sunroof sliding even). Use the crank to move the cables fwd. Houston, we have a problem.
The cable on the passenger side has a pin missing. This pin connects to the sunroof and is used to move it fwd and back. I locate a used one and it arrived Wed. It takes a bit of finagling to get the two sides to line up even when you put the transmission back in but I finally get them to line up properly. I’ve cleaned the tracks and the guide cables move freely. I drop the sunroof back in for a test run. It seems a bit tight half way in but I get it to go. When I return it to closed, there’s a tiny scratch on the exterior. Ouch. Obviously, a bit to high. I play with the adjustments and think I’ve got it nailed. The sunroof moves freely open and closed. I ground down the offending extra protruding part of the bolt that caused the scratch. This is what it looked like before surgery.
After I removed the sunroof headliner, the underside looked like this.
Obviously Red Green had worked on it. The leather ends had curled up and the duct tape was used to hold them down, except the duct tape eventually curled too. After removing the old duct tape and the glue it left behind, I superglued the leather ends down and then took the Dremel and lightly ground the edge down. Now looks like this.
I did this work while I waited for the cable to arrive. Now that the sunroof is moving properly, I decided to attempt to put the headliner back in. Had to wrestle with it a bit but got it back in place. Now all I had to do was put those 3 impossible screws back in. Attempted the 1st one but had a moment of clarity – maybe I better check what the sunroof looks like from the outside before I put the headliner permanently in and cover up the adjustment bolts. Good thing I did because it looked low all around. I played with the adjustments and got it to look better but it’s still a tad low.
I think it’s time to put the motor back in and do a test run regardless. Get it all back together and all plugged in. Hit the switch… Nothing. Dang, the switch & motor worked before I took it out. I get the fuse box diagram out and track down the sunroof fuse. A bit oxidized but good. Take the motor out and about to get into serious diagnostics. Then it hits me – I didn’t have the key in the ignition and turned to the ON position. DOH! I put the motor back in and try this time with the ignition ON. The sunroof opens about 2 inches and then stops but the motor keeps running. I think the plastic gear in the trans that converts the motor motion into cable gear motion is stripped. Think that probably happened when the sunroof was jammed closed. The trans works with the sunroof tool because the tool connects directly to the metal gear on the trans that moves the cables. So I found a trans from my new buddy in the ATL. He’s dropping it into the mail tomorrow, prob here by the end of the week. Project on hold, but I can work on the adjustments and crank it by hand. Do I look $50 lighter?
Tomorrow my new window switches are scheduled to arrive. I took a chance by ordering a pair w/o doing any electrical tests on the current ones. There’s a very high percentage chance the switches are the problem as RL is filled with threads of people having to replace theirs. Not a robust design. Also included in my order from our site sponsor is an odometer gear, so tearing my dash apart is also on the agenda. That will be a tufor as I need to check / test the electrical connections of the wire loom connectors into the dash. I currently only have the gas gauge working and RL searching says that’s probably because the connectors are not passing current to the dash gauges. The dash pod moves up and down with the adjustable steering wheel and one solution to the no working gauges is to slam the dash pod up and down several times to make the connections work. Reminds me of a story my mom tells. Back in the late 70s we had a 76 Mercury Marquis and Ford products during this era had a tendency for the automatic transmission to only go part way into park, resulting in your car rolling away. Our Merc would do this occasionally. My folks were on vacation in South Dakota and the trans had the half into park situation. Mom said dad started shoving the trans handle violently back and forth many times. She said people were walking by and looking aghast at my dad in his fit of rage. But it went into park afterwards. If only dad was here to see if he could fix my 928.
__________________
GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
Last edited by husker boxster; 06-07-2020 at 08:52 PM.
Scarlett
Cadi
Tuesday
1997 Porsche Boxster
2018 Porsche Macan
Linear Mode
