Shark #2 Has Arrived
 

I just sold my house, moved into my mom's house, and paid off my siblings for their share. I had a few bucks left over and decided I might look for another shark. I didn't get to enjoy the last one I had, as it was a Wheeler Dealer car. My plan for the next one is to drive it for 2-3 yrs while the Wheeler Dealer mkt finds an equilibrium (think it's now headed down). With that as a backdrop, I began checking 928 ads. Even threw a few bids in on a beautiful blue S4 auto on BAT. Owned it for a few min, but not the crucial last second as it got outside my budget. Then this thread popped up on RL by one of the top 928 contributers:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...available.html

This Vegas shark intriqued me, although it was a bit more than I wanted to spend. But it was a 5 spd, so it would always have value. I decided to contacted Greg for the info.

He sent me the contact info and I sent a text to Steve. We then talked for a bit by phone and I asked the usual shark questions. This was Sat of July 4 w/e. The car was at work and he was home, but he gave me good info. I needed to think it over. After sleeping on it, I was certain I wanted to buy it as long as it was as described. I sent Steve a text Sun night saying I would buy if it was good. He said to contact him on Tue and that I'd have 1st shot at it, but he was also going to be busy getting cars ready for Monterey. I called on Tue and left a msg, but didn't hear back from him. Called again Thu and texted Fri. Now I'm getting worried because of all the excitement Greg's thread was generating. Steve called me back on Fri and said I was still 1st in line if I wanted it. Yes I did. He was busy the following Mon but got me the wire transfer info and all the paperwork to me on Tue. Wed morning I transferred the money and she was mine!

In all my Wheeler Dealer activities, I normally buy a car, fly out, and drive it home. That wasn't a wise decision with this one as she had been sitting for yrs and all the usual suspects were in play - bad gas, old timing belt, cracked tires. So shipping was the way to go. I contacted BAT, figuring they'd have the process down pat. They did but the driver they selected had truck trouble and backed out. BAT was having trouble getting a replacement. Took 2 wks but the new found driver showed up Mon morning (actually Sun night but the dealership wasn't open) and shark #2 arrived Wed morning.

She looks great! Nice exterior and interior. One of the two prev owners did some mods I'm not too excited about. There's a replacement radio and a trunk full of speakers, along with a built in radar detector and an old GPS system. The later was attached to a perfect dash. :mad: Plan is to drain the gas and look at the filter. Then see if the fuel pump and LK are working. At that point she'll be ready to start. But I need to juggle my schedule as my #1 priority is to get my mom's car ready to sell. Will take some disipline not to veer from the To Do list.

Steve was great to work with and didn't snake the sale out from under me. He's the Classic Sales Mgr at Gaudin Porsche. I was worried when Greg mentioned a bidding war. Looking fwd to getting her running, tackling her needs, and enjoying her for a while. A friend who helped push her into the garage thinks she may become a permanent resident. You never know...

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Today my schedule shifted so I had some time to do some work on the shark. Gave her a "sponge bath" this morning, along with some detailer and she looks show ready. I went thru the receipts that came her with and she's only been driven 500 mi since 2005 and hasn't been on the road since 2012 according to ins cards.

I'd like to try the stereo before I remove the rear speakers to get to the gas tank peep hole, but I'm afraid I'll drain every last ounce of life out of the battery if I do.

And wake up the dead.

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Sehr nett!
What a nice find--love those seats! I never understand the craziness over sound systems in cars. That's why we have concerts and home systems. When we switch to self-driving electric (hopefully after I have left for the great racetrack in the sky,) then they may be useful.
Enjoy!

Nice nice nice! A wonderful find.

Great looking car! Sorry about the perfect dash being "upgraded" with the GPS!

Yesterday I drained the gas out of the tank. It looked pretty good. Think I'll try running it thru my lawn mower. Pulled 6 gallons. Went to the parts store to buy a 5 gal gas can - $30 :eek:. While I was there, found a pair of windshield wipers (both friends who helped me push the shark in the garage noted the ripped pass wiper). Been a while since I've bought wiper blades - they were $23 each! :eek::eek: I bought 3 things and spent $80. But I was able to get my gas stored properly. Put 1.5 gal of new gas in and was ready to give her a try. Spun for half a min and the battery was toast. Figured out how to get the subwoofer moved enough to get to the battery enclosure. Put the charger on the battery (2/20 date) and quit for the night.

This morning I took the charger off and tried starting again. Just spun and no attempt at starting. OK, time to start diagnosing the issue. Pulled the out line from the fuel filter and stuck a hose on it to a funnel to a gas can.

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Tried starting again. No fuel. Tried honking the horn. It worked. Swapped the the horn relay with the fuel pump relay. Tried starting, still no gas but the horn worked so good relay. Then I notice the LH computer relay wasn't there but was replaced with a jumper wire. Hmmm... Took the horn relay and replaced the LH jumper wire with it. Still no gas. Final test told me what I needed to know. I replaced the fuel pump relay with the jumper wire. The fuel pump worked - gas out of the hose.

So I have a bad LH computer. This is a common issue and what kept the '87 from starting. I'll need to ship it to a guy in AZ to rebuild it. That will be $500. The good news is it took me 2 mo of trial and error to figure out the LH computer was bad on the '87. It only took me a day on the '89.

I may see how many holes were drilled and if Bumper Plugs would work to fill them. IDK, just a thought but it would prob look much better than that eye sore of a GPS module. Just not sure how much un-wiring I'll have to do. But that's a project for down the road.

You're going to have to put some miles on it to catch up with the over 400,000 mile 928!

That many miles might impact the value. This one is pretty similar to mine, other than 30K fewer miles, but same needs and spec. I about fell out of my chair watching it live.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1988-porsche-928-s4-80/

The rebuilt LH computer and recalibrated MAF arrive tomorrow. Also picked up the rt rear wheel after a repair today. However, they wouldn't put the old tire back on so I'm not going to be able to drive it. Have been looking for tires for wks. The rears generally are hard to find. But with supply issues, I can find fronts but not matching rears or rears with no matching fronts. Found some BFGs - the rears are in stock but no one has the fronts. Might end up buying the rears since I have to have them and hope some fronts show up.

And my mom's Fusion just got back from the dealer for a new steering rack. I need to clean the interior and shine up the ext and it'll be ready to sell. Hope to have it ready to go by the w/e. Have to get Fusion done before I can put my attn on the shark.

When it rains, it pours.

Finally had some time to replace the rebuilt computer. It's on the far right in this pic.

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Still have some buttoning up to do to finish. She gave me more of a fight going back in than I anticipated, so I decided to quit once the computer was installed. Have to replace the MAF before I'm ready to try starting it and will probably jack her up and take the tires off. The set of Yokohama tires I ordered were an issue. The rears are on nationwide back order. Damn supply chain. But I found a set of Potenza Sports that will work (and will be $200 cheaper) that are scheduled to arrive on Wed. If she starts tomorrow and the tires arrive on Wed, I might be able to drive her on Thu.

She's Alive!
 

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New shoes arrived today. Wasn't easy finding 16s. Could either find the frts or the rears but not both. Had to go with a diff sized frt to make this set work - Bridgestone Potenza Sports, which are reportedly a sticky tire. Not that it matters since this will be a cruiser.

Will maybe put them on tonight when the temps cool off or tom morning.

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Thanks for the updates, looking good!

Got the tires on last night, went out for a ride this morning.

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In order to license a car purchased from out of state, you have to take it to an "inspection" site where they basically run a vin check to see if it's stolen. The site is 6 mi from my house. Drove the shark there after lunch. Get my "inspection sheet", go to my ins agent for ins, then to the DMV. While the lady at DMV is rifling thru all the papers, I ask if she has any plates with 928. She says the only ones she has are 500s. Dang, how do all my friends get their 911 plates? Lady finds an extra letter in the vin on the insp sheet. She won't overlook it even tho it's their fault not mine and she won't call the insp site. I have to go back down there myself. Crap.

I go home and swap the shark for Punkin. Wow what a difference in driving exp - the shark has a dog leg 5 spd, meaning 1st gear is lower left and the clutch releases high. But Punkin got me down to the insp site quickly and I had a new sheet w/ 1 less digit. Take it back to the DMV and get a diff lady. She gets my paperwork and starts rifling thru it. Gets to the pt where she compares the vin on the insp sheet and the title. Not correct - the insp sheet had the letter O instead of the number 0. Double dang! She feels sorry for me so she calls the insp site and has them fax a new, corrected sheet. Hmmm. But I keep my cool and the fax arrives quickly. When the 1st lady finds out I had a 2nd problem, she disappears and then comes back with these plates.

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So I wasted some time and gas this afternoon but scored a good plate.

Nice plate!

It's been a while since I've provided an update on the new shark. Mostly because I've been letting my credit card cool down. Now that it's had time to chill, I've started buying maint parts.

Here's $400 worth of spark plugs and wires from Pelican.

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Last wk I visited my sister in suburban Dallas for Thanksgiving. While there, I stopped by a 928 vendor in the metroplex (928sRus). I bought several items from them for The Mistress, so I thought it would be fun to visit them in person. $1600 later I should have most of the parts I need to make the new shark road worthy without fear of starting on fire or the engine becoming a boat anchor.

Power steering hoses on the left, fuel lines on the right. There was 1 fuel hose that was sold out but will be shipped when the next batch arrives.

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Next up is the important items for a timing belt / water pump change. Depending on how much I need to let my cc cool down again, it might be next mo or Jan before I do the TB / WP (I'll need to hire someone to do the work). It requires a lot of items to be removed before you can get to them. And while I have things torn apart for the TB, it's the perfect time to get to the power steering lines. There will probably an addl purchase of radiator hoses and alternator / power steering / AC belts too. The spark plug wires will also go on when doing the TB since you have to move them out of the way to get to the TB.

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And finally a few trim pieces. The hood release pull works but the pieces of plastic that hold it are broken. And there's a trim piece around the driver's rear window that's missing. Probably got pulled off when going thru a car wash.

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Like I mentioned, hopefully this gets the maint up to snuff. A little polish and she'll be ready for spring.

Nice, thanks for the update!

I've been on the bench for the last mo after my heart attack and then catching a nasty cold / cough. But I'm on the mend and I can start doing things again. Have an apt for mid-Feb to get the timing belt, water pump, and power steering hoses replaced. In the meantime, I'm starting on removing the stereo in the trunk. My plan is to pull all the stuff out and replace it with a Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 46, which is a new radio with an old school look.

Here's what I started with.

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I've got the subwoofer, 2 amps, and 2 6-disk CD changers out w/o cutting wires. Now I want to be sure I don't take out something important, so I've asked for a pic from a Rennlister to see how it compares to my current mess.

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There will be lots of work left removing all the speaker wires routed everywhere, but it should be a lot cleaner, lighter, and more spacious when I'm done. The subwoofer box must weigh at least 50 lbs.

For some reason I have a hankerin for spaghetti. :D

Sorry to hear about the heart attack. Glad you are back, hope you made a full recovery!

Thanks Paul.

My event was Dec 18, so I haven't made a full recovery yet but I'm on my way to one. I'm not a DR and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn, but I was told I had a 100% blockage in a right side artery. They cont with what little damage done to the heart will heal in time. That seems a bit diametrically opposed, but they're the experts. The best thing I did was not ignore the signs - a severe clutching feeling in my chest, numbness in my left fingers, and a slight clammy feeling. It wasn't going to go away and would have been deadly had I ignored it.

I'm doing rehab 3X a wk and still have 7 wks left. So far no issues. Just like the athlete who suffers a knee injury, I need to get my confidence back that I won't cross the line of doing too much. And there will be some diet changes, although I wasn't a horrible eater. Hardly drink alcohol and always been a non-smoker. I'm hoping to attack my high blood pressure and bad cholesterol with lower weight. I was getting a bit chonky (5'10", 197#), so after Thanksgiving I started doing the Apple Cider Vinegar tablespoon in my OJ. I'm now down to 182. It doesn't taste the greatest, but it's working and hasn't been too tough to do.

The Docs told me to take it easy for 4 wks. I wasn't supposed to even lift a gal of milk. They didn't want me to tear up the cut in my right wrist where they went in with the stent. That 4 wk ban was over last wk, so now I can do a few light things. It's defn fun to be back in the garage doing things. There are plenty of light work items to accomplish on the shark, so I should have no problem filling my time.

Wow, so glad you caught it, sounds like you are on your way!

Sometimes you have to go backwards before going forward. Had to pull the top portions of the rear seats out. Took a google search to figure out how, but they're out now. Have to take them out to take the qtr panel covers off. Now that the seats are out, I may be able to pull the wires w/o taking the panels off. Will churn that over for a day and decide on a plan of action.

Note the grille item between the seats. That's the rear A/C unit (Porsche was thinking about the ppl who had to ride in the back). The cover over the unit had to come off in order for me to get to 1 bolt for ea seat.

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I found out those red wires are for the aftermkt alarm system that was installed. Have to be very careful that I don't disable the ignition when pulling these wires. The plan is to pull some wires, then see if the shark starts, then pull more wires and try starting again. If it doesn't start, then I know the last thing I did was the culprit.

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These are mostly speaker wires, but there are some red (alarm) wires too. Must be careful.

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So it may not look like progress, but now I have better access to the wires I need to pull. Onward and upward.

I hope the plastic they used back then is better than what they used in the 986, that it hasn't turned brittle resulting in lots of tabs breaking off when you remove the panels!

According to my google search on how to remove the panel, there are metal tabs on the bottom. The only plastic snaps are 4 at the top of the panel that covers the area above the qtr window. So far, I've been able to pull the wires out by removing the screws from the lower tabs and pulling the wires past them. I'll still probably have to pull the panels when rewiring for the new stereo, but I'll save that for a later day.

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Pulled the red wires on the driver's side out from under the panel and out of the carpet (had to remove 1 carpet piece in the rear seat footwell). A series of wires go under the seat while several go towards the front. When I reach under the seat, there appears to be a control unit for the alarm under there. May have to remove the seat to get to it. That could be an issue since I remember the seat from my 87 was quite heavy. May not be ready to lift that much weight yet. Maybe I'll only need to remove the seat bolts and fold the seat forward and not out. We'll see, will plan that out for the future. Will cont to pull the other red wires out but I imagine they'll head up into the dash.

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This is interesting on the passenger side. In the 1st pic, the wires are speaker wires (there are still speaker wires left under the panel connected to the speakers). The speaker wires laying out of the car may have come from the amps. The black wires defn did and they head under the seat - probably to the driveshaft hump and to the radio. May need to pull the seat for these. But the mystery is the copper colored speaker wires. They go into the cover that hid the amp on my 87 S4. When I removed the cover, the wires went into a bundle that was plugged into the silver canister. It didn't look like the amp from my 87, so I figured it was something added for the aftermkt system. Except it had a 928 serial #. Hmmm... that's factory stuff. Google says it's a fan relay control unit - it determines when to open and close the vents on the front for aerodynamics. So why does it need speaker wires connected to it? Got a ques thread in on RL to see if they know.

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I pulled more wires to the passenger front footwell. The red wires are alarm and head towards the center of the dash. The 2 black wires came from the amps and probably head to the radio. I'll pull the carpet panel on the trans tunnel and see if they're visible.

And to finish my session, I hooked up the battery and she started. So no issues yet. That might change when I start removing the alarm. That may not be too far down the road. Here's what the trunk looks like now. A lot of spaghetti is gone.

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Always enjoy hearing about your progress and was a bit shocked to hear about your heart attack. I'm glad to hear you are on the mend and wish you the all the best in your recovery. It sounds like you are doing all the right things and you will be as good as new.

Thanks. Much appreciated.

RL correctly said the speaker wires don't go into the fan relay control unit. Once I followed the wire bundle, it went into the diagnostic port. The port and unit were jambed close together and I didn't follow the wire bundle carefully enough.

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The FRCU has its own wires but none are speaker wires. Makes more sense.

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So onward. There are a bunch of speaker wires that go under the seat. So I need to remove the seat. Thankfully it went forward and backward enough for me to get to all the seat bolts (the seats in The Mistress didn't and caused me all kinds of problems). But remembering the weight of the seats in The Mistress, I knew I shouldn't be lifting it myself so I got my neighbor to help me get it out.

Here's what's under the seats. Will keep me busy for a while.

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We have some very cold weather coming. Not sure if I'll warm up the basement garage or not.

Rather than do a daily blow-by-blow, I decided to do several days work and report on it as a whole. Lots of cables and equipment removed. When we last left off, my passenger front seat area looked like this:

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The silver canister below the seat was for the CD changers and has been removed, along with the wires for it. There remains 2 RCA cables still connected to the radio as well as a red twisted wire that's also conneted to the radio. New is a batch of cables that are for the GPS. I've removed the CD player for it and now the GPS wires left are to the display unit on the dash along with a power wire.

So here's what I started with:

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The GPS monitor on the dash has to go. The CD player for it is below the glove box and is currently removed. Moving down the center console, the radio is a double din, so room had to be made for it since the factory radio was a single din. What they did was remove the ash tray and cig lighter and moved the ash tray to the side panel and moved the cig lighter to the glove box (what a great idea!). Then they moved the rear AC controls down to where the ash tray used to be. So some replacement parts will be needed, but nothing serious.

Here's a pic of the wires jambed into the console area with the radio still in. Pic is from the driver side with the consol carpet panel removed. Lots of extra wires behind the panel, but that's for later.

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With the removal of a couple of screws holding the radio in, it was pulled out and RCA cables along with power plug removed. With it out, it was fairly light work getting the stereo cables out.

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Then it's a matter of removing the rear AC controls and the HVAC unit. With a little more work, the center console can come out.

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The center console section needed to come out to get to the GPS display. It was held on the dash with 2 bolts / nuts. Neither was easy to get to, but with some persistence they came off. Wth the nuts off, the unit lifted off the dash. Was disappointed with what I saw.

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Didn't expect an massive swath removed from the dash. Was hoping for just a few holes. This makes things more "interesting". This was done to a perfect dash. :mad: Oh well, it's off and wires removed.

Now on to the driver's side. For some reason, one of the previous 2 owners decided to put a volt meter on the driver's side console carpet - probably because of all the extra wired systems wanted to keep track of what's going on. Horrible location that restricted your leg movement. It has to go.

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I also discovered two toggle switches by the volt meter. Who knows that they go to. But they both have wires that need to be removed. I also discovered some addl devises that I think go to the alarm system. Regardless, lots of wires need removing. Here's the before and after.

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There are some wires left that need to be tracked down and removed but I ran out of steam. Will work on that tomorrow along with removing the driver's seat to start with the removal of the alarm system under that seat.

When I got done, I reconnected the battery and she started right up.

Look what arrived today:

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A Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 46 with a Blaupunkt amp. Need to find a place to hide the amp, not sure it will fit under the passenger seat. Will do some clean-up in the passenger area, then plan an installation. But don't want to tear into too much on the driver's side as I have to have her running for the TB / WP apt on the 13th.

Nice, you've been busy!

Yes, it's been enjoyable to be back in the garage. The shark is in my basement garage and the driveway to it looks like this. Might not look like it, but it's entirely covered by 2" of snow / ice.

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Only gets sunshine in the morning and the sun doesn't have much strength to melt anything then. We've had 2 days in the 50s and this coming week temps will be in the 40s, so our snow is disappearing. I'm not supposed to do snow shoveling since my heart attack, but I wanted to try helping the driveway today. I need to be able to get the shark out next wk for her appt.

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I'd do 15 min of work, then rest for 90 min. Did 3 sets of work and got a chunk of the driveway cleared. Should be able to do a section ea day. The rehab nurses want me to do exercise on off days, so I'm trying to oblige. Being careful and listening to my body. Feel good tonight.

My initial plan was to leave the driver's seat in and not mess with the wires yet. I had an apt to get the TB / WP replaced on 2/13. Didn't want to pull the driver's seat and tear into a major project with only a wk to get done. Then I get an email from my mechanic friend saying he was running behind on a cpl jobs ahead of me, so he wanted to push the date back to 2/27. OK by me.

So I removed the driver's seat (myself) and here's the rat's nest I found.

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As a starting pt, this is what my pile looked like Fri at lunch, after I pulled the wires below the seat
but before I pulled the wires to the front.

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I found the connections under the seat for the alarm were disconnected, so it appears someone has disarmed the alarm. I discovered the river of wires running towards the gas pedal went up to the windows and sunroof switches. Those were easy to remove. A 4th set of wires went up under the dash to an unplugged connector. Gonzo.

Now to turn my attn to the wires on the driver's left side. There were 2 bundles of wires from the rear and 1 bundle from under the seat. Most of the wires went up to under the dash to the unconnected connectors. 2 bundles went out the firewall to the front of the engine bay to the Clifford alarm and the radar detector. I started pulling the wires from the engine bay to the firewall, but the bundle took a detour to the left inner construction, thru the outside wheel area, and then into the driver's compartment via the firewall. This meant I had to remove the left front tire to pull the wheel well plastic to get to the wires.

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I was going to town pulling and removing wires. Here's what my pile looked like late on Sat afternoon.

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The wire removal was done! Whew! Felt very satisfying. Here are some after pics. Looks substancially different.

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My hope is to work on wiring the speakers and getting wires to the amp and radio this wk, then put things back together on the driver's side so she's ready to drive to the apt. But then I realized I hadn't been following my rule of trying to start her after removing a set of wires. Last time I did that was after removing the windows / sunroof wires.

I connect the battery and flip the key. The dash lights up, then goes dark. Oh, oh. Ignition spins the motor but no start. CRAP! The battery sounded low, so I put the charger on it, hoping that was the source of my issue. After several hrs of charging, retried starting. Blank dash, no start. CRAP CRAP! Now I have to chase a short. :mad: :eek:

Stay tuned. Same Bat channel, same Bat time.

Wow, the things that people do for "upgrades"!

Well, my friend, you are living everyones worst nightmare for pulling wires and aftermarket electronics. Gotta concentrate on the alarm wiring, maybe download (if available) installation information for the alarm system. Good luck trying to find diagrams, I've found them hard to come by.

I have an aftermarket alarm in my 996 that works, but I never use as my car is garaged and we live in a pretty safe area. I find the system annoying as the keyfob would go through batteries about once a month. Also, if we ever made the mistake of trying to unlock the armed car with the factory keyfob, all hell would break loose with an alarm that was hard to disarm (as battery in alarm keyfob was weak). I stopped using the system and thought of removing the electronics but was concerned of running into the exact issue you've run into.

As I've been unable to locate the schematics, I've decided to punt for now. My factory keyfob works great and so it goes!

Your problem may be difficult to find but it will be easy to solve! Hang in there!

🤞🤞

Should know tomorrow...

I didn't want to, but Wed I removed the steering wheel and binnacle. Figured I had to remove it to enhance my search.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1676682220.jpg

Thu morning while laying in bed, I remembered 2 wires I clipped off that were under the steering wheel. Wondered if the ends that were left happened to be the same colors?

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1676682271.jpg

You can't tell from the pic, but there were 2 black wires that went into the yellow connector. The gold connector also had 2 black wires. BINGO!!! Now I wanted to track down the end I cut off. The wire coming out of the yellow connector was green, white out of the gold. I found the section I cut off.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1676682324.jpg

The wire bunch on the right are the green and white wires I cut. They're pinned into the connector that wasn't plugged into anything, so shouldn't have been an issue cutting them. But something interesting half way up the wires.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1676682380.jpg

A jumper wire connecting the green and white wires. This completed the circuit back to the 2 black wires these came from. Except now the circuit is broken since I cut those wires. So I cut the yellow and gold connectors off and spliced the wires together with a jumper wire (didn't want to solder them together and find out that didn't work). Put them together and plugged the instrument panel back in.

Fingers crossed...

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Success!
Will solder it up tomorrow and put the binnacle back in. My wire removal project is completed! :cheers:
Looks like I'll be able to make the TB / WP apt on the 27th - if I can get the 9" of snow off the rear driveway.

You are the man! I really admire your skills and perserverence! Wish this forum had a "Like" button too!

Glad you found the problem and more importantly, the solution!

Since we last left off, my shark dash needed to be put back together. Got the dash binnacle and steering wheel back on.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1677720837.jpg

Moved over to replace the center console, without the new radio. There's a big hole where the old double din radio was. The new radio is single din. I'll need to figure out what to do with the extra space. I looked for replacement parts on ebay and prices are amazing - $400 for a center console and $200 for a bezel. Ouch! Will use what I've got for now.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1677721101.jpg

I continued putting the driver's side back together, inserting the seat and carpets. I may need to remove some panels once I install the new stereo, but she's ready for the TB apt. I left the pass side undone.

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Then I got an email from my mechanic. He's got a bit of a situation that I won't go into, but he wanted to delay my apt until the 13th. OK, I've got stuff I can work on until then so I'll turn my attn to wiring the stereo.

Let me start by saying it's been at least 35 yrs since I've messed with installing a stereo, and things have gotten way more complicated since then. So I'm not an expert. There are three speakers in ea rear panel. I have a 4 chl amp so I'm wondering if I'll need to wire the speakers in parallel and began chasing the wiring set-up on the pass side. All the wires go into this device and there's a second one on the driver's side.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1677721634.jpg

Obviously it says it's a crossover. Not sure what that is so I go to Google. It's so old there aren't any pics of it but it looks like it could save me some work. I go back to the car and track the wires that go into it. They link up nicely with the tweeter, midrange, and woofer. The open slot (IN slot and has wires in the pic) is for input wires pos and neg. I wonder if I hook up my old radio and jumper wire from the RCA speaker wire to the crossover if I'll get sound from the 3 speakers? So I get my old radio out of the pile of wires & equipment and jumper wire it to the battery. Then jumper wire from the RCA cable to the crossover. The radio fires up but I'm not getting any sound from the speakers. I unscrew the end of the RCA cable and connect my jumper wires to the place where the wire connects to the end. Still no sound. I get my multimeter out and it shows no current at the RCA cables, but I've got a cheap meter and not sure if I trust it.

I stop for a bit and then think maybe I should replace the crossover with a single speaker. For some reason I still have the dash speakers from my 1st Porsche - a lapis blue 2001 Boxster S. I pull one of the speakers from the box and connect it to the jumper wires from the RCA cables. No sound. No other way to test with this radio as it only has RCA cables for output.

I pull my new radio out of the box and wire it up using the speaker wires it comes with. I jump it to the old Box speaker and then connect it up to the battery. I hear sound. I jumper to the pass crossover and hear sound out of all 3 speakers. YAY! Hook the jumper wires to the driver crossover and hear sound from them! YES! This is going to save me a ton of time and wiring when I put the new amp in. I'll use the crossovers as my 2 rear channels. Here's what I had concocted for my test:

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1677722870.jpg

Now I have to figure out the door speakers. There are 2 speakers per door. I may have removed the wires to them in my purge. I'll do some testing tomorrow. But for now, another success.

Great work! So the old radio is shot or not sure?

Great progress!
When you connected the RCA line to the speaker, you were connecting a 'pre-amp' (Low voltage tiny power) wire to the speaker. The RCA connection does not have the capacity to drive a speaker directly...it would have to go to an amp and then the amp connects to the crossover. The output from your new radio was 'line level', or amplified, hence your success driving the speakers.

The different connections for the tweeter crossover output will determine the 'brightness' of the treble. Connect to whichever one sounds best to you.