Fronkenstein

Merlin so are you saying conclusively that this is TOB noise and it is also the culprit causing the performance of the clutch to degrade within just a few minutes? Mind you, shifting is not so good now anyway. It was great right after we put the transaxle back in. But about 10 miles later shifting is bad and the clutch is noisy.

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Hey Merlin! So today totally sucked lemons. I was bringing Inga home from her 4 wheel alignment and I depressed the clutch pedal for a downshift and horror of horrors the clutch pedal went to the floor. Now mind you, if this had happened on a side road it would have been okey dokey. But no, oh no, Inga decided to halt in one of the busiest intersections in the area at rush hour. There I was on pavement that was 110 degrees, cops, rush hour traffic and AAA - like a donkey in the rain, I had to stand there and just take it. I have to say thank gawd for AAA Plus (120 mile tow) and I was never happier to see a local LEO show up behind me.

So here I am sitting with my wife in her BMW, asking me "so how much more and you going to dump into this..." as which point I said very calmly but with a maniacal look in my eyes "this isn't the time" and the topic changed immediately. So I started to contemplate what could have gone awry since there was no fluid on the ground. My mind went immediately to a new master cylinder failure. Then I thought further and said only two choices; master cylinder; or TOB.

So I got Inga home and promptly went into the house to cool down for 2 hours. Then I went out, got under the dash and voila! no fluid. Checked the reservoir for adequate fluid - perfect. Ok so it must be the TOB - yep. The snap ring let go and that was the end of forward motion under the force of kinetic energy coming from under the bonnet.

Gawd Inga has been a very difficult baby. Every step of the way she has fought to keep her new sneakers off the road. But this is the last major bug. And incidentally for all of you listeners out there the transmission was shifting smoothly before this little mishap

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Old clutch out and new one in in just over 4 hours. Doing some more electrical connection improvement and cleaning. I am running a separate ground cable from the battery directly to the engine for better grounding. Adding an additional engine to chassis strap as well.

Trying find a way to run AFR sensor cables into the cabin in a clean and professional manner. Not too many options it appears. The AFR cables are 3M and that is too short to bring up through the firewall and get it to the console. I thought about bringing them up through the shift shaft port under the console. If anyone has any secrets I would appreciate hearing them.

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Hilton

Hole in the side of the tunnel - where the factory hole is for the O2 sensor wire?

My 89 S4 didn't have the hole, being a non-cat car from factory, so I drilled one.

See pics of RHD car holes in this post and details of hole saw etc. - LHD are just mirror image..:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...ml#post9790904

Fronkenstein

Yeah my car is a 1978 RoW, no lambda sensor car. So I will have to poke a hole I guess. I kills me to do it because body wise the car, other than an OK re-paint is in great shape.

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ltoolio

Given the fickle nature of the electrical system and the relatively low cost of the engine ground straps, would this be something to consider for normal maintenance?

I'm not at the car right now, so I don't know what the mounting options are, but seems like it might help improve grounding with minimal effort.

Fronkenstein

In most cars the engine is the center of the grounding universe even cars with rear mounted batteries. Even Alfa Romeo was smart enough to realize that. The basics of electrolysis especially in a chassis employing a large amount of aluminum, depending on the chassis to be the main ground point is asking for trouble which is just what most of 928's experience. Porsche should have employed a US experienced automotive electrical engineer to design its electrics. For that matter so should have Lucas Prince of Darkness.

On my 1978 there is a tube/cable clamp/runner on the passenger side that has an extra slot. It would require more cable and some creative work over the rear suspension to make it work professionally.

I am going to run it on the drivers side since it represents the shortest path to the engine. I will try to find the clamps if available via Porsche or swap the other side in.

I will bring the cable to an attachment point as close to the starter as possible for better power distribution to the starter. In addition an extra chassis to engine strap on the drivers side. Finally smaller straps to other areas on the chassis known for their idiosyncratic behavior.

I consider this an "upgrade" (read ECO) that Porsche is so famous for. If some consider this a hack then I submit that the Porkensioner is also. I like to drive my car with reasonable expectation that the electrics will work more than once in a row

My car is an "upgrade" front to back. M28.22 running CIS injection, dual electric fan, A/C fan delete, Carrera 2 calipers and rotors, Carrera wheels, 10" booster, performance X-pipe, etc. All under the bonnet / chassis and non-evident except for wheels and visible brakes.

I say go for it.

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ltoolio

Will you go with a custom-built ground cable, maybe using zero gauge wire and some heavy duty soldered ends?

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Custom as in have someone build it for me, or custom as in I build it? It will definitely be the latter. I have all the raw materials in stock as well as the crimping and soldering tools.

I also have some nickel plated battery post clamps designed for boom stereo systems to expand main power connections. I will likely use that so I have a near and clean connection directly to the battery rather than piggy back on the original ground wire at the chassis connection.

I started my professional career as an electrical engineer but converted to the dark side of software in 1989 and never looked back. That and the fact my dad had a wrench in my hand at the ripe old age of four just adds to the car addiction and having learned from observing experts and fixing sins of the hackers out there has taught me well.

Having a fully equipped shop with lift and a seeming never ending supply of tools doesn't hurt and I am a tool junkie. I have four tool boxes at my home garage. A Mac for metric, a Snapon for SAE, an old Craftsman for machinist tools and a generic for electrics and body working tools and a crash cart for driveway work.

At the shop we have four boxes, two crash carts, two welders, plasma cutter, 7000 lb lift, steel heavy bench 1.5" thick top drilled every 4 inches on center, 2000 lb and 6000 lb engine hoists, two transmission jacks, two forklifts and more speciality tools than I can list all in a 40 x 60 space with a 12' 6" door one one side and a standard 9x7 on the other. We used to have a well equipped machine shop but I sold that off in 2008 much to my sadness.

This represents collecting tools and operating a garage for 40+ years, although not me, my brother. I just play with cars and motorcycles. I hope to work on a small number of client's exotics when I retire from tech. We'll see how that pans out.

Sorry for the long post. Not trying to I just want my readers to understand I am not your usual backyard mechanic with limited resources.

Had I not had all of this I would never had taken on the 928, especially not this one. The lift alone is a must have. I have up driveway and single car garage restorations 25 years ago. Too much aggravation in the firm of broken knuckles, neck pain, herniated disk and smashed fingers.

This past winter I did the transmission pan on my wife's BMW 530XIA on my back in my home garage - NEVER AGAIN. Took 6 hours at 20 degrees F (ran out of propane) in the middle of December.

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Have been taking Inga out for a drive here and there. This shot is on the coast 10 min from my house.

The Deputy

Looking good. I'm glad she's starting to treat you right.

Brian.

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Thanks Deputy. Yeah its a great feeling when you get to this point. There are still things to fix like:

• New Delco CS130 alternator
• Replace the console
• Replace butt portion of the front seat Pashe pattern cloth with new Pashe cloth (I am trying to keep this thing as barn find original looking as possible)
• Blower motor isn't working
• High beams are always on and when I press high beam the driving lights come on
• Charge A/C system and get it running
• Replace radiator as this one has a tiny tiny weep
  
• Repair pass door window regulator issue
• Take the interior apart one panel at a time to renew
• Prolly going to have her repainted. The PO had a repaint that is not up to my standards

But that is why we buy these relics right? We want to dump 7 times the ca$h value into a car that we loved, had empathy on its pitiable state and have over the years grown to hate with a passion When can I buy my next one!

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So my replacement brake master cylinder came sans pressure switch ports. So I switched over to the 1984 style brake light switch ala GM pedal plunger switch for $5.45 and 3 feet of harness cable.

I disabled the brake pad and brake fluid pressure circuits. I am baffled as to why... Oh yeah, rich people don't typically wrench their own cars Anyway pad wear indicators are useless in my mind and brake fluid pressure has pretty obvious physical indications when your foot hits the floor

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Delco CS130 alternator is in and working great. It was a snap. Used a bunch of thick exhaust washers wrapped up in gorilla tape as a spacer. Everything else just fits.

Fixed the oil lines that were misaligned, to close to alternator fan blades. The engine is from an RoW car so the oil line nipples are not the same radius. I had to make some deals from aluminum washers. Saved them in a machinist block and then finished with a spare nipple and line. Worked out great,no more weeping.

Inga continues to run great. Has some electrical oddities - imagine that Highbeams always on, no dash lights, RH driving light is dim while the LH is great,etc.

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She's burning nicely on boosted 93 octane.