OPM928

Okay some more detail on the job's i've done in between getting the cross member off, and back on again. But first - a little primer on getting the starter motor on and off.

Starter Motor
It seems others have commented on what a nasty beast this is. I therefore took the challenge seriously and found it pretty easy in the end.

The top bolt is apparently the tricky one because you've got no room with a smallish 8mm allen key. My solution was to place a trolly jack and a block of wood under it, lift and BAM!



I actually found the lower bolt a bit more challenging because I couldn't use this technique. I did however 'fabricate' a little extender for the allen key by inserting 2 16mm sockets into a pipe.




Allen key extender bar. (Sockets were pushed into the pipe properly for use)

To reinstall it I experimented with a 8mm to 10mm Kincrome attachment joined to a 10mm ratchet wrench to do the bulk of the work a little quicker. Not sure how to find the right torque on the way back in though?





Sump/Oilpan gasket
I spent a bit of time thinking about what the right way to go here was. My original plan was to use a permatex ultra-black gasket maker to permanently seal the deal. But after reading another Rennlist thread https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...olvents-4.html I decided that was a slightly stupid idea. I went with cork because the idea of experimenting with different fastenings for the silicone gasket was a bridge too far given how deep my rabbit hole was already. Ultimately decided to go with a lighter permatex Permashield sealant on cork. (Permashield is non-hardening and non-setting.






The next step was to lift the pan onto the engine. Of the things I read the one I liked the most was to use zip ties to support the pan as you take it up. Had the benefit of keeping the gasket in place.




To do this you need long thins cable ties. Mine were 200mm x 2.5mm




Once the pan was in this position it was pretty simple to take it up and start on the bolts. (Lightly and randomly from one bolt to the next)

There's an easy solution to work out where the long and short bolts go. The 5 short bolts go into the 5 recessed bolt holes.


Hoses

My biggest spanner is 32mm which is lucky because this is just the size you need to take off the oil pressure hoses. The 32mm locks onto a 30mm collar (I think) and the two together make it pretty easy to detach. I labeled everything but Enzed painted over some of my labels! Fortunately the notes I had taken plus pictures like the one below were just enough for me to figure out which went where. Touch wood



And finally the fresh new oil/ps pipes are in.

DeWolf

It's actually a fairly straightforward job. With lots of help from around here and parts from Roger it's coming together nicely. A couple more weeks and I hope to turn the starter.
I'll be doing the X pipe, FPR and Porken chips as soon it's running sweet. That will be the limit of the mods.

OPM928

Keep me posted. You have a thread dedicated to this?

DeWolf

Nah, there's already a few very good ones. I'll post before and after pics in a quick thread but that'll be it. Once the mechs are done I'll be pulling the interior for new carpets and a dash/console re-skin.

OPM928

Although I’m not quite finished with my jobs under the car, I want to start planning for the next big element which is at the top of the engine.

I’d like to get some advice on how much I should take on. I realise there is an awful lot of work that I could do.

All I really need to do (for the Roadworthy certificate) is replace the camshaft seals. [I presume it’s sensible for me to leave the crankshaft seals and cambelt tensioner gasket for the Local Porsche Dealer when I get them to replace the timing belt].

While TheDeputy’s kind words (that the rest of the jobs are a ‘piece of cake’) are encouraging, a lot of the stuff on the net (such as Dwayne’s Intake Refresh and https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...adventure.html) end up taking on a lot of work. I really want to work out in advance where to draw the line.

Here’s the list of potential jobs from Mike Frye’s excellent 21 page document.




And here’s Roger’s 1986 Intake Kit.



Doing the following seems sensible:
• Replace the camshaft seals (which I’m guessing are the o-ring seals on the cam covers).
• Replace the fuel lines (for safety reasons)
• Powercoating

In addition to those three things is there anything else I should be doing (without overly adding to the complexity of the job)?

I really appreciate the time you are all taking to read and contribute to this thread.

ROG100

My take on doing an Intake R&R for any 32v engine - replace all that needs replacing as you do not want to do it again for another 20 years.

Wisconsin Joe

The best writeup I've come across for the job on the "Pipe Organ" intake is this one:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...rst-timer.html

Well written, tons of pics, not exactly short but worth the read.

OPM928

Hi Wisconsin Joe - thanks for the tip. I hadn't come across that thread before. Very helpful.

I have two weeks annual leave coming up soon and had hopes that I could get the bulk of the top end work done by then. I sounds like the advice from Roger and others though is right. I'll take it slow and do a proper job. I guess that's the whole point of doing something the Rennlist way rather than trying to get the cheapest job done with your mechanic*. Syoo8 (Scott's) comment below really speaks to me. So it's time to mensch up and just start.

* The caveat here is that I now have enormous respect for the fraternity of mechanics.

OPM928

This has had to be the biggest PITA I’ve had so far. Should just be a collection of a number of simple jobs – but the bushes especially wore me down.

Once again I referred to John Pirtle’s excellent page for guidance http://members.rennlist.com/pirtle/svc.html. I found it difficult to locate the top of the bushing collars and so moved on to his alternative method of drilling out the inner rubber sections. That proved harder than I expected. A few holes doesn’t free anything up. Instead I had to drill 360 degrees around. With a cordless drill this turned out to be harder work that it sounds (for me at least). The inner sleeve does pop out easily after this as John says. But the outer sleeves didn’t budge easily. First I still had to find the collars and pry them up.








I found this too challenging to do the full 360 degrees (without damaging the soft aluminium underneath). So instead I concentrated on the join of the sleeve (on both sides) and then used a hammer and a screwdriver to turn the sleeve into a tight scroll which would then fit through.





I suspect I should have spent the $200 on a hydraulic press instead of all this fussing around.

Next job was to remove the tie rods. I found this step pretty easy. Once you move the metal fitting in the middle there’s plenty of room to fit spanners on each end. Yes it requires some force to break the thread lock but I found standing on one with the other counterheld by the ground was pretty easy.




Then you’d think it would be a pretty simple job to screw in the new tie rods and slip on the boots. Not quite. First off I thought it would be easiest to get one end of the boot (the small one) attached to the tie rod before I screwed it on. That was a wasted effort because you need to move the boot out of the way to get those spanners back on to retighten the tie rod on.




Next was getting the boots fitted properly. I used hot water and detergent like I read elsewhere on Rennlist. That turns out to be fine for the small end. But the larger (inner) end was proving elusive and given I was in no mood to get any more grief from this rack so I fabricated a little tool (x3) to slip under the boot and slide them up. This ended up being a winning strategy.



Hopefully these rounded edges shouldn't damage inside the boots.




Lastly I put the whole steering rack back on the wooden plank I used to measure the original dimensions from the original set up. I will still take the car in for a proper alignment (when I get the timing belt done no doubt).

The Deputy

Correct...lol.

Especially, after reading your topic for your last post.

And, since just a few hours ago...I too...was trying to get that damn boot on the rack. I'd noticed my boot on the rightside was torn when I did the motor mounts, rack was down and hanging, but bolted everything together anyway...thinking I'd just replace it later (since I had to order one). So, boot arrives, pull it apart to install...removing outer tie-rod...but notice inner tie-rod has movement. Order that and wait. Tie-rod arrived Friday as expected...so yesterday morning I went out in the garage to throw it on (sounds easy enough).

Installed the tie-rod without much drama, yes, it is a tight son-of-a-gun...but it failed to deny my wishes. Then I warmed up the boot by the heater, since it was thirty-some degrees...lubed it up some...and attempted to "throw it on".

Well, son-of-a-***** if that thing doesn't fight me every inch of the way. Thought to myself...if I have to drop this darn rack to get this boot on...I'm gonna stroke-out. Ended up making a tool similar to yours, but out of plastic...since I did not want to scratch the rack piston. Mind you, my rack is bolted in place...so getting my hand around the boot...up inside that crossmember...to put enough pressure on it with these 56 year old partially arthrictic fingers was even more difficult. Finally, after about twenty minutes and several, some even new to me, swear words...it "threw" itself on.

So, if I ever use the term..."piece of cake" again...please pick up the biggest rock you can find...and throw it at my noggin.

Twice, since my scull is very, very thick.

Brian.

OPM928

Well presumably if I got the wrong rock it would ruin everything.

I'll have to check what the right version is for the S3!

OPM928

Time for a bit of a general update.

I think all the jobs under the car are now largely done, but it's pretty slow progress buttoning everything back up. I've had several sessions under the engine and and each time think 'yep, should be able to finish this today', only to find it takes the whole session to do a minor component of the job - like reconnecting the steering rack to the steering column coupling. (Proper details/photos to follow once the job's done). I've also taken some time out for work and to get fresh nuts for the cross member (I know,I know, that's just asking for some kind of reply).

I'm hoping that I'll get the thing buttoned up in a couple of days - before moving on to a hopefully simple enough lower ball joint replacement (and maybe upper ball joint boot replacement).

That will be followed by the intake refresh - which has seen the first hurdle. ROG100 nearly missed out on getting payment when my credit card company noticed 'unusual behaviour' when I tried to pay him. All sorted now Roger!

Hopefully I'm not getting ahead of myself but have been looking at powder coating options. https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...australia.html. All I need to do is button up downstairs...

PaulCarrera

Hey James just wondering who you are using for your parts. If you are buying local it would be worth giving Autohauss Hamilton a call in Sydney ask for Jsmes their prices are usually as good as getting from overseas . Looking good so far

OPM928

With the caveat that I'm new to all of this... But for full disclosure:

I've received two or three shipments from Roger of 928's rUs for the bulk of my parts. I've got another biggie in the mail too.
I've also used the Local Porsche Dealer for one part (the in tank fuel pump) that I'm not entirely happy with (yet) http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=38783
I've used EnZed to refresh my power steering pipes and oil pump pipes. I've just discovered one of these is leaking. I may have erred with my choice there.

So hands down the winner is Roger.

PaulCarrera

My local Porsche dealer that I imagine is the same as yours wanted $2700 for my 911 clutch and associated parts and I purchased elsewhere for around $800 delivered. Same brand so do your homework