964tit

In the last few weeks I've been driving the p-train a lot. I have learned though, that after a day of driving the 964, I sometimes get cramps in my skinny noodle-like left calf muscle because the clutch is so damn heavy...


So. I bought me one of these:


http://www.mpl-tuningparts.de/english/porsche.html








...and spent a few hours under the beetle on Friday putting it in. The system uses a few of the old parts. Unfortunately, the dust boot was well-fooked. So we found an old one from another car in his parts bin and jerry-rigged it up.The bleed process was a bit of pain, as the power bleeder didn't work. It just pushed the fluid up through the over-flow and the old girl dribbled on the floor. So we did it old-school, with me hand pumping the clutch pedal...





Initial reports are.....it sorta works. It's definitely lighter. Only draw-back is that I've lost a bit of the 'feel' for the friction point. I'm sure I'll get used to it..


I've also obtained some local forum-sourced parts over the last few months.


Shiny...








Steve Wong...lets try you out:








AND?


WOAH! Feels like my fly-wheel is half as light as before. Car is far more eager to rev. The cup-pipe is also more of a 'classic' 911 sound, where the G-Pipe was more like a lower, louder rumble.


When I first took it out, the Idle valve was a bit 'cranky', but I'll put a few km on it to get the old girl to settle down....


Between the clutch improvement and the cat/chip combo, the car is one step closer to the goal. I know I'm not really breaking new ground with these mods, but they're popular for a reason, I suppose!


Oh yeah...my mate just got back from Germany and brought me this to add to the collection!








964tit

A few updates...

Steering

It's been a good month for the 964 - the steering rack has been rebuilt!!!

The steering is far lighter now. It's a pleasure to drive! The techs were saying that some of the seals had totally failed. The system was holding zero pressure but it was still closed (ie. no leaks).

I also put the cat back in, because the wife could smell the stink upstairs at the other end of the house when I left in the mornings. The cat-delete pipe has been repatriated to Queensland... :P

This is my only lame photo of the momentous repair to the steering rack:

(I guess she could do with a wash under there...)



Skids!

Two weekends ago I had a go on the local skid-pan.

I'm no Keiichi Tsuchiya, so I spent a lot of time facing the wrong direction. This car is pretty much all-grip, right up till the pirouette starts! After I while I got the hang of it. Never really above 30% throttle and surprisingly little steering input, the key seemed to be gentle and progressive.







Need to sort out that front bumper frown!





Oh...And I had a moment of stupidity and ordered one of these. I don't mind Mr Walker, but what got me was the thicker grip. The momo prototypo and mod07 have skinny 'girth', and I'm too used to BMW steering wheels!



Coming up:

Next two projects....new rear spring plates (935 style, probably), and obtain a spoiler control module to see if I can get the spoiler to work.

Plus, I'm taking it to Tasmania for a week in November to drive on the targa stages with five other Porsches! Weee!

Tokyo Joe

Great story and with a title like that, don't know how I missed this post

Is that an aerial on the front driver side? Never seen that before on a 964.

Had a momo like yourself and ok, they look cool, but also found it too thin and went back to the orginal. Keen to hear how you get along with that fat boy version.

Keep 'em coming mate, very informative

Cheers,

TJ

Mr.Alex

I wonder how much it would have been to buy regular momo and just have a good shop recover it to thicken it. But it looks like a nice beefy wheel. The reason I sold my momo mod 07 wheel when I got it is because it felt to thin in my hand, perhaps those people on track with gloves its different.

deutschland-dobson

I paid £130 GBP to have my MOMO V32 custom trimmed if that helps

Chris

964tit

Thanks! With the antenna, apparently the story goes that the reception in Australia at the time was poor with the windscreen antenna. So dealerships all over the country were drilling holes (*shudder*) in the fenders and installing these antennas. It's definitely on my list to remove, but obviously this involves some decent panel work and I need to prepare myself for that slippery slope...

Yeah. I love how my mod07 looks. Since I was a kid watching the WRC, I've always lusted after an alcantara deep dish wheel. So I was a bit disappointed with how this felt in the hand. Same for the Prototypo. Hopefully Magnus' wheel is better.

Trimmers are rare and expensive here. Probably better to sell this wheel and buy the correct one. That, or I'll accumulate a collection to change when I feel like it. It's really only six screws! :P

964tit

So - tomorrow I head for Melbourne to put the 964 on a boat to Tasmania. A group of us are going to cover lots of the Targa Tasmania stages over next week, and visit a few distilleries and breweries for good measure!

Tires

The wife took the car out last weekend and somehow impaled the rear drivers-side tire like it was a vampire - with a wooden stake!



I did a bit of man-maths and thought, well, that's both back tires. I don't really like these Bridgestones, so now's*opportunity to put what I want on all-four corners - Michelin PS2's! (They don't do PSS in 17's! )

So, using the wife's embarrassment as a bit of cheeky leverage, off I went to spend more money than I needed to:



Woop!

Spring Plates

I called my regular alignment guy at about lunch-time and asked how he felt about a bit of last-minute work. A deal involving beer was struck and I headed over...to fit my shiny new ERP spring-plates - 935 style! I thought about attempting this in my garage, but I assumed they'd be torqued to blazes and I didn't' fancy squashing my face...



I bought the boots as well (they should be included, but obviously the vendor can make a little more coin if they sell them separately...)

Old plates come off...

[img][/img]

Protective boots going on to protect the monoball..





...yeah, these old ones were screwed!



So the passenger side one was relatively easy.





The driver's side was more difficult. It must have been tightened by the devil himself. And to make things a bit more challenging, Ferry put a gearbox in our way. We unbolted the gearbox mount and supported the box. Then we slightly levered it aside to make just enough room. We bent one of the tools trying to undo that fella...



There was a bit of breaker-bar action...



AND THEN....I stopped taking photos to go buy beer... 

So yeah, I'm happy I didn't try it in the garage.

I got another alignment, front and rear. I set the ERP plates slotted-side down so that I kept it at about -1.2 degrees negative camber at the back. Slotted side up goes to about -3 degrees. If anyone is considering the ERP's, these ones move the toe adjustment to the splines at the top. Camber is done on the bolts.

In the front, I had the car at RS specs which call for a little toe-in, but I got the tech to bring the toe to neutral. Actually, I asked for a bit of toe-out, but he talked me out of it....

How does it feel? Umm....tires are quieter. Rear is less 'sloppy' (it's subtle) and the front turn-in is improved, but not as alert as I'd like it. I'm used to daily-driving a JCW mini with -2 deg at the front with slight toe out and a thicker rear-sway bar. That mini could probably turn up it's own backside if I tried... 

Anyway...the P-train is as good as I can get it for now in preparation for Tassie.

Oh! That's tomorrow!! I better go pack! 

964tit

If anyone's interested, here's some details and videos of Targa Tassie:

http://targa.com.au/tc/page_standard.asp?asset_id=19237
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targa_Tasmania


And some stages we'll be covering

Queenstown


Elephants Pass


Grasstree Hill


Ours is privately organised, but this is the one that Porsche Cars Australia run:

John McM

Timely work as I'm doing the same thing when the body gets back from the paint shop. I have a 3:1 torque multiplier with a 3/4 in output to a 19mm socket. Bring on the battle

964tit

Yeah - the biggest challenge is the driver-side and it's proximity to the gearbox. Be gentle!

John McM

Luckily I can do this with the engine and box out. I'm also taking the opportunity to refurb the rear shocks.

964tit

Nice. Makes things easier.

Hey, the wife and I have been talking for a few years about moving to NZ for a bit. I quite like Wellington. Though the last time I visited, the weather was perfect, so I probably have a misleading impression of the place

John McM

I was brought up in Wellington. Four seasons in one day with a lot of wind so I suspect you struck it on a great day. We compare Wellington to Melbourne in feel and Auckland to Sydney. I think most NZ roads are far more interesting driver roads than where I've been in Country Victoria and NSW so there are real positives here. Plus our Porsches are a lot cheaper.

964tit

I know there's lots of Magnus haters on here. I'm not one of them, but I'm generally not drawn to his Urban Outlaw products. I think they're a bit contrived.

This is actually a story of drunken online shopping. I was at a bucks party in Sydney in September. Turns out I read car blogs while I'm drunk!

I woke up to the order confirmation in my email. That's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it. The main reason drunk Tit thought this was a good idea was because of the thicker rim. My favourite steering wheels are BMW M Sport wheels - which you probably know have good 'girth'. I've got a JCW wheel on the mini, which is a chunky tiller, and I love it.

I can take or leave the "fatiguing" on the leather, though.

Pros:
• Thicker wheel girth
• Classic Prototipo design

Cons (for me):
• Im 6'1", and found the mod.07 dish (extra 20mm depth) helps a lot for my driving position (Sitting straight in the seat, I extend my arms out and put my wrists on top of the steering wheel. I usually have the rim about 2 inches back from my wrists). So with this wheel, my driving position isn't as perfect as it was before.
• I realise all the MW wheels are different, but when I look at the leather distressing, it does seem a little 'forced' or 'contrived'.
All in all, I love the thicker rim. I think I'm starting a bit of a steering wheel collection (911 Turbo wheel, Mod.07 and MW). I think perfect wheel for me would be a Mod.07 with the MW thickness...might need to visit an auto trimmer...)

Some of the colour & lighting in these shots is a bit out, because I shot long exposure in low light conditions. I still don't have any day light shots:
Perhaps he's pointing at my wallet...

















Sorry for the poor lighting! The colour isn't this light, but it's be best I managed with the lighting in my garage.

Streetdaddy

Put a spacer in there!