wtmeyer

Labor Day weekend was a busy one. On Saturday I sold my 83SC and on Monday I bought an 87 911 Targa with Factory Turbo Look option. It is going to need a few things, such as tires. What is the conventional wisdom for changing to 225/50/16 on the 7" front wheels? THere seems to be more choices for this size.

The wipers are doing strange things. The owners manual says that the bottom position (0) is "OFF", but on mine this activates the intermittent feature. I get no wiping in positions 1 or 2. Position 3 gives me hih speed wipe. Sound like a switch problem?

Speaking of switches, the high beams are on all the time regardless of stalk position. I can get them to low by pulling the stalk slightly closr to me. They come back to high when pulled completely toward me and pushed completely away as they should. Another switch problem?

The car has 75K miles on it. Time for a major service. I assume valve adjustment gets done now. What about Oxygen sensor? Is Swepco recommended for the G50 transmissions? How much would this cost at a dealer?

Thanks.

ked

sounds like you've found a fun car -congrats! here are some quick responses on possible simple solutions...
- wipers: intermittent is probably on - it is located between & above the tach & speedo - little black **** - turn it off, see what happens.
- headlights: common failure mode - the turn signal / bright-dim switch contacts are tired and corroded. sometimes when you play with it a bit you get low beams back (for a while). real solution is replacing or dissassembly, cleaning & cold-setting the internal contacts. there is much on Pelican on diy approach.
-tires: it is a personal preference or usage thing (autoX?). i tend to honor the fact guidance unless I have a compelling reason to vary.
- since it is new to you, if you have no records, have the valves checked. I got good response from going to Mobil 1 synth gear oil. don't use the same swepco as recommended for the 915 trannys. the infamous rattle diminished greatly w/ the synth. O2 should be OK, I wouldn't change it until I got symptoms.
- review your owner's manual closely... lotsa wisdom there - it's your baseline.

Mike Murphy

A good mechanic can tell you if your valves are too loud - that's generally the time to adjust them - or follow the manual guidelines even if they are quiet. As far as other maintenance, you might want to change the air filter, fuel filter, oil filter and oil. You should look into getting new wires, cap & rotor, along with new plugs. All of these things are easy an inexpensive to do, with the exception of the valve adjustement, which should run no more than $300.

I am in the same boat as far as tires. I choose to leave the Pirelli's on for now - they have tread but are 7 years old and cracking - I will looking into tires in the spring most likely.

g-50cab

Mobile 1 for the g-50 or redline synthetic

Yes, switches sound suspect on the wipers and brights.

racer

225's on 7's are fine. I believe most manufacturer websites prefer a 7.5" rim, but it really won't matter.

911Dreamer

Is the black turbo targa that was repainted black and for $16.5k

wtmeyer

Yes! Are you the guy from Arizona that John said was also interested in the vehicle?

Luus

Nice find! A factory Turbo Look Targa is a rare beast. Would love to see a couple pics.

911Dreamer

Yup good to see it went to another addict ...I have to say though the son Dustin was an idiot.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...hreadid=302018

check out the link that I posted on pelican parts, we made a deal after a rennlister went to check out the car for me, Dustin said he would not take a deposit untill the person came to check out the car for me...after that we talked, he agreeded to take deposit....later on he emailed saying his dad sold the car....Didn't have the ***** to call me and tell me this

Make sure you get the car PPI now that you have, he seemed like he didn't want me to get it checked out....

911Dreamer

see pics on the pelican post

jdogporsche

Very nice car, but the paint job...
I actually don't have a problem with repaints, sometimes people just want a different color, but love everything else about the car, but I do think if you get it repainted, you should do it right. One of the Pelican guys said to at least rattle can the wheel wells and I agree...that way you don't see the red.

Please don't get me wrong though, it is a very nice car. Get that PPI done right away so you may catch anything that will cost you down the road.

Jeremy
1977 911 Targa, 3.0 Euro

wtmeyer

911 Dreamer: I agree with you about the son. I did not exactly understand why his son was invlved in this transaction in the first place. I dealt with the owner directly. I was very leery when I first saw the car. The owner was definitely NOT a Porsche addict. I don't think he knew how rare the car is that he was selling. That is the only reason I bought it, becasue it was the real deal.

I have it in the shop today for inspection. There are some issues with the car, so don't feel like you missed out on a great deal. He only had a few records, but the one key one for me was the G50 clutch update about 15K miles ago. If he had not had a receipt for this I would have walked away. There were no receipts for standard maintenance items like valve adjustments and oil changes, but the car seemed to be in mechanically good shape.

The paint is what bothers me the most. It does not look bad considering it appears to have been repainted back in the early 1990s by the original owner. The early maintenace records from 1992 show the car as black in color.

If you have a copy of the carfax you could send I would appreciate it. I ran it through Autocheck with no signifincat records. I would like to know when/where it changed hands to document the miles. Stay in touch. If I tire of it in a few months, I will offer to sell it to you first. I will let you know how the inspection goes. I took a gamble, let's see how it pays off.

911Dreamer

PM me your email I will send it to you in PDF file...I hope the PPI goes well for you, because if it does you got a heck of car, lucky for you those knuckleheads were more into "backwoods" cars


Let us know how the car turned out

wholberg

Congratulations!! I also have a 87 TL Targa. Supposedly, there were only four imported into the U.S. in 87. Mine was Iris blue metallic, but has been repainted Pearlessence. I have seen a Guards Red one sell on EBay a couple of years ago and go down to Atlanta, and there was a blue (can't remember the exact shade) sold by a PCA member in western NC last year sometime.

As for the other things, The earlier post on the intermittent wiper is likely correct.

I fixed the highbeam issue myself pretty easily, by taking the cover off the steering column and slightly bending the contact with a pair of needlenose pliers. There are a couple of good threads on Pelican with pictures. If you decide to attempt it yourself, please feel free to contact me.

My car has the original O2 sensor (I should probably replace it). I use Mobil 1 gear oil for the trannie and it seems to work great. My valves need adjustment about every 20K miles. I would not worry about it as long as the valvetrain is not making a great deal of noise and the car runs good.

I hope you have as much fun with yours as I have with mine.

A4

Great story on a great ride. You couldn't make this stuff up: Muscle car dude trying to sell a unique P-car and his snot nosed son messing with a guy 3000 miles away with the eventual buyer and screwed guy connecting via the WWW.

I was at the NE PCA show today looking for any potential cars for sale and there were a handful of turbos, two TTarga's and two '94 Turbo look coupes. in all a great show even with the 25 928's!