Clark-88-944

Too bad your not closer, I have a '87 I'm parting out, and it has a good windshield .

alexgsim

I recently bought my own 944 back in May for 2k, an '85.5, and I'm having some continued trouble with it as well. Found your thread trying to see what I could dig up on my unidentified engine heat issue (suspect a bad temp sensor or maybe it's as simple as the shop having unnecessarily replaced my brand new OEM thermostat with a brand new non-OEM one (valve size is smaller on the wrong one). I'm rooting for you guys, and wish all the best!

benchod

where are you located?

Clark-88-944

Middle Tennessee...what ya need?

lamrith

Let me see if I have anything I think would be shippable from there and I will let you know.

MN

Might be worthwhile to buy a second 944 strictly as a part car!

benchod

My car needs a windscreen too. If you were local it might have worked out.

Swenny

Exactly. You need to post this in the 928 forums. It's more of a religion to own one of those. Waiting for pelican to ship parts is frustrating. Try autohausaz.com Good people over there in Tempe AZ.

Wisconsin Joe

^This. Big time.

It's not a "is something going to break?" but a "when is something going to break?" situation.

This would be true for any car of that age. The fact that it's a Porsche means that the parts will cost more.

If he needs reliable transportation, find a cheap 'ultra-low mileage' lease on something. I think you can get a sub-$20k car for below $200/month.

But it won't have the 'panache' of a Porsche. It won't have the satisfaction of knowing how the car works and that he can fix it when it breaks.

lamrith

PM Sent

lamrith

I appreciate all the input. I will say that some of it had me almost sell the car as we are just not ready (mentally or financially) to drop 3-4-6k in repairs into a car like this as a 1st car for him, though things do add up for sure.

• Shifter was the common pivot bolt wearing out. c-clip gone, then the linkage fell off, easy fix and I did the upgrade with the thrust bearings and a 10mmX50mm bolt.
• High/low beam stalk on column was bad, highbeams were on unless you held it back a fraction. I pulled it off the car and was trying to see if could open up and they are seals units. GRRR. tried adjusting one of the contacts and of course the spring popped out. DOH! Also found the blk wire for the cruis control was not connected to anything. Buying an assembly off a parts car, but for now, no headlights other than highbeams.
• Rear wiper. It did not operate at all when we got the car, did't realize how $$$ they were. Kids tinkered with it a little and said it only moved and inch back and forth, good sign, motor had power, odd it would not fully cycle. I pulled the cover off and the assembly looked almost new. Took the arm off and turned the wiper on, the shaft sure seemed to be moving well. I marked it and sure enough it was making a full 90* sweep. Teeth on the shaft are almost non existent. I put the arm on and made sure to get the nut on there really tight. Turned the wiper on and bingo, full motion, very stong wiper!
• Radio - aftermarket radio, showed and error when bought it. PUlled a manual from internet and error was for a short in speaker wiring. pulled the entire radio, cut ugly spliced aftermarket harness. I rewired it into the car and now radio works, though the rear speakers are beyond weak, even will full fader to back and high volume could barely hear them sitting in garage. We will have to rewire and/or replace speakers. Are the rear prone to going out, that a moisture area, or just bad wiring normally?
• Front swaybar bushings are being a %&*@$ They do not want to fit in the clamps and bolt up to the mount. I will keep working on that once I get some of the bushing lube at the store, hoping it helps. Is there some sort of trick? do you put bushings in the clamps then try to slide it over the bar? They were so stick to the bar I did not see that being possible. so I slide bushings over the bar and then spread clamps and snapped over them. But of course not it pinches the bushing.
• Cooling - I think I mentioned that it had overflowed on us in the driveway. Wife and son had made a 30min freeway cruise, got home and it overflowed when sitting in driveway idling. Looked to me like it both triggered the expansion tank cap and that cap did not have an outer seal so a mess. Re replaced the cap refilled expansion tank and ran it. Around town never had an issue, always stays in bottom 1/3 of the gauge. I watched it and on freeway running it seemed fine, soon as came to prolonged stop getting off freeway, it was in top half of gauge. I watched and it was not coming down, so I turned heater to max and it dropped immediately and I turned heater off. Gauge stayed down. I have heard fans running before but with traffic I could not hear if they were running or not at the time. It was pretty cool out this AM, probably 50-60*f so concerning that it was getting warm. When I got to work I pulled out my laser therm and head was 195*f, expansion tank showed 156*f. Neither seems overly hot, but at that time the gauge was back down in it's normal lower 1/3 range. anyone have any ideas?

I talked with son about the situation, $ possibly involved to keep going, pro/cons of it as a driver, and options to go another route, but he is just smitten by the car (likes things with curves like dad, man are we in trouble), so we will just keep going one drive at a time for now, he does not get his license until Dec. The engine sure seems to run like a champ, and I ran it good thru 6k+ this morning getting on the freeway. Man these cars sit low. I was noticing how short it is next to semi's, and had someone in a parking lot pull pout in front of me as they could not see me over the bushes in the parking lot. Brakes/tires passed that test and something I need to make sure to relay to son to be aware people an not see it around bushes well.

Wisconsin Joe

The Multi-switch (turn signals, high beams, ect) isn't supposed to come apart. And if you do take it apart, it's pretty much a three handed job to get all the pieces and springs back in (plus 2 more hands for the casing). But it can be done.

Front sway-bar bushings. They should fit like they 'supposed to' go there. If yours are pinching, something isn't right. I'm not going to do a whole lot of searching around, but I seem to recall that there are a couple different swaybars, and a couple different clamps. They don't 'mix & match'.

Not sure what's going on with the cooling. Mine will get hot if I sit and idle, then the fans come on and do their job.

Glad to hear you are planning on keeping it. They are awesome little beasts, and a ton of fun. Being only a 4 cyl, they are far less likely to get a younger driver into big trouble (seeing a kid in a 'Vette or a BMW or other 'high performance car scares the crap out of me).

You now have an idea of what you are in for. One of the worst experiences is to get into a project like this without realizing what you are in for. Both cost and labor. I don't like scaring people off, but I prefer that to dooming a car to an untimely death at the hands of someone who has no clue.

lamrith

I did not pull anything apart, mine is 100% rivited together, IF got it open, no way to close it back up guardless of hands required holding pieces. I had used dentists picks reaching in to try and flex one of the armatures to stop making contact and a spring came out. DOH

Interesting. I know I have a 25mm swaybar and bought the late model bushings listed as being for it. I will see what I find tonight when I get home and might pull it out and see about it up on the bench.

Yeah with traffic noise I could not tell if they were running this morning. Cooling is very much about airflow, so if they were not moving enough air then it would make sense getting hot. One concern is that if the rad is original, it has 191K miles on it and who knows what care (meaning none based on findings so far) was taken and if the core is clogged up.
​​​​​​​
You and me both, I just shake my head at that and giving a new driver an expensive or high power car right out of the gate. The car does get up and go, just have to tell it to.
​​​​​​​
I thought I had a decent clue after skimming this forum for a week plus, but guess I didn't hit all the issues, or did not factor in my close relationship with Murphy and his laws to know I would many of them right out of the gate. Having to work on an older car is not that surprising, what was is the one thing after another giving up there for a few days.

Wisconsin Joe

You can drill/grind the rivets out and then use small machine screws & nuts to hold it back together. I think I used 8-32 or 6-40.

I can't remember exactly what the different sway bar sizes are. And I'm lately being plagued with 'misremembering' stuff. I will have a clear memory of a fact or piece of data...

That is completely wrong. It's starting to drive me nuts.

Testing the fans isn't all that hard. Pulling them isn't either.

Pulling the radiator and flushing it out is likely a good idea. Maybe even take it to a decent radiator shop and have it properly cleaned out.

Yeah, when it's one thing after another after another after another, it gets more than just a little bit discouraging.

But, keep in mind that everything you fix right is not likely to break for at least a while, right?
So the more you do, the less there will be to do in the future (I keep telling myself that).

Swenny

" it has 191K miles on it"- holy volksvagen****zenboxen! I have a 30 y/o S10 with a V6 vortec with 190,500 and it's one thing $$$ annually. Old cars need cash. Take out a second mortgage to fix it like the 911 guys do. LOL!