Constantine

Inquiring about the original torque tube bearings being C4 clearance.

Nothing in your pictures shows they are clearly C4.

Also, delrin inserts will not hold up well overtime and will wear down holding onto the drive shaft.

dlknight

Constantine

Thank you for the photo.

Porsche changed their bearings during the years. Here is a later version with a C5 clearance designator.

Have fun with the rest of the rebuild.

Cheers.

dlknight

Wow it has been some time since my last update!

I was very burnt out on the car and left it sitting in the garage for a bit whilst I got on with other things.

Before then however I did manage to make a little more progress which I hadn't posted.

Firstly I took most of the nuts, bolts, and other metal fittings I had removed to the local electroplating company. They did an amazing job, I'm just annoyed that they couldn't get the original finish. I believe originally Porsche would have used cadmium plating but this is now restricted in most countries due to it's effect on health. So the plating company used yellow zinc plating which isn't anywhere as colourful as cadmium but I'm sure it will be fine.

BEFORE



AFTER



I then spent many hours sorting through the now jumbled up nuts, bolts, and washers to work out where they came from. Luckily it wasn't too hard with a set of engineers callipers and the Porsche parts database to hand.

Back to work on the chassis, having cleaned up a bit more it was time to use some chemical treatment to remove the remaining corrosion that I couldn't get off with mechanical methods. Some Bilt Hamber Deox Gel spread liberally on the corrosion and held in place with paper towels and cling film.



Left for 48 hours to do its thing it leaves a nasty rusty coloured liquid. Before removing this I give it another go over with the wire brush to remove any loose rust particles.



Then a good washing with some degreaser and finally some slow drying panel wipe before primer.

dlknight

Had a bit of a break from the chassis and put the rear suspension spring plates back together with new rubber bushes. Looking much better than they did to begin with!

BEFORE



AFTER





Back to work on the chassis and on with the primer, I used Bilt Hamber Electrox primer. Used a spray can for the larger flat areas, and a tin with a brush for the fiddly bits. Two coats to give it some good protection.





Moving on to the left rear cubby (inside the wheel arch), I gave this the same chemical treatment with the Bilt Hamber Deox Gel before cleaning and applying primer.

dlknight

Fast forward from October 2022 to March 2023 and just started working on the 944 again.

Cracking on the chassis again now needed to apply the seam sealer over the primer.



Next stage is deciding what top coat I'm using on the chassis... I'd love to recreate the original Porsche finish. It appears to be some sort of beige colour seam sealer / stone chip which is thick and rubbery. I've searched endlessly on Google and the only answers I can find is it is either Wurth Stone Chip / Schutz or 3M Body Guard / Schutz / Stone Guard. But neither appears to make a beige product anymore, only grey and black.

I ordered a few 3M rattle cans so may end up using one of these -

8159 3M Body Gard Grey Flat (paintable)
8158 3M Body Gard Black Flat (paintable)
8877 3M Spray Schutz Coating Black (not paintable)

Dan Martinic

Super project! FYI my clutch fork (aprox. 160,000kms at the time) looked great too... I even had it "strengthened" and fitted with special bronze bearings by a well known business.. and a year later it cracked. New forks were available (Jan 2020), I bought one, re-did the job, and it's been fine ever since at over 200k now)

Re: transmission cooler.. my '88 turbo never had one. I am curious why were some years equipped while others weren't? What would happen if someone simply deleted this (if that is in fact simpler than trying to fix)?

dlknight

I heard, so this may not be 100% right that the oil cooler really only provides benefit when the car is driven hard on the track otherwise not a huge benefit, I recall it was an option but was fitted as standard to a lot of later cars whilst Porsche tried to sell remaining stock.

The clutch fork is available but is the same price as a new clutch kit! Currently in the UK £445.46! this is why I'd opted to have it looked at by an engineer first

Dan Martinic

Oh wow! I don't recall it being anywhere near $723 CAD oh my. Be sure to get that engineer to put it in writing

felix2406

nice project. are you still allowed to plate with chrome 6 in the US. Here in europe its forbidden and the alternative is just bad. Is it possible to get the bearings for the torque tube in at home without a big press?

dlknight

Hi Felix - I don't know about the US, I'm from the UK - as far as I'm aware chromium plating is not permitted hence most places only provide zinc plating here.

There are some good guides for the torque tube bearings here on the forum by @OZ951 - Torque tube rebuild pics / video - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums

dlknight

Ended up using the "8158 3M Body Gard Black Flat (paintable)" for the chassis paint, I had procrastinated for far too long and needed to get the job done as it was holding up the rest of the project!

I made an amateur error when applying the seam sealer as well and had to do some remedial work by sanding it back down and repainting. The particular seam sealer I was using from Bilt Hamber needs to be applied quite thinly otherwise it stays soft under the top layer and ended up cracking and splitting. Re-applied it much more thinly and was much better!



Cleaned all the hard lines (fuel and brake) with brake cleaner and then reattached them to the chassis.

With the help of Tom's dad (David) from Augment Automotive, the torque tube rebuild is finished! We had fun and games trying to get the shaft back into the tube. They have a custom built press specifically designed for stripping and assembling torque tubes. Augment Automotive is local to me and they are proper enthusiasts!

I spent some time stripping the black powder coat from the torque tube bell housing. I had specifically asked the powder coaters not to paint it, they stripped most of the paint but there was some flakes left and I wanted it to look as nice as the gearbox. So I got some industrial strength paint stripper, stripped the rest of the paint and then gave it a coat of etch primer followed by some Eastwood Aluma Blast aluminium look spray paint.





And remember kids, safety first, that paint stripper was nasty. Even with the PPE I got a tiny splash on my cheek and it burnt like hell!

dlknight

I've finished painting my rear Brembos. I baked them at 75C for a couple of hours in my food dehydrator and then fitted new seals which I got from Bigg Red. I also ended up having to get one 28mm piston as one of the bores had a tiny bit of aluminium corrosion on the lip which had damaged the piston.

I repaired some pitting in the aluminium under the slide plates with some JB Weld (don't knock it till you've tried it).

Preparation is key to all of this, I think I must have washed the calipers about 5 times before painting. Shout out to Adam at Uber9 where I got the stickers from, the only place I could find selling the correct font style for our brakes. Most seem to sell the more modern 996 / Boxster font which is thinner.

I used VHT Gloss Black caliper paint, left it to dry for 7 days and then applied the decals, followed by some VHT Gloss Clear caliper paint.

Got the new bushings installed in the trailing arms, these were a bit of gamble as Porsche don't list replacement bushings for the late aluminium trailing arms. I had worked out that various aftermarket companies appeared to be selling the earlier steel trailing arm bushes for fitment into aluminium arms. So I ordered 4 of them from Porsche and hey presto, they fit fine! Made by Prekom in Poland, where it appears a lot of Porsche classic parts are made.



I stripped down and replaced all the vent hoses in the fuel filler assembly. I ended up having to replace the rubber filler neck boot as well as it was split and perished.



Got some braided brake lines for a good deal from ebay

dlknight

Finished painting the rear cubby, still need to get the battery tray welded in and the hole in the wheel arch liner patched.



Got the torque tube reinstalled, note the amateur error again here! I installed the torque tube cross support (the aluminium section) but this prevents the install of the torsion bar and handbrake cables later on. So if you are doing this then leave the aluminum cross support until you've installed the torsion bar and handbrake cable! Also a nice new sound absorber for the gear shifter. The torsion bar is resting on the supports, I did it this way so I don't have to remove the torsion bar again to install it at a later time. Will strap it down if I need to have the car transported for the bits of bodywork.



Next up was to assemble the torsion bar, I'd previously taken some pictures and rough measurements with a piece of cardboard so that I could try and get the bars in roughly the same position to keep the correct ride height.





Raised the torsion bar into place using the transmission jack and a pair of axle stands to keep it at the right angle (very important). I messed this up the first time trying to install it when it wasn't completely horizontal and had to re-paint the mounting areas where they got scratched up!



Gave the non-contact surfaces of the hubs and stub axles a coat of Owatrol Oil (had seen this used on a 911 restoration video series). Not sure if it will hold up as it seems to be a varnish type coating.



Then finally making some progress!

Got the assembly bolted back on to the chassis now and the parking brake, hubs and stub axles are fitted. Next for the disc brakes, I'm going to paint the bells on the discs with silver brake caliper paint first. Then I might be ready to put it on wheels and give it a clean before I remove the engine!

Had some fun with the rear wheel bearings, the left side went in super easy. I had placed both bearings in the freezer overnight and heated up the trailing arm with a MAP torch for about 6 minutes, until water boiled on contact with the bearing surface. I picked up the bearing and it slipped straight into the arm by hand! (yes I know the circlip is missing in the photo but was fitted shortly afterwards)

No such luck though with the right side, on the second attempt I managed to get the bearing in about 25% of the way and then resorted to using my bearing tool and a 2 foot breaker bar.

Nice new classic line rear brake shields (considerably cheaper than the Porsche ones), think these were from heritage parts centre (the VW people).



Which brings us right up to date, and last weekend I managed to give my new pair of rear Sebro brake discs a coat of Halfords finest brake caliper silver paint (friction surfaces suitably masked with tape). I then turned my attention to the ABS cables which needed new earth terminals and got cleaned up with brake cleaner.





I've started making some new brake lines for the rear, and need to setup the parking brake and attach the discs, and calipers.

Soon be on its wheels hopefully for a clean and then starting the process of removing the engine for the rebuild!

ealoken

Great update man, good work 👍