Scott at Team Harco

That is some outstanding redneck engineering.

I built something similar when I lived in a condo. Except it had to fit into a single-car space, with not particularly high overhead. Used it to pull the engine on my rally Colt. Fun stuff.

Keep us posted. This is getting interesting.

Jason1985

So my ideer is this. With the dimensions from the WSM and Kevin I plan to hack a dial bore gauge, like the one shown below, and rig up a way to mount it in the diff housing (with the ring and spider gears removed). I have access to a lathe so making round things fit into other round things shouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately the long probe looking thing on the bore gauge is fixed so I would have to come up with my own way of mounting a probe onto onto the actual plunger (between the two wheels) but in essence a dial bore gauge is just a perpendicular dial gauge like the VW 385. It just a matter of time to prove out my theory, so if you have any other ideas I'm open!

I have considered machining a custom diff pin with a flat spot and measuring the distance to the pinion face with telescoping bore gauges or calipers but ensuring everything was square seemed difficult. I also thought about a back plunger dial gauge but the issue with those methods it needing to measure the distances while being able to see into the trans case. i.e. with the side cover removed, so I also considered finding a used cover and cutting most of it off leaving just a few mounting locations and the center bearing race. Another alternative, thanks to technology not available in the '80's, would be using a traditional or back plunger dial gauge mounted to the diff housing in such a way that a camera / smartphone / bore scope etc. could see and display the gauge inside of the housing with the cover on. But I'm still thinking that since the dial bore gauge most resembles the VW 385 it's the route to pursue until proven wrong.

Jason1985

So I got the trans from the '87 "parts car" torn apart. Haven't taken apart the pinion or input shaft but i'll inspect them closer to determine if anything seems excessively worn. It does seem however that this trans has been apart before since the ring ("crown") gear has the deviation "r" marking on it which according to the WSM is only present on Service Sets. In my case the deviation is given as "45" as seen below though it's not as pretty as the numbering on Bruce / Sean's walk through (https://rennlist.com/forums/944-turb...age-heavy.html) so I highlighted the numbers. Both the ring and pinion are also marked with "169" (not shown) so at least they appear to have been replaced properly as a pair (both probably damaged when replacement was necessary):



Also my 5th gear (Step 13 in the walk through) came right off by hand... Not sure if this is an issue but it certainly did not require any heating or a puller. It's held in place with a bolt so I'm assuming it's OK but I'll inspect the gear and shaft more closely. Perhaps it's related to the previous trans work.

Also I have the bore gauge and I'm looking into how to adapt it for replacing the VW 385 tool. So far I have taken it apart and have determined that I am going to replace the part circled in the image with a longer housing that will put the extension in constant contact with the plunger. That part of course seems to have a very Chineseisum (https://www.youtube.com/user/arduinoversusevil) thread pitch of M7x0.75mm... which is ridiculously close to 32 tpi (thread per inch) but its diameter measures somewhere between 1/4" and 5/16" at ~0.270" (and "yes" like a dork I verified the tread pitch under my microscope with thread gauges )... So yay I get to learn how to cut threads on the lathe! After that it's just a matter of mounting the gauge centered in the diff housing and I will have, hopefully, reproduced the VW 385 for ~$150!

KevinGross

The correction factor on the ring gear is marked on all 944 transmissions I've ever seen, which is a couple hundred. It can be hard to read sometimes.

Fifth gear on the pinion shaft generally comes off without a puller for eight-valve, normally-aspirated 944-series transmissions. It is only for the 944S/2/Turbo transmissions that there is interference, making necessary use either of a gear puller or a press.

Jason1985

Thank you Kevin, as always your experience and knowledge is much appreciated!

That's also good news about the deviation. I was NOT looking forward to having to figure it out from the very vague description in the WSM with my (eventually existing) half-@$$ special tool

While I wait for the McMaster Carr to deliver my raw materials I'm going to give the trans's innards a good inspection (gear teeth, bearings and synchros) but again given your experience is there any areas to focus on? Thanks again!

KevinGross

I check everything, you never know what you'll find. Bearings for pitting, discoloration, wear. Dog teeth for un-sharp wear to their tips. Synchros for polish, patchiness of their coating. Good luck!