Shoden

I just bought a 1983 Porsche 944 yesterday from an Army Major who was deploying to Korea in less than a week and had to sell. He'd replaced the old clutch with a new Sach's one, and also replaced the clutch master and slave cylinders, but hadn't adjusted the clutch pedal properly. He'd also been having problems with the car running hot, and in the process of trying to fix it he'd replaced the water pump, thermostat, thermosensor, and had the cooling system flushed. Based on my research on this site and others, I figured he just hadn't bled the system properly.

This morning I did some more reading before going out to work on the overheating problem, and read that faulty grounds could make it look like it was overheating. I recalled that last night on the drive home after I'd turned on the headlights the car seemed to be running even hotter (jumped from below the yellow to into it). Going out to the car, I did some testing... got the car warmed up and then turned on the headlights... the temp gauge jumped up. Turned on the A/C... jumped a bit more. Turned on the hazard lights and watched the temp gauge bounce up and down. The final test was to turn the car off and then turn the ignition back on without starting the car, and the temp gauge read right in the middle. So that'll be a nice cheap fix once I get some new grounding wires this afternoon

Second problem is the clutch pedal. It was sinking almost to the floor, and I'm still not sure if it's working right, so I'll need some help here, and I've got pictures.

The first one is where the pedal is in its fully up position, resting against metal bracket for the wiring harness(?).



From this position, pressing on the pedal there is some resistance, and then when that is overcome, the pedal drops about three inches to the position shown in the next photo:



At this point there is more resistance and this is where the clutch pedal actually starts to disengage the clutch. So I guess my question is, is this the way it's supposed to work, or do I have a problem?

Oh, and another issue is that it seems REALLY sluggish in first gear. Second gear and up it seems to do just fine though (although still not as fast as my CRX with a B16 engine swap... it's my autocross car). It has new spark plugs and plug wires, but I'm going to be checking the distributor.

That's it for problems *knock on wood*, so here are some pictures of my new toy:

1.
(Here you can see my 89 CRX and my fiancee's 88 CRX as well.)

2.
(In this one you can see the back side of my Subaru SVX hiding in the garage.)

3.

4.
(You can see the gas cap cover is broken off... should be another cheap fix)

It was repainted a couple years ago and had the interior reupholstered, and only has 103XXX miles on it. I paid $1500 for it (I hoping that doesn't come back to bite me in the ***...)

PorscheDoc

You need to bleed your clutch system (slave cylinder). It is a MAJOR pain in the ***, even with a power bleeder. I tried for an hour with a power bleeder, and it was still looking like yours. So what i did, is i just cracked open the reservoir cover, and pumped the hell out of the clutch pedal, after about 150 pumps, the clutch pedal climbed to normal...go figure. I am guessing since air travels up, enough pumping got the air back into the reservoir...who knows, but it worked. As far as the sluggishness goes, i am not sure since i have a turbo, but i know NA's arent exactly quick off the line.

Dave

The car weighs close to a ton and a half and is built for the track, first gear acceleration isn't it's strong point, have fun with the other gears. No way you'll regret it at that price, the wheels alone are worth at least half that amount.

944T4ME

Lets see the interior!

Jim 944S

Welcome, Shane!!!

Before you go out and buy grounds or similar wiring... do a search for Iceshark and his wiring "kits"...Guy is REMARKABLE!!!

He does custom harnesses for the 944 series cars, absolutely unmatched by anything else available. His wiring harnesses have solved many of my electrical problems all by themselves. Not cheap by any means, but please, check him out before you spend money on half-way measures. The wiring on your car is now 21 years old and has lived in an extremely hot engine bay. Many of us have found badly cracked positive and grounds wires that could have (in a few cases have) caused engine fires under the bonnet. Please consider this as well as checking your flexable fuel lines. At the age of these cars they are now breaking and cracking from the heat and can be a major cause of under bonnet fires. I've used Pauer's braided hose kit though Travis at Rennbay has a braided kit he sells and there are some others as well.

Anyway... Welcome aboard!!! Get a good pair of shoes, cell phone, and pay up your AAA membership!!! We're here for you!!! "What a great group of guys" you may be thinking... Hell no Shane!!! I'm offering this under the heading of "Misery loves company"!!!

Jim 1987 944S

triscadek

For the grounds, there are wiring diagrams at www.pelicanparts.com or do a search here to find them. Remove the bolts, sandpaper on all contacts and bolt it back up and that should help.

I believe there are some if you pull the gauge cluster behind the speedo. and on these cars the ground wires are brown.

Welcome, misery does indeed enjoy company.

Shoden

Oh great, that makes me feel so much better about this purchase

Thanks for the warm welcome and the great advise. I've already solved the "overheating" problem... it was just bad grounds. I only replaced the battery to chassis ground and put a new clamp on the positive terminal, and I plan on taking car of the rest later, but for now I'm just happy it's nothing major and that I was able to solve a problem in one day that the previous owner couldn't fix in an entire year. And thanks for the advice on Iceshark's grounding kit. I'd already seen several posts on it, and used some of his info for my fix.

I tried bleeding the clutch but didn't see any bubbles and it didn't firm up any either, but then I didn't pump it 150 times either... I figured I'd see at least some bubbles, but maybe not. I had my girlfriend helping out, and when she pressed the clutch pedal, I noticed the slave cylinder and brake master cylinder flexing quite a bit... is that normal? (I'll do a search right after I post this, but answers would be nice too )

I'll get some interior pics up tomorrow. It's got a plastic dash cover, and the rear seats were removed by a previous owner and replaced by a speaker enclosure I'll be removing that since the speakers that were in it are long gone.

I better stop now and post this before I lose power... there's a pretty big storm rolling through.

Oh, and Karl, I see you're also in Kansas City. I checked out the Kansas City Wrenching Society site, and you can expect to see me on there too.

Bhj0887

When bleeding the clutch even if you already have a slighty firm pedal with adequate engagement, you should still raise the rear passenger side of the car, PORSCHE decided to designed the brake fluid resevoir really bad.

Serge944

Wow, those wheels look VERY sharp. Sounds like a steal for 1500 unless it has major mechanical problems. Good luck with it!

Bhj0887

damn, I wish my car looked like that when I got it. I got mine in boxes, literally. I had to put the whole front end and interior together.

Since you know a little about honda's you would have liked my LS turbo civic and the b20vtec civic my sister's buying.

Mr. Avionics

Welcome aboard Shane,
Nice ride you got there, and at a great price at that. Glad to hear you got some wiring problems sorted out. These cars are easy to work on, especially with all the help available here. Have fun and keep reading, it's amazing how much you can learn by sitting back and listening to others.
again, nice ride.
Bill

Chris_924s

Shane I think you made a great find- once the particular problems (clutch mainly) are sorted out you'll have a ball driving it. all of us do.

Welcome to Rennlist!

Granite 944

Hi Shane!

Looks and sounds like ya got a pretty darn good deal on that car of yours! I paid that much for my '83, and it had plenty more issues to go with it.

IMHO, go get yourself a power bleeder. Motive bleeder happens to be the one I use also. Flush the entire brake/clutch system, using a good Dot 4 fluid. It should make a big difference. Its just a whole lot easier, with a lot less room for error, and you generally will get a better result by using a power bleeder, than by doing it manually. If this doesn't do it, you will most likely be in need of a slave/MC.

Welcome, and have fun with it!

Porsche-O-Phile

Welcome - nice car! BTW check those timing belts will 'ya?

Shoden

Yep, that's what it needs. I wasn't quite ready to start looking yet (getting ready to go on vacation), but since you were kind enough to point it out, I guess I might was well bid on it. Thanks.