KuHL 951

Just kidding. I've never sold an unfinished project but have bought a few. A $295 58 MGA with a rod knock. Put in a nearly Team Cooper 1600 Twin-Cam from a wrecked car for another $200. I drove that thing everywhere but ended up selling it in Texas for $1200. I'm still trying to buy this one back for $2K after the guy sold it to spun a #2 bearing.

Legoland951

MY83944, its a little different working on a motorcycle. Your profession requires you to be ****. In a past life, I used to build gen 1 GSXRs and Ninjas of all engine sizes before I got into cars (owned and sold about 150 of them at one time or another and I wouldn't trust anyone else to work on my bike). More exotic materials were used with less tolerance and one mistake can cause someone's life (including my own) so there is not much "fudge" room. These 944s are overbuilt in many respects for the power the engine generates. The car is made to go 300k+ miles where high perf. bikes are made to go 30k+ miles. These same bell housing bolts can hold as much HP and torque as a 500 hp modified turbo, let alone the 143-150 being put out by an n/a engine. You are going to have a hell of a time trying to drill that out since whoever broke it in there used a tremendous amount of torque to crossthread it in or used a bolt with the wrong pitch. I remember encountering the same problem trying to get a broken timing belt tensioner stud out of the block. I am pretty resourceful but to save a long story, I took the block out and threw it away after spending 10 hours trying to get that broken piece out. The bolt had to be sent to a machine shop to be removed at a cost more than the block was worth and it had to be stripped bare first. If I had to do it again, I would have assessed the problem and gave up within the 1st hour. I would have used the remaining 9 hours to remove the engine and reinstalling it (just total up the amount of hours you work on this bolt including time on the computer typing and going to tool stores getting tools etc).

In your case, I would spend an hour trying to drill/chisel/beat that broken bolt out, then I would put it back together with 3 bolts unless I felt like removing the engine.

apierce918

i think he needs the main bolt he is trying to get out, it goes to the speed/reference sensor bracket.

Legoland951

The main bolt only holds the bell housing. The reference sensor bracket is not related to the bell housing since you can remove the bell housing without touching the reference sensor bracket.

apierce918

the bolt that holds the sensor bracket goes into the block. and that is the one in the first picture that i am refering to, and the one i was under the impression has been giving him a hard time. I didnt think he noticed the busted bolt for the clutch housing until later, and said that it was broken before he started and probably will leave it the way it was.

Legoland951

Ok, understood. That's a tough one. I would seriously consider removing the engine if I have another car to drive as a daily driver with 2 broken.

MY83944

Bingo!!!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone, your moral support has been outstanding.

Oh, working on motorcycles professionally for about 3 months -

Hobby since 197?

Got the axe from my last job of 25 years, could not accept backwards progress, change management issues, oh well. So much for my white collar career, for now!

2 days after my 25th anniversary party, what a joke that was.

MY83944

Another week, no progress . . . .

Did look at a few angle drills.

The weather has been nice and the Honda 919 wanted attention.

944 is in the background.



I just read where the engine drops easily out the bottom, doh, no wonder the freaking instructions were pizzing me off, I was reading it thinking it came out the top.

Porsche-O-Phile

The car is supposed to be inverted though. So "top" and "bottom" are sometimes confused. You mean they forgot to mention that little detail?

Legoland951

There is just not a whole lot of space where that broken bolt is located to really be able to fix anything. I feel your pain though.

MY83944

Well, February 25th and I have made little progress.

I have assembled the pressure plate/throw out bearing.

Decided to bolt the sensor bracket up with the one remaining bolt. When everything else required is together and it is adjusted, out comes the JB Weld.

My son is coming in next weekend, the goal is to get this 944 back together and on the road.

I am going to try and get the pilot bearing removed and the new one installed. The water valve changed out, the flywheel on and possibly the sensor bracket issue resolved.

Might also try and get the new o2 sensor wired in, heck, the farther I get the more time my son and I can spend together driving it.

He is 21, any time together is cool IMO.

MY83944

Sunday, February 26th (?)

Sunny, cool.

Into the garage I did go. Removed the rear main seal and pilot bearing.

Installed new pilot bearing and main seal.

Replaced the water valve.

Did not have fun, it was work. No safety glasses, antifreeze in the eyes a few times, lots of flushing.

All of the small amount of antifreeze found its way into either my eye or in my chest.

The car is just high enough off the ground to work on, making it just too high to work on from above.

Not fun, actually.

I am taking a break, progress was made. Pilot bearing was a snap. Main big round seal was a PIA.

Flywheel next, then try to mount/adjust the sensor bracket and JB Weld it in place.

The rest should be a lot less frustrating, it has go to be.

MY83944

OK, how long has it been - I am already getting excited about the flywheel - as soon as the coveralls come out of the dryer, back to it!

Legoland951

I know the frustration because I just started a similar project about 4 days ago. Its an automatic and by the time I know it, then turned into an entire engine reseal. The entire engine is out of the car and I took the head off it just to freshen it up and change the head gasket since everything else is getting changed. I got the head back from the machine shop, did the rear main and pilot bearing, PUT A CLUTCH IN PLACE OF THE AUTOMATIC DAMPER (defy the idiotic Porsche design any way I can - damn, why didn't they just use springs?), and am about to replace all the seals in the front including the o rings for the balance shafts. I want to get it all back together because what started out as a one day job of replacing the damper turned into a multi day projecting blocking the driveway and its gonna rain for the next 2 days. Hope that makes you feel better.

MY83944

Plenty of pain in the 944land it appears -


Here is some more progress - Note the custom flywheel holder