red9four4

how hard is it to replace a thermostat on a 83 944?

Skip

BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Um, not hard... if you consider building a space vehicle as child's play.

Seriously though... it's simple as pie to get to, the trick is releasing the snap ring. I have a set of specially tweaked needle-nose pliers that work great. There's actually a Porsche tool for this, and can be found for only $25 somewhere (can't advertise for others, sorry). Also, it's a hard area to see in to, and even harder to get a good grip on... some folks take out the PS pump and/or the radiator to get to it.

Do a search in this forum's archive for this subject and you'll find much useful info.

Good Luck!

Skip

951Gary

As Skip said. It's really simple once you get past the snap ring. But the snap ring is a bear.

A nice looking snap ring tool for this job can be found @
<a href="http://www.9xauto.com/944.html" target="_blank">http://www.9xauto.com/944.html</a>

I haven't tried it, so can offer no comparison, but I sure wish that I had access to one 3 weeks ago when I was madly grinding on a large pair of 90 degree needle nose pliers ($7.50 @ local auto store). It did get the job done, but I'd have gladly paid $21.50 to spend 1 hour less...

Good luck. Expect to be pissed off before you're done. Keep all fender pounding hammers out of reach while doing this job. I think that with the proper tool, it won't be so bad.
Gary

Kierf - ¿§?

I fought with my Craftsman snap ring tool last night for about an hour.

Snap ring: 1
Kierf: 0

I finally realized that the pins weren't long enough and it was impossible for it to work...it took a while to realize this as I forgot about the inspection mirror I bought a few days ago.

Anyways, it is about 1:00AM and I'm about to head to Home Depot. Someone mentioned in an old thread about some blue handled snap ring pliers from Home Depot that work like a charm...

Skip

Sometimes the snap ring can be rusted/corroded in place. You'll need to break it free. I've had one success with spinning the ring so the gap is at the top, then shoving a large jeweler's screwdriver under each tab, then use my special 90 degree ground needle nose to squeeze the clip. My pliers have a small lip on the very end that will *lock* the ring on once you grab it. The lip is the key... most times folks can squeaze the ring until they try to pull it out... then any snag will drop it off again... ad nauseum.

Good Luck!

Skip

Type_LT

I tried for 4 hours once to remove the snap ring with a good set of circlip pliers. I would always get the ring compressed all the way then the instant I attempted to back the ring out "SNAP" the circlip pliers would pop out of the holes in the clip. Repeat this scenario about 20 times and you can imagine the frustration, I never got the thermostat out...

Danno

Yeah, circlip pliers won't work well on the thermostat snap-ring because of reach and corrosion. What I've found to work well is a set of needle-nose pliers with a 45-degree angled tip. File down one of the tips to fit inside one end of the snap-ring. Then squeeze the pliers and pull that end of the snap-ring towards the center of the thermostat and "peel" the snap-ring off from around the thermostat. So you're not trying to release the entire thing at once and pull it out laterally, you'll pulling one end off the ridge and working your way around.

Louis Trout

The Job From HELL!
HINT! I told my wife that I was going to replace the Thermostat on the 944 and she said her and the
kids were going shopping.

Louis Trout

The Job From HELL!
HINT! I told my wife that I was going to replace the Thermostat on the 944 and she said her and the
kids were going shopping.