black944 turbo

Looking good. Glad t see you are on the upswing.

cybe

That's gone rather well, actually.

drive135mph

I admire you moxy sir

cybe

Thanks!

I ordered some General Ultimax HP in 215/60/15, the junkyard tires have got to go.

There's some clunking around up front on bumps, so I'll need to go through the suspension. I've got the front sway off for bushings, so that'll go back in. I think everything in there is shot, and the shocks are toast too.

The radiator's not tightly mounted, so I'll address that. I"m gonna work on removing the sunroof to chase the drains - I had water in my doors after the rain.

Currently, I've got every non-critical fuse and relay out of the car. So when drivability is sorted, I'll go through and add them one by one, checking functionality on the way. There's a bare wire in the harness under the dash, and I'm not sure what it used to be -- so it'll be slow going there. I'm hoping it's related to this 'before' shot of the G17 relay, since the AC is now deleted:

cybe

Got the sunroof going. I attached the G18 relay and Fuse 1 (25a).

It'll go up and down, but the removal function isn't working without manual intervention. I can hear the motor clunk, but it's not able to retract the latch arms.

Anyway, I took it off (by winding the motor, 8mm socket) and chased the drains. Both rear sunroof drain tubes were disconnected in the hatch, hopefully they're still attached in the roof. The hatch pin drains also were AWOL. I snaked the front sunroof drains and fuel door drain with weedwhacker line.

Drove it on a beer run.

Pardon the frequent updates, I'm blogging or something.

cybe

Drove it to work today, to take it to the tire shop on lunch. It's currently parked in a puddle of it's own power steering fluid.

Wanna know the funny part? .. I'm no good with a standard trans

Scott at Team Harco

Nice thread.

Reminds me of my experiences with "Herbie". (85.5) Bought in 2000 for $1000. Car ran, but that was about all that could be said for it at the time. Went through the whole car over the course of about a year. And when I thought I was ready - took it for a drive to the car wash and proceeded to strip teeth from the ring and pinion gears. So I got to rebuild the transaxle, instead of the engine, as you have done.

Not sure if you have checked your front lower ball joints. Could definitely be a source of suspension noise. I've done a couple of rebuilds using the Rennbay kits. With all that you have gone through to this point, it should be an easy job.

Good luck fixing the other things. These are great cars once you get ahead on the maintenance. Keep us updated.

carlege

great thread.

cybe

Hi Scott! I really do appreciate the replies. There's an echo in here sometimes Any idea where Herbie is today?

I found the nuts atop the struts under the hood were loose and that did handle a bit of the clunking, (victory!) but I've got bunch more - I can see that the control arm bushings are flat, you're probably right about the ball joints. Ya know, sometimes it seems like all I really can do is throw parts at it, since every. single. thing. is worn out or dried up.

I got shafted on the tires deal today - I called Discount Tire on Monday for recommendations, they suggested the Altimax HP. Made me put a deposit. Fast forward to today, they failed to get the tires - failed to notify me - and failed to return the deposit. They tried to offer a set of Barum(?) in 205 at the same price, which I declined. Was looking forward to it all week, so a little bummer there.

It's okay though - it's the weekend, and I'm still proud of my little jalopy.

Scott at Team Harco

Oh yeah - I know where Herbie is today. He is in our barn. He got rear ended in May of 2010. There were about 215,000 miles on the clock and he still ran like a champ! We had already purchased another 85.5 for my girlfriend (at the time - now wife). She goes by Smexy Goodwench here (and on Reutterwerk). So there was a time when we had his and hers 85.5s.

We occasionally take parts from Herbie to help Penelope (Goodwench's car). The Konis, winter wheels/tires and the rebuilt steering rack are now on her car. We've also got an 87 (Butch) with a bad engine. The goal is to swap Herbie's engine into that car and make it a nice driver.

We also have an 86 951 shell that I have been calling "Young Herbie" but could end up being "Young Penelope". My thoughts are to build a Modified Rear class RallyCross car with the drivetrain from Penelope and put back only what is needed to make it stop, go and turn. Might be able to build a little beast that weighs just a little over 2000 lbs. Penelope is getting very rusty.

Finally there is my non-salt day, daily driver - Stu. It's an 89 S2 (get it? S2 - Stu). Clever, eh? I bought this car late in 2010. There is a thread on it somewhere here. I might even have a link to it.

We're total 944 nuts. We hosted the Great Lakes 944Fest this year at our farm. Tomorrow we are both driving Penelope in a RallyCross. They're great cars.

For what it's worth - I recommend going with 225/50R15s for these cars (assuming 15x7 wheels). I have had several sets of BFG G-Force Comps on my 944s. Herbie got his second set shortly before getting rearended and I have a set on Stu. Good tires for the money.

As it is - I can't post pictures here anymore. I have not renewed my membership and have more than used up my alloted space with photo attachments. But - you could probably do a search should you be interested in seeing some of the stuff we've posted.

We're a little bit more active over at Reutterwerk - and I have posted a couple of "how-to" threads there. If you ever get over there, I believe the ball-joint how-to is there.

Yep - here's the link: http://reutterwerk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13802

Kevin Baker

I wish my car was going as far as yours is. Glad to hear you are on the road.

One interesting find. It seemed to run fine with no detonation, nonprescription ignition knock on regular unleaded, now I have to use mid grade.

yorkee

When is it? Can I join?

cybe

A+ for TireRack. They had my Generals available for something like <$300 shipped and they showed up right away. I did pads/rotors/caliper swap on a buddy's Durango and they bought me the tire mounting service in payment - that's a win all around!

I had some rubbing with my crushed fender, so I stuck a jack handle in there and pulled the dent back. It's ugly, but at least it won't shred my new rubber.

I can't seem to beat this power steering leak, it's driving me nuts. I've been under the car half a dozen times tightening, changing crush washers, .. It's a new pump, new rack, but with the old line. I looked at replacing the line, I'll probably bite the bullet on that one and shell out the hundred plus.

Scott at Team Harco

Well - the note was posted on a Friday. It said "tomorrow". The event took place the next day - a Saturday.

If you are interested in future events - you should visit the Detroit Region SCCA website for details. For what it's worth, our next RallyCross will be held at our farm on Sept 20th.

Sorry for the threadjack...

Please carry on.

Cybe - try spraying things down with brakeclean and then look for the source of the leak. These things are notorious leakers. If you haven't already - you should keep Clark's Garage handy as a resource and there are also some tutorials specific to the steering rack rebuild at Rennbay.

cybe