lovemyp-car

The clutch hydraulics feed off of the brake master cylinder reservoir...notice the line coming out of the drivers side of the reservoir? That runs down to the clutch master.

Did you check both rear brakes? I can't remember exactly, but my brain is telling me that the parking brake cable splits to both rear wheels...meaning checking one side won't necessarily rule that issue out. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

Check for play at the wheels all the way around (just while you are in there...don't want you to have a binding wheel bearing...) If everything seems to spin freely at the wheels and there's no lateral motion etc then I would see if you could create a situation where the problem is repeatable. Although this may not be the best thing for the car, it will be the best way to diagnose the problem without throwing money at it. If it were me I would try towing the car around in neutral with all four wheels on the ground or something to that effect to see what I could rule out.

Any odd noises or smells associated with the problem? If you are driving in fourth going uphill at lower rpms will the car accelerate if you put your foot down? Clutch slippage is most often at higher load, 1st gear shouldn't be the ONLY gear that you get slippage in.

Do you have a limited slip trans? Possible that the clutches in the diff are getting worn and causing odd sensations at very low speed, uphill turns?

Keep us apprised of the results Good luck!
Ethan

P.S. is it possible you have a brake caliper locking up??? Go for a little drive and check the temperature of the wheels...if one wheel is a lot hotter you have issues at that corner, either wheel bearing is worn and causing friction or most likely your brake caliper is dragging.

944Ross

The symptoms sure sound like a drum-type brake that's hanging -- e.g., the e-brake. When this feeling occurs, can you cycle the e-brake a couple times to see if that cures it? A sticking cable may stick On, even tho the handle releases. If your cables aren't routed correctly, movement of the swingarms may be stretching them and applying the brake. The worst thing for e-brakes is to not use them regularly.

I hate to openly display my ignorance, but what is "ssk"?

Mister Quickie

I did the "apply the brakes hard while applying a bit of throttle (2000rpm) and release the clutch. If the clutch is bad it will slip. If it is good, the engine will buck, then stop." test.
Engine stalled as it should have.

I only have one e-brake cable running to the driver's side rear wheel, the one going to the passengers side was severed when I bought it and I never fixed it.

No odd noises or smells but the brake caliper is form fitted and eversoslightly rubbing the rotor although I was easily able to remove and put back the caliper over the rotor. No "room" for the wheel to spin at all, shouldn't there be some room for the wheel to spin more freely and when the brakes are applied they "grab" the rotor?

Not sure what "limited slip trans" is but the times it did happen were at low speed uphill turns ...

What I did is I tightened the e-brake cable and moved the clips and excess cable completely out of the way of the wheel so the wheel couldn't possibly snag it and pull it tight. Also when I reversed slightly and no difference but when I reversed a lot and was able to then move forward I'm almost thinking the cable got too close to the wheel, it snagged, and then reversing it out undid the snag. In the picture you can see the cable and clips between the arm and the wood, this is before I tightened them and folded and clipped the excess front cable (pointing upwards toward the rotor) out of the way.

I'm most worried about the clutches in the diff are getting worn and causing odd sensations at very low speed, uphill turns though and need to know more about what that is etc.

I put the wheel back on, couldn't reproduce the problem, will try periodically over the weekend. Thanks for all the feedback

mel_t_vin

Ross, SSK is an abbreviation for short shift kit.


He meant limited slip differential, or LSD.

Mister Quickie

How would I determine if I have that or not?

Also could it be the wheel bearings?

Tiger03447

Dear Mister Quickie: Be sure that the bottom of the strut where the spring goes hasn't broken loose and allowing the spring to rub the tire. What is an ssk, procedure? Not too much into the lingo here..Thanks, Tiger 03447

Mister Quickie

Good tip, I'll check that when I put in a new set of front wheel bearings, races, and seals Monday. I'm assuming a wheel bearing is a wheel bearing or are there significant differences per brand?

SSK = Short Shift Kit. This is the arm bolted into the transmission connecting the rod coming from the shift lever to the shift linkage arm. The guy who sold it to me said it couldn't be the short shifter since with that kit, it's either in gear or it's not there's no halfway.

By the way has anyone found a good video tutorial on replacing the rear wheel bearings?

mel_t_vin

Re: LSD...one way to check is to chock the front end, raise the rear end [both wheels] off the ground, release the e-brake, and put the gearbox into neutral. With an LSD, when you rotate one wheel [to go forward], the other wheel should rotate in the same direction [to go forward]. Also, with an LSD, if you just lift one rear wheel off the ground [the other rear still on the ground, e-brake off, gearbox in neutral], when you try to rotate the raised wheel [should require moderate effort], it should rotate, but with a fair amount of resistance [e.g. friction discs slipping].

Re: wheel bearings...I doubt that's your problem. They should screech/howl long before anything lets go [with the exception of a sudden impact].

william_b_noble

the emergency brake on all 944s I've looked at (only a dozen or so) all had a mechanical differential in them - if one rear cable was broken neither brake will work, at least as I recall. Same on my 993. I don't understand why you tightened the one cable, but if you tightened it enough for the brake to work, that may be your problem.

Mister Quickie

No screeching or howling sound so unless these pictures are indicative of bearings that should be replaced I'm not going to mess with 'em.



Opened both front wheel wells, everything looks great, nothing possibly rubbing.



I didn't do the rear wheel LSD test since someone told me all Turbos' have LSD ... ? (Mine's an '86 951)

Emergency brake just has one cable going directly from the rear drivers' side wheel to the hand lever. It's basically wheel hub -> cable -> hand lever with nothing in between. It may be an after-market job but it's always worked when I pulled the lever tight and released when I released the lever so whatever oem setting was in place is no longer now.

konakat

Not all turbos have LSD, you will need to check. Check the emergency brake on the passengers side, if the shoes get loose they will fall and wedge themselves in places.

Mister Quickie

I know what the emergency brake setup looks like now that I took apart the drivers' side but how do I determine if the shoes are loose or not? Do I just wiggle them ... since there's no cable I'd like to be able to just take them off and therefore out of the equation.



If nothing's abnormal on the passengers' side emergency brake I'm out of ideas and will just plan to drive it. If it happens again, what are some tests/things to look at that will help diagnose the culprit?

thomasmryan

you may have a flexible brake line that has failed internally.

can you spin the wheels by hand with the car up?

HICKS

How old are your brake lines? I had some old brake lines on a VW that would take awhile to release the pressure, thus causing dragging. When I cut them open they were swollen to where I couldn't blow through them.

Regardless if your non functioning e-brake is the problem, you should still fix it. Seems like your car was a victim of just putting on lipstick, vs maintaining it mechanically. (Red horribly painted calipers)

Mister Quickie

The parking brake in this video looks just like the one on my 951, same removal procedure?