Braymond

I attended my first autocross with the car a few weeks back and took my son, Sam along too. It was tons of fun for both of us. Sam got to ride along for each of five runs.

The car handled excellent with the new alignment and sticky tires. I was surprised to hear (or not hear) these tires don't squeal at all like street tires do. Thanks to Old Dominion for hosting a great event at Pungo Airfield in VA.

Although these tires are great for autocross, they are way too small for the road. My speedo is off by 5-6 mph, the car is way lower than normal, and they look like little toy wheels/tires. The 18" 996 wheels look awesome, but are super heavy and ride terrible. I bought them before I signed on here and I just didn't know any better.

I found a set of 16" 968 wheels on CL and drove up to PA yesterday to pick them up. The seller, Peter had a beautiful Horizon Blue 968 in his garage with 17" Cayman twist wheels. Very nice car and Peter was very nice too. He gave me a great deal on the wheels with the tires in fair condition.

It was a long drive but the weather was great and the car ran perfect. I stopped at the Flight 93 memorial on the return leg.

I put the new wheels and tires on today and they look great. I took it for a short test drive and it rides great too. I actually got back to my garage and stared at it for about 5 minutes before getting back in and going for a longer drive.

While I was swapping wheels and tires I got the scale out to confirm my suspicions. Using my wife's new digital scale (seems to be pretty accurate), I weighed all my wheel/tires for a comparison.

The stock 15x7 ET 52 phone dial wheels with almost new BFG 225/45-15 Rival S tires each weighed in between 38 and 39lbs (the lightest was 38, the heaviest 39, the others in between).

The OEM 968 staggered wheels (16x7 ET 55 front, 16x8 ET 52 rear) are clad with well-used Bridgestone all-season tires (205/55 front, 225/50 rear). The fronts weighed 38lbs and 38.4lbs. The rears weighed 41.4 and 41.8lbs.

The aftermarket OZ 5-spoke 996 wheels are staggered (18x8 ET 50 front, 18x10 ET 65 rear) too and clad with good condition Pirelli 240 SS winter tires (225/40 front, 265/35 rear). The front's weighed 49.4 and 49.6lbs. The rears weighed 56 and 56.4lbs.

Wow! Those 996 wheels look sharp but are way heavy.

Braymond

Thanks Arominus. This has been rattling around in the back of my head for a few months now and I finally got back around to revisiting this today.

Your are correct. I tested these LEDs with a couple of bits of wire directly on the battery to confirm which lead was positive/negative on each. Then I pulled the instruments again and reinstalled them.

It took me a few times to get the polarity correct as I couldn't really tell which side was pos/neg on the sockets.

Wow. These are a lot brighter. I have them on full dim and the dash looks great. Thanks again.

951and944S

Awesome car....this was (assuming that's maraschino red) my first Porsche way back around 1991-92. Bought it on the cheap at a German car dealer with with popped timing belt and engine disassembled in boxes. Weren't many used parts at the time and had to pay $740 ea for cams from dealer. Drove it as daily til '03 and gifted it to my son when he got his license at 16. Car has 280K and still going.

T

canaus

"Now I Googled this in advance. I saw a YouTube video and I fully expected to find some slop in the shaft due to worn universal joints on this steering shaft. What I found instead was ZERO play - ZERO. Hmmm."

My steering shaft has a feel of play as well, when you grab it. I found that it was my 'needle roller bearin' (item 24 in the porsche katalog) was shot. This is the rubber grommet that seals the steering shaft when it goes through the fire wall.

I noticed it when I was vacuuming under the dash & could see light near the peddles.

Has anyone done this fix?

canaus

attached diagram

Braymond

I think you misunderstood my last. My steering didn't have any play in it and the inspection shop said the steering u-joint had play and when I changed it out, I found it really didn't either. In other words, there was nothing wring with my car other than it was in the hands of an incompetent inspector trying his best to gouge me for some miscellaneous repair.

Braymond

I finally got around to installing the new (to me) front brakes. I read that these Wilwoods are 11lbs lighter than stock and I found that hard to believe until today. No joke, the stock calipers weigh 11lbs each and the Wilwoods are about 5.5lbs each - WOW!

I installed stainless stell braided lines in the front too.

I'd like to say this was an easy upgrade, but I've found there is not many "easy" repair items on this car and the brakes were no different.

The mounting bolts were very tight and the pads don't go to the outer edge of the rotor so there's a substantial lip on the outer edge of the rotor. I spent at least an hour spinnin the rotor against a sharp file to grind down that lip on the inner and outer edge of both rotors.

It's late and I haven't bled the passenger side brakes yet, so the test drive will need to wait until tomorrow.

Braymond

Without pics it didn't happen.

Braymond

Installed. You can see the shiny outer edge on the rotor that I had to file down to get the new caliper on.

ventoGT

Good lord you guys have **** probe inspections in Maryland...I thought Taxachusetts was bad...

SloMo228

Are these from the Rennbay kit, or are these off the shelf Wilwoods? Just curious.

Braymond

I bought these used here on the forum used, so I'm not sure. These were just bolt on - no adaptors with stock rotors.

Braymond

So, I finally got around to installing new front struts. I installed two new rear Koni shocks a few weeks back and it was a very noticeable improvement to ride and handling. This motivated me to order the fronts.

Having found the rears to be original to the car, I expected the same up front. I had found a good deal on some 968 lowering springs a few months ago and I was looking forward to lowering the car. I should have done more research because I found out the 968 coils are smaller diameter than standard 944 springs

I went back online and ordered the height adjustable conversion to go with the Koni strut cartridges I got instead of just ordering the correct lowering springs. I like the idea of some adjustability.

I finished installing today. I left the spring perches stock as I figured I may decide to go back to stock springs for certain racing classes in the future. I read at least 3 different posts and the Paragon instructions but I didn't realize how little adjustment I would have with the stock lower spring perches in place. In fact, I don't think I got more than about 1/2 inch lower than stock with the collars as far down as I could get them and still tighten the lock screw.

It has new 250# front springs and new Konis all around now and handling is much improved but the car is still way too high. I can go down at least 2 inches before it's even close. I guess I'll be pulling it all apart again soon.

Braymond

Here's a pic of the front wheel on the ground and after a 30 minute drive.

Even after grinding off the lower spring perch, I don't see how I'll get more than one inch of drop. I've been told the springs will settle another 1/2 inch after a few days.

SloMo228

The springs should settle a bit, but it might be that the spring you got is too long for the ride height you want. I have the coilover conversion sleeves on my Koni shocks too and I actually have to have them all the way up in order to get to a reasonable height. I could drop it to "stupid low" if I wanted to.