Russell82

Took a short but sad ride home on a flatbed last night, probably a fuel pump, parts already ordered. The flatbed driver was less than confidence inspiring as he crawled around under my shark looking for something solid to put his hooks on, and of course all I could tell him was 'its 20 years old, its near perfect, don't screw it up'. Anybody have any advice on the safest hookup points to drag a dead shark up the ramp? I'm hoping this will never happen again, but realistically.... BTW, he used some part of the rear suspension and hauled it up rear end first, seemed to work OK but I haven't driven it yet.
Thanks in advance.
RAS - US 82 Auto

Mike Schmidt

One of the the items in the tool kit that came with the car is a tow eye. There's a location in the front of the car, and another one in the rear that the eye screws into. Not sure about the older cars, but on the later ones the rear hole is right over the license plate, and the front one is towards the passenger side in the grill opening. The front hole may have a screw in plug in it that you're supposed to be able to remove with tool that has an allen wrench type of end on it. Do not be surprised if that aluminum front plug is seized, and you have to drill to get it out. The newer replacement plugs are rubber to prevent that problem.

Russell82

Thought of the tow eye, checked the owners manual while waiting and it appeared intended only for towing another car from the back, or being towed by another from the front. Plus, the flatbed driver more or less laughed when I pulled it out, didn't think it'd hold the weight of pulling the car up what looked to be 30-40 degree angle of the bed. I deferred to his expertise and presumed his company carried good insurance. Got to be a lot more strain on the tow eye hauling up that kind of angle than towing another car of similar weight on reasonably level ground.

jpitman

In my one sad case of flatbedding, it was pulled up onto the truck with the eye in screwed into the front fitting. No problem in that, except that it finished off the front spoiler completely. Also caused by a fuel pump failure. The eye is probably a forging, so its plent strong enough.
jp

johnb

hi

just for my 9.28p worth.

while i was trying to sort my car out, it got dragged around by my audi more times than i care to remember.

i only ever used the screw in towing eye. on a couple of accasions it got some really nasty shock loading as 'her in doors' pulled away a bit sharpish with me and the dead 928 attached!

i was very worried that it would pull right out, or break off. the damn thing never even moved! i guess porsche knew what they where doing, and made plenty of allowance for the sort of loads that a towing eye might experience. ITS TOUGH AS OLD BOOTS!

johnb