bowerbird

I posted a thread last week about a red 928 I was considering buying.

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...78-928-5k.html

I spoke to the owner the yesterday, he has taken it upon himself to "fix the issues with the car"0. he's going to have it smogged, get the A/C working or at least find out what is wrong, and rattle can spray the rockers with a matched paint being mixed for him. Ok...

First a question on the A/C he's going to fill it with r134 (which it is currently filled with following a compressor replacement). I know little about the compatibility between r12 and r134 but thought dumping a134 in a r12 system would hurt it. I read something once about lubrication issues.

Spraying the rockers...his choice but sounds like this could go bad. no comment there.

lastly is the issue of the clutch. The car is a 5 speed and on the original clutch. It has 84K. What is the typical expectancy of a clutch assuming the guy did no thrash his ride? (which I'm fairly confident he did not do.) Thanks for all the feedback on this car so far.

blown 87

As long as you can get R12, use r12, pressures are lower.

I will let every body else chip in about the other issues.

mark kibort

clutches can be in fine shape. either it works, or it doesnt. If it slips, the pressure plate might be old and tired. Generally, the throwout or pilot bearing will go first.
I pulled my clutch out of my race car after 8 full racing seasons, (106 race days) that had been using my 20 year old '84 intermediate plate. the clutch discs still had the part numbers ink'ed on the surface. (basically no wear)

Erik N

My '78 had clutch slipping issues when I got it... at 39,000 miles. It would usually hold fine, but if I hammed up a shift and let the rev's get too mismatched when releasing the pedal, it wouldn't catch. Stinky.

Turned out that the clutch lever pivot ball had sheared off. In my early car, it was a much smaller diameter than in the later cars. I drilled & tapped out the bellhousing and installed the beefier one.

It's nice that your potential car already seems to have a name. "Red Over Green."

mark kibort

what would that have to do with the clutch slipping. if the ball shears off, it would just make getting it out of gear, a problem. clamping force is kind of independant in my mind. you could have had disc contamination, or a weak pressure plate, etc.

Landseer

If the clutch is working well now, then don't mess with it. Its a doable home job, but parts are pricey.

docmirror

What price are you talking now? If it's still at $5k keep shopping. Don't fill it with R134. Get R12 and make sure it'll hold before you charge it up. The AC will work fine if it's taken care of and is sealed well. Painting the rockers is the least of the problems, with the right tools, it's a 3-4 hour job, and not very tricky.

You must really like this example if you're willing to go the distance for this car. I'm worried that the rest of the mx has been put off, and the seller knows it'll never sell unless he shapes it up. Could be lots of gremlins just waiting to bite you in the butt once your check clears.

LT Texan

you can say that again.

bowerbird

I'll see what happens. At this point the owner seems pretty convinced his 928 is worth every penny he is asking. His "flexibility" with price seems to not include A/C paint/smog being pre-sorted out. Of course those things don't really do anything to the value, besides he was advertising the car "with AC" anyway.

While speaking to him this weekend he let me know there was an 84' in town for 7.5K...presumably to make his seem like a bargain..He did not mention the 86' for 3k. (which I called about and discovered it was a pile).

I'm not really committed to the car but I do think it is in better shape than some of the members were suggesting. The interior seemed error free and original along with the rest of the car save color. Id consider it if the A/C could be proven to work.

My general take on it is the car is in good shape visually and drives nicely. This + the 5 speed makes the car a good candidate for anyone after an early model and should be worth 4K at least. I'm new and could be really off base here. I'm still not committed to it and am going to wait and see what the guy says about the A/C.

SharkSkin

If the AC charge was changed to R134 without changing the original hoses and O-rings, changed oil & flushed system, it's not going to work right anyway. Whether he gets it to blow cold or not is irrelevant. Non-barrier hoses are porous to 134a. Incorrect o-rings, same deal. Mixing the wrong oils, or R134 with any water in the system are recipes for disaster. Also, the original round-tube condenser is not up to R134 service; the later style condenser is needed, and even then it works better with R12. BTDT, went to R134, tried a bunch of stuff over 2 years, was never happy till I went back to R12.

Write off the AC. Figure it's at least $1K to fix, if you do 95% of the work yourself. Now what do you think of the deal?

The paint fell off of the rocker panels. Why? Where is it going to fall off of next?

Too many nice 928s come up in the $5K range for all of these question marks to be worth living with -IMHO-.

YMMV.

Good Luck.

Landseer

Not worth it.