BigAl1

Well it's been a while since I posted - busy with work, family, vacation, and getting some time on the car. Got lucky and grabbed the Bilstiens/stock springs from GregBBRD when he parted out the "virgin 90" car, so now moving forward with the suspension install. My trans cooling hose fittings are out being plated along with several piles of other parts and hardware. Once that stuff is back next week, not much is keeping me from reassembly. The weather is improving, so hopefully I can get over to the shop more often!
Edit: I see the spacer washer on the rear main pin is in the wrong spot - I'll correct that next time I'm at the shop.

77tony

Just awesome. Keep the chin up and the pics flowing. T

Dave928S

Wow ... impressive ... as good as new!!

BigAl1

Some good quality time this afternoon on the car, and nice progress. The front suspension is installed, and looks excellent! Installed new rubber bushings on the swaybar, and picked up new wheel bearings and seals this morning. Waiting for the proper upper ball joint boot to arrive, then the spindle can be tightened. Next up is the brake calipers rebuild, clean up the rotors, clean and install the rack,.....

Jadz928

I just picked up on this thread. Excellent work! I LOVE what you are doing to this 928.

I will be following closely as I will be undertaking something similar in the future.

BigAl1

Been gathering parts and working on the never-ending cleaning..... The steering rack had to be stripped of the old bushings as they were mush, and found the tie rod inner ends had a "little" play, so ordered some from Roger. With the rack all cleaned up, I did finally get the new boots installed, but they sure didn't want to get on there at first! Eventually figured out to lightly lube the end of the rack housing, slip the boot over the rack shaft, and center the inner rim of the boot on the end of the housing. Then, tightly holding the protruding end of the rack, rotate the pinion shaft, forcing my hand to push the boot onto the end of the rack housing. Worked pretty slick, once I used my brain!
Also got all my calipers broken down and cleaned, so now ready for painting and new seals. One of the cross springs for a rear caliper came apart - the rivet was gone, so looked on-line and found it is NLA. OK, so need to re-rivet that one, probably do both just to be safe. New pins required, so those are in transit too.
Got in my fittings for converting the fuel lines to AN6 fittings, and the new hose and fittings I'll use. Also did some reading about various EMS systems to know what is needed for full sequential injection, as I'm planning to use MS3X. The current plan is to gut the engine bay harness and run the new harness wires where the old stuff was. Just not ready for surgery on the harness yet - making sure I don't make a mistake in that area!
Lastly, got in the latest load of plated parts - eye candy galore.... Plenty to work on now.

BigAl1

Big progress in the last few days! Started installing parts back in the engine bay, adding the fine details in the front crossmember area. Also got the rear brakes rebuilt and installed, though it was a real fight to get the tube nuts un-stuck from the hardlines.
Torqued up the ball joints nuts since access will be limited after the discs are installed, then proceeded to finish rebuilding the front calipers. Got the bearings greased and installed, hubs on and bearings set, then added the discs and calipers. I set the steering rack loosely in place to get it off the floor, waiting for the solid bushings to be installed. Lots of goood progress!
The trying part was rebuilding the axles - the boots are very tight to pull over the flange! This took an hour to get 1 done, and 1/2 hour for the other end. What a PITA! Got everything greased, sealed, and started installing into the car, and the boots pulled out from the clamp rings! ARGH! Since the suspension is at full droop, the axle angle is max, causing the boot to pull out. I gave up at this point to settle down and find out if others have seen this problem. No surprise - they have! Seems I have an older design of boot which does not have a lip at the bottom to keep it from pulling out from under the clamp ring. Now to figure out how to fix it.....

Jadz928

Looking great BigAl1. This car is going to be so NICE!

stuartbrs

Awesome.

Chuck Schreiber

Great Job Al!

Ducman82

i had that problem with the boots as well. i also ditched the "hose clamp" style clamps, and went to NAPA and got a band clamp tool and clamps. i had the boots come off about 5593024908345 times while installing.... super suck job. but fixed now!

BigAl1

Thanks Ducman, I'll probably try that next as I really don't want to disassemble these AGAIN to fit a different boot.

BigAl1

Lots of small details progress, but that is what makes a 928! Solved the CV boot issue - I did not have the clamp seated in the rubber boot groove properly, plus added a safety wire braid around the boot to cinch it a little tighter than the clamp was doing. No more pulling off when axles are at max droop. Got all the fuel and trans oil hardlines cleaned and painted, then installed with an OOPS in there for fun. The fuel return line must be installed BEFORE the rear swaybar is bolted up - DOH! I could not find a way to get the fuel line back into place without unbolting items which I did not want to do, so cut the hardline shorter, gave it a slight flare to bite the hose, and ran a longer hose from the top of the tank to the hardline. Continued with fuel line install, and eliminated the accumulator, so made a loop where it used to be. I suppose it could be a neater setup, but didn't think this through completely. As it is, the lines are tied tight and can't rattle or chafe, so should be good to go. The hose is Aeroquip AQP good to 250PSI. Also installed the fuel tank, and loosely fitted the fuel pump and filter for measuring the hose length up the side of the tank. Where the AQP fuel hose is tucked into the tank support bracket, it is encased in 5/8" heater hose to protect it, instead of the foam sleeve originally used which soaked up water and caused the tank support to rust.
Finished installing the rear brake parts, so only thing left is to bleed the brakes and adjust the e-brake system. And, cleaned and installed the rear wheel well liners - they are nice condition with no cracks anywhere. Last was to clean and install the exhaust heatshields underneath. The rear shoield is only loosely installed as it seems to get in the way of installing the rear driveshaft pinch-bolt, so after the engine is in and the shaft is all tight I can tighten the shield before exhaust is in place. As a reward for all this progress in the rear, I had to put the rear wheels back on - first time since teardown last fall. Very pleased with progress! Still have to torque the main axle nuts, and will lift the rear suspension to ride height with a jack so all the suspension bolts can be torqued with the wheel off for access. This a a trick GregBBRD showed in his rebuild thread. Looking forward to putting details back in the front like tanks, fluid lines, vacume lines, steering rack install, bumper, fenders, lights..... A few things have to wait to go back on until I have modified the harness for the MS3X wiring, so getting close to tearing down the engine to make sure there are no hidden surprises that could throw a wrench in the MS3X plans.

Benton

Wow. Incredible work, and great work ethic as well! I am impressed!

pcar928fan

This car is going to be BRAND NEW when finished! Great work!!! Hell of a restoration!