mrjarvy

Hey everyone. I know I haven't posted much, but i've been lurking quite a while, and I did a search to see what may be up. Anyways, my problem is a little bit of driveline noise. I don't believe it was there this morning, but I could be mistaken. I was doing some light spirited driving tonight, when I slowed a bit, I heard an extra whine I don't remember from before. It's not engine speed dependent, seems to be constant in 3rd, 4th or 5th. It goes away when I press in the clutch. The noise is a lot more noticable at 70 or so.

A buddy of mine had throw out bearing as a first response. From doing a search, I see that and torque tube as well. How difficult are either of these jobs? A weekend thing, hopefully. Otherwise has anyone had a shop do this? Thanks in advance!

--Aaron

billindenver

Neither is a walk in the park, especially if you are not well versed in front engine porsches. The top end of the engine comes apart, the transmission gets dropped, the torque tube then pulls back. If it needs to come OUT...well, that is another problem in itself. If it's clutch related (TO bearing) you are looking at the clutch with the torque tube pulled aft.

As I recall, getting to the clutch is something in the neighborhood of 8 or 9 hours shop time (someone correct me, I've always done it myself). Torque tube...not sure, never had to remove one but I'm thinking the rear suspsension would have to come apart to remove it. I'll leave that one to others since I've never done it.

mrjarvy

I took the car out for a little spin to try to diagnose the problem a little more. It's led me farther to the torque tube, I think. Basically, at 60 mph in 5th I've got a buzzy whine. If I shift to 4th, it gets louder. Coasting, accelerating doesn't matter. When I press in the clutch, the sound will fade away after 3-4 seconds.

Does anyone have a good source for a complete torque tube?

KuHL 951

How many miles are on the drivetrain? I think all 944's drivelines have a slight whine. My 83 whined pretty bad from driving it too long on a failing rubber center clutch. Even after I replaced the clutch the whine was there probably due to bearing wear induced on the weak ring & pinions on the 944. I think most TT assemblies are good for at least 150K miles unless totally abused from dropping the clutch all the time. You might try swapping transaxle fluids with Redline synthetic or Swepco. It wouldn't hurt if you don't know when it was done last. Personally I would rebuild one before installing another used one. I just got my bushings and ordered bearings this week for the TT rebuild on the Sapphire 951. Thanks Jon!

Douglas Sorrells

I had to replace the tt in my 87 951 w/ aprox 175,000 miles on it. It's a real piece of work disconnecting it from the tranny & also dropping the rear suspension to swap them out. You can find complete instructions on the procedure at Clark's Garage & search for torque tube. I'm sure that you could find a replacement at Oklahoma Foreign, ask for Gary, they probabally have 10 of them. The whole replacement is generally a real PITA.