951Porschiste

When I bought my 951, the PO had said that one of the radiator cooling fans was inoperative. So as long as one drove at highway speeds, there was little chance of overheating the engine. However, stop-and-go traffic was another matter.

Today, I removed the negative terminal from the battery, and I jacked up the front end. I unscrewed part of the lower front cover. Then I removed the fan assembly (6 X 10mm nuts, the upper driver’s side has very little clearance because of the pop-up lights mechanism, so I had to prop them open slightly, and I had to remove my K&N cone filter for the upper center nut).

Well, lo & behold. First, the assembly itself is from a 944 NA. <img border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" title="" src="graemlins/cussing.gif" /> It was cut to fit the clearance for a 951. Second, the one fan motor that was functional is not OEM. The fan blades were shortened to fit inside the assembly circle on the driver’s side. <img border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" title="" src="graemlins/cussing.gif" /> Third the connector at the motor consisted of two flat female blades into which male connectors from the radiator themoswitch were inserted. This was covered with electrician’s tape.

Now the passenger side fan motor was OEM, but the connector from the motor had separated and thus there was no electricity to the motor. <img border="0" alt="[crying]" title="" src="graemlins/crying.gif" /> I soldered the connectors together and reassembled everything.

Well Hurray! Both motors now function and the temperature remains much lower. I’m waiting for a new assembly from Dave Moffitt’s old car (BTW, Dave, when can I expect my package?). But in the meantime, this ‘repair’ will do fine.

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Picstr

Yep, I know what you mean, today when I tried to tighten my e-brake cables I found that both e-brake components were removed, to include the shoes? I haven't the faintest clue as to why the PO would do this but now I'm stuck with either spending about $275 to get new, or hope to find someone that has both used components from a parts car, kinda sucks.
Regards, Picstr.

951Porschiste

As soon as I get my replacement parts, I'll start some more work on the car. I wonder what I'll find next?

Any boby else find strange things in their cars when they bought it?

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alkemyst

man, these are exactly my fears of buying a used 951 ...PO's may be short on cash or in the middle of no-where and have to figure out a way to get rolling again...sometimes the part 'savings' though is just stupid when you consider the labor involved and headaches.

At least I know on my cars have sold any work I do is always done right the first time or followed up with the right parts after the 'emergency' is over. My header bolts on my $500 header were cheap but I had to use them at the time since I never checked the hardware first (excitement )....not even washers, yet alone lock washers were supplid....

Needless to say, I went the grade 8 route (way overkill but only like 50 cents extra) with washers top and bottom and a nice lock washer to keep it tight, it was a major pita to get the nut and a washer from underneath the car on a 15" extension to the bolt...but a couple nicks, scratches and tears in the flesh and about 30 mins of practice got the job done . In used cars I have seen fuses replaced with paper clips, bare wire covered in scotch tape, only hand tight nuts, including lugnuts, or even missing some altogether, twist ties holding critical parts together and even one car with one brake pad backwards....the first thing I always do with a new 'used' car is get the shop manual and check out all the things that could end up with me in a ditch first.

Regarding the brake components missing, my brother had his RX7 brakes serviced by a 'Tire Kingdom' type place, all dust covers, emergency brake stuff, and other non-noticable things were missing....he always parked in gear and never noticed the e-brake was bad until he had to park on a hill (we live in south florida where everything is pretty much sea level)...his bill was $200-500 something to replace it all right.

Redeye

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by 951Porschiste:
<strong>
Any boby else find strange things in their cars when they bought it?

<img border="0" alt="[byebye]" title="" src="graemlins/wave.gif" /> </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Yea! The whole front end was missing!
(Sorry... couldn't resist... it's very boaring at work tonight.)

dmoffitt

i found 4 dead rats under my shifter, does that count?

andre as i said in another thread, everything should go out some time wednesday afternoon (on my nickle aka my fedex account, because of the delays). btw - i'm going to probably just send the whole radiator AND fans, do with it as you'd like, as i don't have the time to dissassemble it... it's @ the shop so i can't vouch for condition but i never had any trouble - if you want use it, if not, sell it, up to you).

btw - Picstr - i feel your pain. i don't have ANYTHING e-brake on my new chassis.... *shrugs* guess it'll be yet another (expensive) phone call to the dealer, or just parking it in gear, although i HATE the idea of using the engine's compression and my gears to hold the car in place, seems.... foolish?

Danno

"Needless to say, I went the grade 8 route (way overkill but only like 50 cents extra) with washers top and bottom and a nice lock washer to keep it tight, it was a major pita to get the nut and a washer from underneath the car on a 15" extension to the bolt..."

Every chance I get, I replace all those 6mm (10mm hex-head) bolts using separate washers that hold all the panels on the car together with TOYOTA bolts with built-in washers and locks. Then you can just drop them into a deep socket, aim up and push with the wrench to get them into place. Saves about 30-minutes putting panels back on after an oil-change.

adrial

Redeye, those dyno numbers in your signature...are they to the wheels or at the flywheel?

Swedeboy

Previous owner kindly put locking wheel nuts back on the car - AFTER a number of the wheel nuts and the key nut had been heavily damaged by overtorquing.

Made for an 'interesting' half day's work when new tires were being mounted.

Jon Moeller

My car's PO, now known by many other euphemisms, did his own stereo install. Needless to say, this guy was no electrician. The head unit was wired using twist on connectors (discovered when the sunroof/radio fuse kept blowing), the front speakers were horribly mounted to the doors, and one of the rear speakers was "wired" by threading the wires through the holes in the connector tabs.

Luckily, he didn't inflict much damage on the car's mechanical components. A notable exception to this statement is that one of the struts was replaced with an N/A unit.

The most entertaining aspect is reading the receipts for the car: "attempted to install customer provided used rear shocks, shocks were not the right size, reinstalled old shocks," "installed customer provided A/C compressor, charged system, compressor leaked, purchased new compressor at customer's request, installed and charged system."

I knew I was in for some work when I bought the car, but the new control arms, clutch, and other cash intensive repairs put my mind at ease. His comment that "these cars are expensive to maintain" still makes me laugh. Yeah, they're really expensive when you pay to install stuff 2 and 3 times.
-Jon
'88 951 undergoing therapy

OriginalSterm

I can top that Jon, here's a few of the quotes on my receipts from the PO of my car...

"Re-installed timing belt/aux belts, previously mounted backwards"
"Remounted tires, tires are directional"
"Installed rebuilt waterpump" (6/7)
"Installed proper rebuilt waterpump" (6/12)

This is on top of the 40 lbs. of plywood in the back of my car for mounting various audio components and the related 5 lbs. of unused random speaker wire.

Somehow, my car runs great now and you'd never know morons had owned/worked on my car. Thank God.

951Porschiste

Also found an old CD case for one of Eminem's early albums (without the CD) under the passenger seat. My son listens to Eminem, I'm into 70's and 80's music (after all at my age...)

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