912 outlaw project

[964RS]

You mean David Beckham's dad surely....

[jury]

Front skid pan fitted...finally.

Good fit, and might also help with front to back weight distribution






Cheers

[jury]

Updates and developments coming soon...

[sladey]

.....

[KS]

.....

Exactly!

[jury]

Been awhile, time for an update...

...Its FOR SALE, had enough of it and the whole Porsche Scene. Time for something new !








Only Joking

Had some great drives in the ModRod this summer and constantly made improvements, noticeable to the carbs and fuel delivery. All was going great until I could no long find second gear! At first I put it down to the shift coupler, but after re-bushing and adjusting it still persisted. The engine and Gearbox were dropped out of the car and a new clutch and throw out bearing ordered. Strangely the throw out bearing that was fitted was "twisted", no better way to describe it. The clutch would engage but the bearing was at a noticeable angle. Anyway new stuff fitted and the problem fixed...or so I thought. The car still would still not shift into second, it would just about slot in at idle but no chance whilst moving. So we decided to nurse the car to the Emory Campout (the first few sentences of this thread state that I wanted to build something inspired by the Emory specials, so I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to show the car in person to those guys) with some interesting footwork and then investigate further on return.

Enroute to the Emory Campout



The gearbox was removed again and then delivered to German Transaxle in Bend Oregon. The guys at German Transaxle were great and took me through the tear down process...










It quickly became obvious that the Gearbox would need a full rebuild. The synchros were shot as were the slider gears, the gear ratios didn't look too bad but there was wear to the Pinion gears and diff. I was happy for them to rebuild it and they gave me a 2 week schedule...perfect ! Then I got a call saying that it would be better to get a new case rather than machining, some of the pressed races were worn and had play in them.

So I started to look for a case and then came across a complete 911/01 box for sale.....I should have listened to the warning voice in my head but I pulled the trigger and bought it sight unseen. I collected my old Gearbox and associated parts from German Transaxle and said I would be in touch. The "new" Gearbox finally arrived.....but as soon as I opened the box I noticed a big crack around the starter motor housing !!







Speaking with the seller he put it down to sloppy FedEx shipping, I put it down to some shady dealings ! Around this time I got in touch with Jeff Gamroth of Rothsport racing, I had met him in passing at the Emory campout afew months earlier and he had come out with us on one of the Sunday morning drives. The work that Jeff and his team do is amazing and the shop isn't too far away from work:

http://www.rothsport.com

I took the two gearboxes to Jeff and immediately he told me the "new" Gearbox was junk..."the only way that can crack is from a rear end impact"...Jeff is a straight talker, but said he would be able to build something out of the parts I had:

"How much" I asked ?
"Well you need a Gearbox" he said and we left it at that...he did like the Vanagon though

Jeff called afew weeks later and said the Gearbox was ready...He had used another case and upgraded a lot of internals with stronger parts, installed a new diff, and replaced the synchros and sliders. All in all the Gearbox should now out last the car ! And the price ? Not as bad as I was expecting...especially as on collection it was sitting on a bench next to a 908, two 2.7RS , a Speedster and the two safari 964's



So all back together and went for a drive around the block...






Gearbox feels super tight and direct (as direct as a 911/01 can be) and just little blip of the throttle tells us that the carb work made a massive difference

BTW...I finally got the seller of the other Gearbox to admit that the "goods were defected"...I sent it back and he eventually gave me a full refund. There is a moral there somewhere.


Onwards!
Chris

[DustyM]

Nice Update Chris, you are certainly keeping busy.

[KS]

Cool update!

[jtparr]

Glad it worked out in the end Chris...unfeckin beleivable what some folks get up to when selling parts...

[jury]

That first quick drive around the block went well, the second didn't quite go according to plan...went afew blocks and the car cut out. Didn't stumble or cough, just simply cut out...Electrical ? In hindsight, the car started, but cranking was abit weak.

Managed to push the car back home, thankfully I was with Erik (mechanic dude). We did some roadside tests:

No spark at Coil, replaced the Coil still no spark! and nothing on the Volt meter.....turned out the Volt meter was knackered . Went on to MSD website and ground the white cable which created a spark...Not really sure what we did next (I was on key turning duty), but something about over riding the MSD and then managing to get a spark at the coil after jump starting from the daily driver.

Car started, got it back in the Garage and did some research. Didn't realise just how much power the MSD system draws !! So today I made sure that the Battery was fully charged and bought a new Voltmeter Basically worked out that the Battery doesn't recharge when the car is idling, currently around 800rpm. There was a significant power draw loss , however the reading across the Battery climbs to 14.1 as the Revs rise, and maintains 14.1 +/- with a slight loss with the lights on. So I simply adjusted the idle screws and found that 1000-1100 was the happiest setting...might need to tweak this as it was at about 150 on the temp gauge, but it is much happier! So I guess the reason it cut out before was that I had let the car warm up on a low idle, all the time the Battery was getting weaker. Then the MSD system didn't have enough power as we started to drive...only drove afew blocks at low revs and then everything shut down.

As I may have said before...Electrics aren't my stronger skillset, but I learnt something today




And it is now permanently plugged in...



Chris

[jury]

On a lighter note...the clock now works. Those double Heuer stop clocks are so overrated

Keeping it Modernist thanks to Dieter Rams...




Also fitted a new Accelerator pedal, a beautiful engineered item from D-Zug. The feel is very different from original rubber pedal, much more on-off feel...the motion and feel is very direct. I also adding a slave spring, which is fixed to the Gearbox case. The spring hooks onto the Accelerator pivot arm and takes out alot of slack feel in the pedal linkage. I still need to dial in the angle on the pedal, there is a lot of options to get it in the right position but it feels good.

I will add some skateboard grip tape, just to give abit more underfoot assurance...







Chris

[Northy]

Great work Chris. The modrod gets better with each update.

[sladey]

Brilliant update Chris. And fantastic work. What’s the story with the curved pedal - thinking about getting one but don’t know the reason for the curve - is it meant to be easier heel and Toing

[smallspeed]

I will add some skateboard grip tape, just to give abit more underfoot assurance...

Hi Chris, might be "teaching my grandmother to suck eggs" here, but if you can find some over there, go with the 3M Safety Walk grip tape - its designed for the leading edge of stair treads, etc. Works really well, but isn't as "gritty" as skateboard grip-tape. It is a kind of smoother textured finish and rubber topped, so 10x easier to clean, and works a lot nicer for heel-toe'ing as your foot can still slide/rotate a little. Tilton supply the stuff with their pedals - I replaced mine (tilton pedals) years and years ago with normal "sand paper" grip tape from a skate shop, and it was just TOO grippy, and it made a mess of my shoes I quickly ponied-up and brought some of the proper replacement pads from Tilton, then shortly after figured out what it was actually called and brought a complete roll for a couple of quid!
I also found grip-tape doesn't work brilliantly when wet, whereas the 3M stuff is kind of rubberised so works wet or dry, AND it doesn't wear out anywhere near as quick as skateboard grip-tape

Just in case you were never a skater - cleanest way to install the stuff is stick it on oversize, fold it over/around the edges a bit, and then gently file (using a fairly fine 1" wide or more file across the top edge of the pedal at 45-degrees until you file through the tape. This might not be the best way to do it on a black anodised pedal, as you might end up with a slight silver border if you press too hard or file for too long! If you have a bit of a practice first though, its pretty easy to get a feel for when you're breaking through the to adhesive layer. Sure works well on silver alu pedal pads though where it doesn't matter! An alternative is, rub around the edge of the pedal with something hard like an old spanner handle or a bit of steel stock to give a kind of white outline - you can pretty much do this again and again until you're through the grip to the adhesive/plastic layer underneath, then get a really sharp stout knife and kind of do the same action as with the file, so you're slicing through the tape, using the edge of the pedal as a guide - again, gives you that perfect straight edge / matched profile with no wobbly bits or "lightning bolts" at your stop-start point!

HTH

Ben

PS. glad to see someone else using the "plank method" - I had to utilise 2x 5ft scaffold planks to get my e36 off/on our old driveway which was effectively the inverse of yours, or it would get beached on top of the hump between drive and pavement!

[Mick Cliff]

....all the time the Battery was getting weaker. Then the MSD system didn't have enough power as we started to drive...

That's interesting - been having some similar troubles with my 'daily' - Skoda Fabia VRS - but a couple of days on with the battery conditioner connected and it is back to its' usual peppy self. Lack of us is the culprit in my case....