964 C2 - Rolling Resto

[rhd racer]

All suggestions helpful James.

Ultimately, unless I fix it I am stuck between a rock and a hard place because I want to fit a new alarm / immobiliser whilst the interior is stripped out. But if the car won’t start, no-one will take the job on!!!

I am going to check the obvious later, like is the head sensor plugged in, just in case we missed it / it got dislodged when we did the clutch change. You never know, it could be that simple...

Cheers

[jjeffries]

I’m no 964 expert but a good friend here (Connecticut, USA) rebuilt his recently and there were issues with starting. He was posting on the 964 section of Rennlist. Tons of 964 help there. Hope that helps. John

[rhd racer]

Thanks John.

I have some good 2nd hand sensors coming from Angus in a day or two, so I can test and prove / eliminate the theory. I will go looking if I get stuck, appreciated. I also bridged the fan belt sensor and the light remained illuminated, so I need to test for a broken wire on that circuit....

[rhd racer]

Today was an interesting day. Ultimately successful thankfully, but with a few hair raising / buttock clenching / trouser browning moments. But more of that later....

In between hanging outside lights, dog walks, family stuff, I managed to get quite a bit done on the car. First up was an annoying oil leak. When I had the car on the ramps sorting the clutch, that the oil leak was not any of the usual suspects, and thankfully not serious. After fixing the nadgered jubilee on my new oil pipe, it was still leaving decent sized patches (more than a mere drip) of golden oil. The cases are dry, mains dry, rockers very slightly weeping but this can be rectified at the 1st service after 1500 or so miles when we do the tappets. It was dripping down the tinware from very high up on the engine, suggesting the leak was on the top of the engine. Angus agreed, and the oil breather assembly was dry, so we narrowed it down to the oil pressure / oil sender console on banks 4,5,6, despite most of the oil running down the tinware on bank 1,2,3. Unfortunately, we confirmed this when dropping the engine for the clutch, but were not prepared for the diagnosis and had no gaskets or O-rings to reseal them, so put the engine back in as was. I did ask how the heck you replace them with the engine in, and Gus said you can but it's not easy....

Anyhow, I know the senders and switches themselves can leak if aftermarket, and not knowing what I have on there given the cars multi owner past, I was simply going to replace both at the same time. Two more items to add to the growing OPC shopping list. Then an evening googling, and I saw this for sale at Douglas Valley





It was £49, obviously included both and was said to be tested and working. For about 25% of the price of new, I thought it was worth a punt, and my cunning plan was to unbolt the whole console / cover plate, and therefore just have to reach to 10mm nuts instead of trying to wrench 21mm spanners in there in an impossibly tight space. The risk was that effectively it would require leaving a hole in the top of the case, so was as high risk as can be.

In fact, I woke up dreaming of this twice this week, whilst the parts were in the post, worried that I would drop something in there.

Anyhow, the part arrived and was as described, looked to be dry at the joints of both units and the cover plate, so I manned up and got fully behind my plan to replace both in one go.

So, mid morning I opened the bootlid and set about the task with girlish glee.....

What struck me first was how incredibly tight it is in there. You can just get your left arm in down the left side of the engine, and behind the throttle body. Front and right side access was impossible.



See what I mean?

So, for the 2nd time in as many weeks I took the filter assembly off. This is much easier now, because I completed a field repair on the rear clips which had become detached from the housing and required the dexterity of a Krypton Factor challenge and the hands of a small boy to do them up. Using a brilliant cable tie based solution the clips are now permanently attached and routine servicing is once more, just that.



Using this, I could just get on thr nuts from the top





Access much better down the RHS of the engine now





So with a bit of messing around, carefully removing the nuts, using a magnet to lift the washers I then had nothing that could drop in the hole into the engine, and put a rag over it whilst I changed the connections on the senders.



I then put the cover plate back onto the studs and it was super tight. I could not get it back into the case, so removed it again, smeared plenty of fresh oil over the O-ring (which incidentally is a totally different design to the one that came with the new engine gasket kit - the 2nd had one green and round, the new one black and flat). I decided to not change the seals and go with the older one, for fear of damaging either.

So I dropped it back onto the studs, and luckily it was enough to put the nuts on, and very carefully a turn at a time, side by side drew the cover back onto the case nice and square. It seated nicely, and took it for a drive up the road. What do you know, it seems dry too!

And you were thinking that the excitement of the day was dropping a nut / washer into my freshly built engine....

After a good clean, I put it back in the garage in a position where I could get both doors wide open to attach the interior.

[rhd racer]

So, part 2 of 'places impossible to photograph'

Buoyed on by Mike's 'how-to' guide of removing his 993 dash, I thought I would set about mine to commence the transformation from grey to black. Some time ago I decided that irrespective of whether I stay orange, go back to blue or something else, I hate the light grey carpets and seats, so black on black was the way to go. As usual, rather than simply buying an interior, I am doing it the hard way and changing the colours myself.

Anyhow, it all started quite well. Top dash first, because Mike warned the lower dash was a nightmare, so I thought I would build up in baby steps. 5 screws and the demister vent is off...



This is going well, the dash wasn't even screwed in behind...



So then onto the central vent. What a pig! One of my clips was bent, and could not be accessed without getting a pick to pull it down, then lever it open. I then remembered that I bought a trip removal kit a while back and have never used it, so I located it and forced the clips open from above the unit. All good.

Mike then said with you third hand (!) you pull the vent out. Now, there is pulling a vent out and pulling a vent out, and let's just say this needed considerable force, and there is no way it could have been achieved whilst holding the clips open. It took about half an hour, and I could not consult the thread for guidance because my phone and the ipad were in my children's hands playing games......story of my lie.

Anyhow, after much swearing, it popped out.



Here you can see the little metal tab, of which there are two



Here



Then onto the 'hidden nut' which is supposed to be hand tight, but mine had been torqued using some sort of pixie torque wrench. The only way I could undo it was remove the LH guage and get a spanner from the opposite side



I then removed the end caps and undid the passenger side hidden screw



And then the dash came out (before removing the right hand screw). Here you can see why





So that requires a repair before going back in.

So onto the lower dash. The end caps again come off simply, and the vents are essentially the same principle as the central one. Only on these, you can get your hand behind the dash which clearly makes it easier, right? Wrong...

What a nightmare - at least 20 mins per side, skinned knuckles and swearing...



One down





So then just a case of the screw underneath



Before doing the hidden ones, two per side. Two exposed by the vent removal, one under the HVAC, one under the head unit. Apologies for the terrible pics, but this is lying on your back under the dash stuff!







And there we have it, ta-da!

[rhd racer]

So, having already been lying on my back looking up the dash I saw the ignition switch winking at me, and having a new one in a box on the shelf thought I would attack that too. My primary reason for doing this is that they are prone to failing, and can cause all manor of electrical gremlins, and I thought it might just make my HVAC unit start working again....

So having read up about it, I read that the allen or screw mounts are difficult, and with the dash off and better light thought it the ideal time to do it. Now, my curious nature got the better of me and I started looking at the job in hand before I disconnected the battery, something in retrospect I shouldn't have done....

Anyhow, I just started pulling at the connector socket on the back of the switch. It is a simply pull off, push on affair, multi plug and very tight. It should have come off in my hand but didn't, and curious that it might have a twist lock effort like a Boxster headlight switch I kept pulling.

There was a huge spark and suddenly the car started! I was lying on my back in the footwell, with the engine running and a spark shower in my face! (and after my starting issues, it did cross my mind that WTF - it starts now when I dont want it to!). Anyhow, I leapt out of the car and brain not working reached for the key to turn it off. No key. It was in the door.

Right, next, kill the battery. Opened the passenger door, pulled the cable. No, that's the fuel flap...Back to the drivers side, car still running, starting to panic. Popped the bonnet, ran to my tool chest at the other end of the the garage for a 13mm spanner. Undid and disconnected the earth. Car still running!? WTF!

Jumped inside the car, put in first gear, handbrake on and lifted the clutch. Engine finally died...(although the lurch forward nearly hit the Boxster). Disconnected the live. Lay on the ground panting, for just a bit.....I had been running round like Benny Hill for 10 minutes, and genuinely a bit spooked by it all!

Evidence



So, what happened? Well, the ignition switch just fell apart - the core was on the carpet when I went back to the car.





Old and new next to each other



So, I fitted the new one which was straight forward, reconnected the battery and all is good.



So this is where the day ended



Oh, and did it fix the HVAC? Did it ****!

If anyone knows anyone UK based that can rebuild one, please let me know. Otherwise I will be sending it to the US...

[Trantorman]

"Tore bergvill" in Norway is your man for testing and repairing HVAC systems, he has lots of fault finding info on his web site and is really easy to deal with
https://www.bergvillfx.com/categories/9 ... cu-details

[rhd racer]

"Tore bergvill" in Norway is your man for testing and repairing HVAC systems, he has lots of fault finding info on his web site and is really easy to deal with
https://www.bergvillfx.com/categories/9 ... cu-details

Thanks very much. I had seen his site a long time ago but completely missed the service section - appreciated. I can see now where my HVAC transfers come from via D911! I will take the unit out later for the part number and send him a note.

Having no blower function basically renders the car undriveable, so will bite the bullet and get done now

[deano]

There was a huge spark and suddenly the car started! I was lying on my back in the footwell, with the engine running and a spark show in my face! (and after my starting issues, it did cross my mind that WTF - it starts now when I dont want it to!). Any how, I leapt out of the car and brain not working reached for the key to turn it off. No key. It was in the door.

Right, next, kill the battery. Opened the passenger door, pulled the cable. No, that's the fule flap...Back to the drivers side, car still running, starting to panic. Popped the bonnet, ran to my tool chest at the other end of the the garage for a 13mm spanner. Undid the earth. Car still running!? WTF!

Jumped inside the car, put in first gear, handbrake on and lifted the clutch. Engine finally died...(although the lurch forward nearly hit the Boxster). Disconnected the live. Lay on the ground panting, for just a bit.....I had ben running round like Benny Hill for 10 minutes, and genuinely a bit spooked by it all!

Brilliant ! Maybe we should start a Benny Hill moment thread - I certainly have one or two good ones

[Jonny Hart]

^ if no fans, more likely the ‘final stage’ is toast. It’s the part that sits between the HVAC ‘suitcase’ and the bulkhead panel. Has an 8 way connector. We are designing a replacement for this part and also have a few spares.

[rhd racer]

So am working through the Bergville diagnostics and Jonny’s advice and hopefully progress being made on the heating front.

In the meantime a package arrived from Hertfordshire with a metering head and head temp sensor to try.

Started with the easiest first and just plugged the sensor in hanging out of the car for ambient temperature.



And guess what, it fired immediately!

So, many thanks Jon (Miller) for setting me on the right path, hugely appreciated


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lightweight_911]

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[911hillclimber]

Good grief, WHAT a nightmare you are having with this car.
Is there anything that has not gone wrong, been a pain, and cost a lot?

Still, getting there step by step, a car that started like that would make anyone flash about like Bennie Hill!

[rhd racer]

Good grief, WHAT a nightmare you are having with this car.
Is there anything that has not gone wrong, been a pain, and cost a lot?

Well, yes and no Graham. I bought it at the bottom of the market, the cheapest car out there by some £10k, with a 3 page PPI detailing all the issues! I knew what to expect, and the only other 964 I could afford would have been a cab or a tip. Neither appealed.

So I had the budget to do everything, and mechanically as you know everything is done - no more surprises. There are a few electrical gremlins, but I am working through those and replacing more parts bit by bit and learning a bit more about it every day. At the end of it, I will no doubt end up with Trigger’s Broom, but safe in the knowledge everything has been replaced.

Apart from the starting thing, which is a freak failure, everything else has been largely known and planned for. I could run it around without a heater, and with the fan belt light on etc, but I hate things not to work and be as they should be, so the challenge is to work through it and fix. We all need a hobby don't we?!

At least now it is at the stage where I can make improvements whilst I go. Like a rolling resto....like how I sold the idea to my wife 18 months ago

[Boydyrs]

Also Wayne All these cars now need some love and affection due to age, over or under use? Your doing a great job pal.