Wot, not another '79 Targa resto thread

[rhd racer]

Good stuff, well done. The problem with all those secondary supports is finding somewhere to lie down and put the bolts in!

[The Garage Bitch]

The problem with all those secondary supports is finding somewhere to lie down and put the bolts in!

I didn't spot you hiding in the bushes watching us.

There was the odd "Fecking <insert support of choice>" throughout the exercise

[deano]

I then took it all off again to fit the wiring, and with a bit more of a clue how to fit the seal, got back to here with even less naughty words


Now I’m fighting with the trim pieces. Surprisingly, I still have (and managed to find) the one middle joiner and two end pieces. Right now though, the trim pieces need more finessing - as I try to press them in now, I can get so far, then one or both ends spring out.

I think the aluminium trim is usually fitted to the seal before (or as) the seal goes on to the glass, although I think I also read somewhere that with enough lubrication it is possible to add it afterwards....

[impmad2000]

When I /We fitted my rear Targa screen the aluminium insert was certainly added before fitting the screen. A real fight, but then suddenly it was in !!

[PeterK]

Yeah. I’ve seen posts with it done both ways but always before fitting the screen to the car. With all the twisting and bu$$ering about to fit the seal to the glass, I didn’t hold out much hope for the trim surviving if I fid that first.

[911hillclimber]

For the front screen always trim in the rubber after the rubber on the glass, lube and then sweat it in. Job for a pro imho.

[PeterK]

I’d love to have someone fit them but no joy finding someone who will actually turn up yet

[PeterK]

Out for a quick play after gardening chores, and a bad news day after the euphoria of fitting the engine.

Why did no-one tell me that I needed to fit the oil cross-over pipe before I fitted the heat exchangers Now I'll get to see how easy it is the remove and refit them while lying on my back. I guess it was a lot easier when the engine was sitting inverted on the stand, but I didn't want to risk damaging the oil pipe. Bad call - should have fitted the pipe or left the h/ex until now.


Also, not a happy bunny as I fitted my (£180 delivered, special offer) Stomski gear linkage coupler to the gearbox, with it loosely in the shift linkage. I then played with the gearstick to find the centred position, as per the online videos. Unfortunately the coupling came out of the gear linkage when I selected first gear and then when I selected 3rd gear, the linkage pushed against the Stomski, which was then pushed too far sideways, pulling out the rubber gaiter and it feels like it did some internal damage. I've used an O-clip to re-secure the gaiter, but it doesn't look like it was meant to do

Also, in yet more bad news, as 5th or reverse gears are selected, there's a rubbing noise (all other gears are fine). Can't see anything from the rear access area, so I guess I'll have to remove the heater auto-controller and have a peak from there. It sounds like it is coming from under the rear of the handbrake, so hopefully just the linkage rod rubbing on a control cable or something and not the looms (which ain't coming out again).

[PeterK]

So, another day and some fixing to be done.
Heat exchangers off


What a bu$$3r getting the barrel nuts off was though.

My standard 3/8” drive allen head socket is too fat to fit into / through the holes in the heat exchangers, so previously I used the long allen head socket (right above). Unfortunately, the barrel nuts had gone on so far that the rounded end of this socket wouldn’t grip the barrel nuts enough to extract them. So onto plan C, but even trying the ring spanner on the short end of the allen key failed me. Plan D involved a grinder and an old 8mm allen key. The result was the short length in the middle above, which when used with the ¼” drive set and an 8mm socket did the job. Note to self – use a washer under the barrel nuts when reassembling.

B4st4rd oil pipe fitted


And heat exchangers refitted (and I did remember the washers)


Oil pipe connections tightened once I was sure that the h/ex would fit



Further observations – I ‘ave an ‘ole

I am assuming this is from the air pump which had gone before I got the car. Not going to weld now that things are painted, but some panel glue may be useful. I suppose I could make a removable plate, just in case I want to refit an air pump (joke about that last bit).


There also seems to be something missing from here. I’m sure I’ll work it out in a bit.




I couldn’t find the connector for the reversing light switch and I didn’t have any female connectors that would fit on the male pins coming out of the switch. Rose Passion had the best prices for the rubber cover boot, two connectors and a few of the captive nuts that go under the rear access panel (access to the shifter coupling).

When the bits arrived, I realised that the male pins poking out of the switch were in fact the connectors that should be soldered to the wires. They were in quite hard, but realising that they did some out of the switch, verified by Google images of the switch, I was sufficiently aggressive and managed to pull them out with some long nosed pliers.

At least it was easier to solder my wires into virgin holes (sorry Phill) that trying to melt out the solder from the old ones (now my spare ones). All now connected but not checked, so I hope that the switch still works. Now is not a good time to think that I should have checked the switch just before refitting the gearbox. It worked when I parked it, but ……




Drive shafts fitted


Mother of God (to be slightly topical), how on earth are you expected to get the grease into the CVs without it getting everywhere, including places you haven’t even been !

I am glad that the CVs were supplied with 80g sachets of grease, as trying to weigh out the right quantity would have put me in a spin.



Bringing us up to date, today was connect and adjust the clutch


The manual is a classic ‘and reassembly is simply the reverse’…. Yeah, right. The omega spring just didn’t look right (even though I realised that I had put it on the release arm upside down and had to swap it around). I tried it every which way, then resorted to Google. There was a great Pelican post showing where it was necessary to belt a huge dent in to the SSI type h/exchangers to allow the spring to fit. However, as I got the h/ex from Chris Taylor who had them fitted to his SC, I didn’t see why such drastic action was required. Further reading enlightened us, dear readers, to the fact that this particular writer on Pelican was an ejit.

Having worked out how to fit the arm (place it with the spring loosely in place, then use a big screw-driver to pull the arm towards the rear of the car and ‘flick’ the spring over centre), I can see what the Bentley dis-assembly was about and therefore what reassembly intended. It was not at all clear when disassembly had occurred a few years back.

My next mental issuette was adjusting the clutch. Step 1 is to fit the little arm and adust the stop bolt to give a 1.2mm clearance. Then fit the clutch cable and adjust the cable to give a 1.0mm clearance at the stop bolt. Simples…….except there was no way that my clutch cable would fit…..
…
.
..
This is when I realised that the clutch pedal is sprung in the cabin and was currently sitting in the fully depressed state (a bit like me lying under the car at the time). By jamming the pedal in the fully up position, I suddenly had plenty of cable. Can you tell that I’ve never worked on a 911 before ?

I do need some replacement spring clip for the end of the clutch release arm pivot. I had a 19mm clip but it was too loose & the 16 too small, so I’ve ordered some 18 and 17mm versions.




With everything (except the silencer) now fitted, it was time to lower the car. I had the oil breather pipes to fit, and the car was previously too high to reach. I also needed to tighten the rear shock top mounts.

So car back on terra firma
[

Still a little high, but definitely no longer looking quite so much like the safari option. It’s about 350 from the ground to the middle of the rear arches and 380 at the front.


New set of boots (PS4) ordered today to fit my new wheels. Well, it avoids having to clean the old ones.


Oil breather pipes, from the engine breather on top of the block to the tank and from the tank to the airbox, both fitted. It was a pain in the ar$e to reach behind the airbox to refit the breather there, and if doing it again, I’d remember to fit it before installing the engine.

I added about 8 litres of oil so feel a little safer now. Not sure quite how much to add, but my plan is to spin the engine over without plugs to build up pressure before checking levels. I’m assuming that I’ll need around 10-11 litres until the thermostat opens up, then another 2 or 3. Even though the starter relay is out (not standard, but added and hidden as part of my alarm system), and the engine has (had ?) plenty of engine build lubricant, I’d hate the engine to be spun over by mistake.



So, next jobs are to see how the silencer fits with the rear valance. It’s a 2 out Dansk unit and the valance only has an exhaust cut out on the near side, so I’m expecting more metal work in my near future (I have a spare rear valance, still in primer). Also, I need to identify the scraping when selecting 5th or reverse. I’m hoping (naive or what) that I can remove the auto heater without removing the driver’s seat (again), but I reckon that I’ll need the seat out to be able to get into the access hatch and spring off the actuating arm.

I’ll also look to paint the petrol tank, as I have my (future) son in law’s motorbike tank to spray.

[911hillclimber]

That clutch episode raised a smile here!
The spring is a bitch, the adjustment tedious but gives a lovely feel at the end of the day.
You sure you can get the silencer into place with the rear valance on?

I think you are spot-on with the oiling approach imho.

Getting close!

[PeterK]

So, probably the last update for a short while – sailing starts again this weekend, plus I need to paint fuel tanks and get the screens prepared for installation (or at least the attempted installation when Alex, the Garage Bitch, next comes a callin’).

So, silencer. Firstly, as expected, the valance needed ‘modification’ to clear the offside outlet. I looked at my spare valance but it also would need modification, so I set to, removed my painted one, and attacked it with the Dremel. A splash of protective paint on the cut end and leave to dry.

It would have been more sensible to check the exhaust while the car was in the air, but why do sensible. Instead, I wiggled around on the floor and hoisted the silencer into place, and balanced it on my knees while I fitted the hardware. The rear valance fitted (it just fit with a little push) between the silencer outlets and was squeezed under the sticky-out bumper rubbers.



Onto my scratchy gear shift linkage. Those who were paying attention previously might remember that selecting 1&2 and 3&4 gears were fine, but when I selected 5th and reverse, there was a scratching / rubbing noise, possibly coming from under the handbrake area.

Having removed the rubber seal / boot from the front end of the autoheat box, I did manage to spring off the actuating rod from the autoheat to the red lever. I also managed, using long allen key sockets, to undo the 4 retaining bolts, lift the autoheat and unplug the electrical connectors, followed by removing the 3 bolts holding the handbrake down.

This gave just enough room for a look-see. Thankfully my issue was only the gear linkage rubbing on one of the tabs that holds the wiring out of the way. The most easily accessible one had not been bent back into position (wonder who I can blame for this), and just touched the linkage. I bent it properly to secure the loom and all was now quiet.

Simple if you say it quickly, but I replaced the handbrake, autoheat (remembering to attach the cables and actuator rod) and the jobs a good’un. All without removing the driver’s seat. Result


Next, computer time. CDI programming. Fire up the black box and plug in my CDI box, which I had actually bought en-route to the last CLM. So the first job was to update the firmware.

I have locked off the counterweights in the distributer and set a 5’ static timing. Well, I have set the distributer to around a 5' timing during the rebuild, but until the engine runs and I can get a timing light on it, who knows what it actually is right now, but the intent is there. I programmed the CDI with a full control ignition curve, rather than an overlay. This runs from 0’ at tickover (plus the 5’ static = 5 total advance) to probably 24’ at maximum advance (again plus the 5’, so 29’ total advance). I might reduce the total advance until the engine is fully run in and is on a dyno.
What I did change was the hard cutout, reducing it to 5750 and the soft cutout to 5500, and saved this curve as my ‘Running In’ profile.

Jonny has released an official v1.17 version of the ECO cooler software, so while I had the Macbook out, I updated that as well.

[The Garage Bitch]

Glad I got a mention in the 1st and not the 6th paragraph

[PeterK]

Mea culpa !

[PeterK]

So, what have we been playing at recently ????. Apart from sailing, that is……

In no particular order, here’s a photo from programming the CDI+.

I know that I covered that last time but I was somewhat remiss in not including any photos at all.

We were further distracted turning this


Into this

For the (future) son-in-law. Went pretty well, even if I say so myself, well right up until the point that a kamikaze fly went solvent sniffing, anyway.


While the painting gear was out, my fuel tank was waiting. RustBuster’s 121 epoxy primer (in grey) all over


Followed by stone-chip underneath

I got as close as I could to colour match the original (4 parts grey to one part black), but the original seems to have a lot of yellow in it. Just as well this is no concours garage queen.


I've also got a new tank filter to fit (can you tell old from new ?)

You need a 22mm hex key for the filter, and I didn’t have one. What I did have was a bolt with suitable head size and a pair of nuts, so I locked the nuts together and out came the filter.


I also had to re-assemble the fuel-level sender. The outer sheath had fallen off into the upturned tank when I removed the sender, so out with the extending magnet doohickie, and Roberts’ one of your mother’s relations.
I know that the outer sheath is aluminium, but I managed to slip the extending magnet into the sheath (steady Phill) and then using a second one to apply pressure, it lifted out.




I have had further play time with the targa rear screen. I was granted a slight (and extremely welcome) time extension as the Garage Bitch needed to delay his next visit by a week. I got as far as here

This might look good, but this is definitely the favoured side. Could I get the trim in the other side without the seal falling off the screen – could I @£¢$


Anyway, I decided that the screen was going to break (as I threw it out of the room) if I persisted, so checked my receipts. I had bought what I thought was a genuine seal from a pale red company. Looking at the price I paid, and now understanding better how some of the usual suppliers’ descriptions need to be interpreted, I am convinced it is a pattern copy.

So out with the phone and a genuine one ordered from Porsche Guildford. Got quite used to speaking with Stuart recently. Then fitting.


The Garage Bitch is due next Friday to help fit, but I have found the better way to fit the screen with limited tools – just a small piece of plastic actually. When picking up my new seal, I got chatting. There is a glass fitting company in the neighbouring industrial estate next to Porsche Guildford, who do all of PG’s screens. Off we trotted and 2 men are now booked for next Wednesday. Probably be somewhere in the £4-500 range by the time both screens are fitted, but it will be a whole chunk less stressful for me. Need to find something else to let the Garage Bitch play with now.



One of my diverter valve bases has a broken foot


Jonny has been playing with reinforced plastic rapid prototyping and his webshop now includes both these bases, and diverter outlets that can be used with heat as well as cold. So, a pair of each ordered and now fitted.

New CRF items at the bottom and one of Phills summer outlets top right.


The only other progress to mention is that the 18mm circlips arrived, so hopefully, my clutch release lever won’t fall off now.

[Rustytubs]

Great work Peter, a nice stage to be at now.

Are you going to paint the window beading satin black or on your car was it always natural? Imo it looks better if its all one or the other recalling the earlier cars had chrome door handles and natural targa bar hoop to match natural window trim, chrome headlight surrounds etc.

Do you have any pictures showing how the wiring for the heated rear screen is connected and goes through the window rubber (or is it looped over the rubber on the inside after fitting)?

Keep up the good work