parts lost/falling off while driving your 914??, damn, what was that noise??? Options

[Mueller]

So I get a phone call a few days ago from Mike Rose, the fella that graciously lent me his 914 for the WCC a month ago..."hey Mike, I was under my car and noticed a dent on the heatexchangers that looked odd, then I noticed the pass. side flapper box was gone"

ummm, I knew I didn't take the car off road or run anything over that I knew of and then I remembered that while driving down on hwy 101 to the breakfast that Friday of the WCC, my wife and I had been cruising at about 70 or so (indicated 80+ mph, but he has smaller than norm tires on the car) when I heard a bunch of noise like under the car and then saw something in my mirror bouncing/sliding on the freeway behind us until the object was no longer in my view due to the cars behind us........Well, now I'm 99% sure what the racket was (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

I still have no idea if we did run something over and it popped up and took off the valve or just vibration did it in......

What else have people "lost" while driving their 914?? I know a few people have "donated" their targa tops to the convicts cleaning up the side of the road, anything else??

[maf914]

While not as spectacular as parts flying across the interstate, I lost a part that did scare me. I had left home one morning and about a mile from home the 914 suddenly started running really rough. Then I smelled gas. I immediately pulled over, checked the engine compartment, and found gas all over the right side Weber carb and sheetmetal. I dried it with a towel and checked the fuel lines, which were okay. I kept searching and found gas leaking from the carb body. One of the plugs had fallen out of a port allowing gas to flow out. I kept looking and found the metal plug sitting at the base of the intake manifold. That was luck. I put the plug back in, it was snug but not tight, and drove back home. It stayed in with just a bit of seapage. During all of this I was just waiting for the thing to burst into flame. I removed the carb, dried and cleaned the port and plug, then epoxied the plug into the port. Worked fine for years afterward. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)