Girl Meets Car, A Love Story Options

[memmek2k]

My uncle-in-law decided to give us his '73 Porsche 914 1.7L. He said he just didn't have time to work on it or drive it anymore and wanted to see it go to someone that would drive it and take care of it.

Only problem is it didn't run.

He said it last ran about 2.5 years ago, after a major service overhaul at a local VW shop. He was able to go on a few drives, and let it sit for a bit. When he tried to start it again, it wouldn't turn over.

So I spent Christmas weekend intermittently at their house, wrenching and cursing and bleeding (as is the customary ritual when meeting a new car). After determining the ECU's fuel pump circuit is fried, along with the 2.5-year old fuel pump, I decided to hotwire the fuel pump to one of the switched power circuits so we could get it out of the garage and onto a trailer.

"My Porsche's in the Hangar" is not a phrase I ever imagined being able to say. We've been fighting the city to build a garage for the last year due to some bigoted BS in the neighborhood we live in. The original plan was to have a garage in which to put a Porsche by this time. Since there's no garage, we're renting hangar space from my boss, which sort of puts a damper on my ability to wrench freely.

Right now, the current plan is to give everything a refresh/once over and get accustomed to the car. I'm sure it needs new fluids and consumables. Probably could use a valve adjustment and a rear caliper adjustment (they're sticking). It has a high idle, which I'm used to attributing to vacuum leaks on MAF cars, but I'm under the impression the 1.7L has a MAP sensor. Also the driver's outside door handle broke literally right after I fixed the fuel pump, so I need to fix that now, too.

Long term: paint's rough, body has some dings and rust (and I need to examine the hell hole). It'll need more gofast eventually, but doesn't everything? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Left Side


Right Side


Owner's Final Farewell
 final_drive.wmv ( 1.93mb ) Number of downloads: 124

[memmek2k]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and the links!

I had followed the guide here, and had the hangup at step 12. So I know at least pin 11 to the white 4 pin is good on the harness. Are there other problems that can cause no continuity to ground when the car is switched on? I noted that it was a measurable resistance all the time (i.e. not an open circuit, but not shorted to ground). http://bowlsby.net/914/Classic/zTN_FI_FPChecklist2.pdf

First thing I checked was continuity on all the fuses on the relay board. I've had far too many fuses blow that looked fine to ever trust my eyes again on fuses (even the new see-through ones).

No front oil cooler (yet).

I'll keep looking for a vacuum leak, then.

Long story on the garage: I'm an engineer, so the first thing I did when we started planning the garage was pull city code. The design is 100% to code; we didn't try to sneak anything past the city. Our design was approved in early 2016, but the concrete sub wanted to wait for better pouring weather (frustratingly, our neighbors poured a pad for a gar-port while we waited). We planned to break ground the first week in May when the city notified us that we needed notarized letters from our neighbors permitting incidental access to their property. Our lot is 25 feet wide; city fire code mandates a 4 foot gap between our property line and any new structures, which our design had. So I'm not sure why we needed the incidental access permits. In any case, we were able to get the letter from our neighbors to the north, but HUD owns the house to the south, and HUD won't sign anything. The house was supposed to go under contract for a new owner in July; it didn't. We contacted our Alderwoman who was able to schedule a variance hearing for us... in October. The variance would be to let us build the garage without permission from HUD for incidental access under the condition that we would not hold HUD liable for any hypothetical injuries. She was in constant communication with the city government to make sure all the "t"s were crossed and "i"s were dotted and was surprised as we were when our variance was denied. We were not able to get the reason for the denial until November, when we were informed it was because we wanted to set the detached garage deeper into the property, allowing for a 20 foot long "driveway" to the alley. They reasoned the driveway would allow us to sell cars on the side. Nevermind that the houses 5-10 min away in the "rich" part of town commonly have the exact setup we would like. Our neighborhood is in a "developing" area, and we are trying our damndest to invest in it. So the complaint isn't with the neighbors at all (who are fantastic); it's with the city.