Introducing my 73 2.0L Options

[seatosummit]

Hey All!

I just traded my 1970 Ghia for Arizona '73 2 liter.

I wanted a 914 since I was a kid and am overjoyed to finally get to call one mine!

The last two weeks since I got it has been baselining the mechanical and electrical systems to get it into a drivable state.

Things I've done so far:

• Coil
• Battery
• Fuel pump
• Added a fuel pump relay (as it had been circumvented my previous owner)
• Adjusted the shifter to allow for access to 4th and 5th (love the bungee method)
• California plates

It pretty quickly needs tires and alignment, new interior door handles, wiper blades

Next it needs headlight motor debug, new body seals and weatherstripping all around and eventually paint (its primered at the moment) and a new interior

Stoked, as rust seems to be non existent and the 2 liter has about 200 miles on it.

PO set it up with a single carb, which works OK, but from what I read could certainly benefit from an upgrade. Any recommendations on where to look for sourcing an affordable option?

Thanks!

Austin
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-25012-1625251261.1.jpg)
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-25012-1625251261.2.jpg)

[seatosummit]

Hey everyone -

I carefully inspected all of the grounds and found good continuity from the starter all the way back to the battery. For good measure, I cleaned many of the contact points with a wire brush.

Unfortunately, the fail condition persisted, so I ultimately pulled the starter and swapped in another remanufactured unit I picked up from a more reputable vendor. Interestingly, upon installation of the new unit, it started immediately. I don't have a great explanation for what ultimately causes the intermittency, but I am suspecting that the ignition switch might be my next project. As I stated previously, I was only seeing about 10/11V at the solenoid in earlier testing, so this might be indicative of an internal failure and increased resistance in the switch.

On another front, I disassembled by fuel level sending unit and found that it had failed in a familiar way : the small gauge wires along which the float slides had snapped and were spooled at the bottom of the unit. The float was also seized, so no contact with the reserve terminals at the bottom either. I had some small gauge stranded wire, so I figured I would try replacing the factory wires with my own. I got it all back together and soldered, ultimately content with how it ended up looking and functioning. Unfortunately, the resistance of the replacement wire (even the single strand I used) is considerably lower than the factory spec, so the range is not particularly useful for the 0 -70 Ohms the gauge is expecting. Ended up ordering a replacement sending unit from Pelican Parts with a new seal. At least the reserve light is functional in the current unit! Definitely learned a bit along the way.

Confusingly, the green "gauge" wire that goes from the sending unit to the rear of the gauge in the cockpit had failed internally. I spent some time digging in the harness, but ultimately relented and added a dedicated (green!) wire in parallel to the harness to carry the variable resistance back from the sender to the gauge.

While neither of my Saturday objectives were perfect successes, I was none the less excited to get out for a drive on Sunday. I drove from Berkeley to Tomales Bay for a swim. About 60 miles each direction. Perhaps 30 of those miles along beautiful, windy biway. No major complications along the journey!

I found repeated issues with shifting into fourth from third--it would often prefer two which was not a particularly fun surprise while trying to accelerate. 90% success rate with shifting from third to N, releasing clutch, then shifting to fourth. Not quite sure why that would make a difference, but it seemed to.

Very, very fun day in that little rig though. Stoked!