General Questions, First time owner needs some help. Options

[golfcart]

I'm popping my cherry on this post! After lurking on this forum and watching many used car sites, I finally found and purchased my first 914. I must say that that the information and help found on this, and related sites, gave me the confidence at least to think I'll be able to keep a 36 year old car running. Like many of you, I hope to perform most of the maintenance and repairs myself ... short of engine/transaxle re-builds and significant body work.

As I've come to realize, most of you are interested in the car itself. It's a 1971 1.7L, Canary Yellow. I've registered it on this site. Purchased for $4,000 and I already have an additional $500.00 in it for spares, tools, trim, etc. The car spent most of its life in Florida (til 1989) moved to Michigan, PA, MD, and is now in PA. Yeah, I know ... no pics today.

The good: fairly complete w/fuel injection, only surface rust from what I can tell except for two holes in the hell hole, 50 cent piece size. Pulled the original steel rockers and I was amazed ... hardly any surface rust, let alone any through holes. Runs strong and drives well compared to others I drove (I'm sure I have not driven the best).

The bad: not the best cosmetics, paint, interior, wheels (original chrome steel with some surface rust). Needs rear springs (rear sag) and probably rear rotors and caliper rebuilds. Oil leaks! I leave my mark where I stop! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stromberg.gif)

My goal is to have a reliable weekend car. Budget is limitted. Does not have to be the prettiest, but must run and drive well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

So here's the help I need today.

I had a rubber fuel line split on me, luckily it was when I started the car to check something. Scary! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sheeplove.gif) I replaced the one that split and now I want to tackle the others. What's the deal with the the clear fuel lines? Can I just replace them with rubber lines? I have clear lines going into rubber lines with clamps. Are these clamped line to line, or is there some sort of metal sleeve in there?

I have a brown wire and a green wire with spade connectors in the engine compartment that go no where. They come off of the wiring harness for the distributer. I don't have a heater fan. I think the green fed the heater fan ... correct? How about the brown one?

Finally, the rubber sheath on a section of the steering wheel has delaminated from the steel rim. Anyone ever restore this? I'm thinking of using a syringe to inject an adhesive in there. Anyone ever do this? Suggested adhesive? Any other suggestions for repairing this.

[Gint]

You don't *have* to replace the plastic fuel lines that go from the engine compartment, through the tunnel and on to the fuel tank. If they aren't hard and brittle, they do not need to be replaced. And even if they are brittle at the ends, you can cut back to soft pliable line and just use longer (preferrably new) rubber fuel line. Now if you want to replace them, of course that's fine, but they dont *need* to be replaced. There is probably other areas of your new 914 that will require time and money.

I don't know what all of the wires on the dizzy harness are for cause I don't memorize junk like that. But if those wires are coming out a smaller harness with other wires that do go to the dizzy, then none of them are for the heater. The heater wires are a heavier gauge wire that come from some other place. Brown on a Porsche is ground. Green sounds moe like temp sender or some such. It would be infinitely easier if you provided pics...

Rubber sheath on the steering wheel... I can't quite picture that. A used replacement part might be an easier way to fix the issue. Again... pics

And before I forget...

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...and...

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One last thing. There is a huge wealth of information on this board. Learn to use the search function. It will pay off huge. You can find an answer to many questions in less than 2 minutes if you sepdnd the time to learn to get the most out of the search function.