First of the Texas Twins, First Build Options

[pete000]

Nice rescue ! have fun love the color ! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

[Puebloswatcop]

Nice rescue ! have fun love the color ! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

Thanks Pete. I have been debating what color to paint the car in the end, but the current color is kinda growing on me.

[Puebloswatcop]

So, with rain on and off today, I couldnt move the hot rod out of the garage, so no working on the body of the 914. (Its a deal I made with the wife since the hot rod is hers)

Instead I worked on parts, cleaning and boxing for reassembly later.

Dismantled the steering rack and cleaned up the rubber parts...

[Puebloswatcop]

Then I decided to start working on the steering column. It was pretty clogged with 40 some years of dirt....

[Puebloswatcop]

The deeper I got, I found the crud just continued. The ignition switch doesnt look good at this point and the bearings in the steering shaft sound and feel like there is about a ton of dirt in them...





So tomorrow I will pull the shaft and see what the bearings look like.

[Puebloswatcop]

So, as I suspected the upper bearing is shot, feels like someone filled it with sand, the lower isn't too bad, but since I have it torn this far apart, I will just replace them both.

For those who have never torn the entire steering column apart, it really isnt a bad job to take on.

After all of the electrical components and ignition have bee removed the process is fairly simple

First remove the 6mm bolt from th under side of the housing



Then you can use a soft mallet to separate the Lower support from the black housing by tapping on the end of the shaft at the lower support end. I recommend doing this over a padded surface or have someone to hold the housing, becuase when the shaft falls through the housing end will drop like a rock...





This leaves you with the support with the bearing in it. You simply remove the circlip, then with a long punch or screwdriver gently tap the bearing out from the inside. Warning, if you plan to re-use the bearing, make sure you are tapping on the outer ring of the bearing. At the same time you will have to avoid the circlip that secures the underside of the bearing.



This should leave you with two individual components, The upper housing with the shaft in it and the lower support bracket.



To remove the shaft from the upper housing you will need to remove two circlips holding the shaft in place. the first is the ring on the shaft where the steering wheel mounts. I am sure they make a tool for this, but I don't have it so I just use needle nose pliers as positioned in the photo, give it one sharp blow and it comes right off.

Then you have to remove the circlip that holds the bearing in place. Then using the soft mallet, gently hammer the shaft out from the opposite end. Then simply pull the bearing off of the shaft. If this is done without a lot of force, you can generally re-use the crush washer that is between the bearing and the shaft.



That should leave you with a completely stripped steering column, to clean 45+ years of dirt and grime from.



The part numbers for the bearings are 91134777102 for the upper and 90005203100 for the lower. If you do need the crush sleeve that part number is 111 953 535 D

Hope this helps anyone considering this job

[Literati914]

Dang.. nice jobs with that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)
I wasn't planning it, but now you got me wanting to do the same.


.

[oldie914]

You might consider using generic bearings instead of Porsche as you continue. Not all bearings are generic but they are a lot cheaper. Porsche often assigned 900xxxx part numbers to generic parts.
In your case, the upper bearing has 6003 engraved which is an identification of the bearing type and size under the metric bearing system. FAG has a catalog online that lets you decipher the numbers.
I checked the US internet and saw the Porsche bearing cost $17. An FAG 6003 cost $6. Over here in Germany, Porsche costs Euro 27 ($30) and an FAG 6003 Euro 3.
The other bearing appears to be Porsche specific but I imagine it is a standard metric bearing in a plastic case.
Last point is only use name brand bearings. There are many poor quality Chinese made bearings offered.

[Puebloswatcop]

You might consider using generic bearings instead of Porsche as you continue. Not all bearings are generic but they are a lot cheaper. Porsche often assigned 900xxxx part numbers to generic parts.
In your case, the upper bearing has 6003 engraved which is an identification of the bearing type and size under the metric bearing system. FAG has a catalog online that lets you decipher the numbers.
I checked the US internet and saw the Porsche bearing cost $17. An FAG 6003 cost $6. Over here in Germany, Porsche costs Euro 27 ($30) and an FAG 6003 Euro 3.
The other bearing appears to be Porsche specific but I imagine it is a standard metric bearing in a plastic case.
Last point is only use name brand bearings. There are many poor quality Chinese made bearings offered.

You're right. The FAG 6003 was fairly easy to source and is the way I went, The other bearing on the other hand, seemed that no matter where I went they could not find a cross reference for. It was quite difficult, so I went with the OEM bearing. Unfortunately there aren't too many places out here in east Texas to source this stuff unless I want to make the 2 hour drive to Dallas...lol

[Puebloswatcop]

So today it was nice enough to park the hot rod outside, so I decided to address some of the more minor body issues.

First was to replace the spare tire hold down in the front trunk so I welded it into place and then hit it with some self etching primer. I have discovered that unlike in Colorado, any bare metal left for more than a day in Texas and its got rust all over it.

[Puebloswatcop]

Then moved on to the rust along the drivers side fender in the front seal channel for the trunk lid seal. I started by cutting the rusted area until I hit solid metal, about 1/2 inch wide by about ten inches long.





Then I cut a piece of metal to fit and tacked it in place. My goal was to not hit either the bottom edge or top edge of the channel where the body creases are.



Then finished it of with a preliminary sanding and shaping, still a little touch up to do, but got frustrated with my welder becuase the wire wouldnt feed at a constant rate, so ended up with several pin holes.

[Puebloswatcop]

Since I couldn't figure out the welder I moved over to the drivers door. The PO had installed an adjustable mirror, but mangled the mount area in his process. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) So I started by cutting out the damaged sheet metal, trying not to further damage the mounting structure underneath.

Once I got that cut out I could easily see how much damage was done to the support structure for the mirror. I will try to cut out only the damaged section and re-drill and tap the mounting holes for the mirror.

[Puebloswatcop]

Okay, so after spending over an hour this morning trying to figure out why the welder would feed consistently, turns out the label on the wire spool started peeling away and was building up like a snowball behind the spool. Cheap and easy fix.

So I cut out the support structure for the mirror on the drivers door. As it turns out there are actually 3 layers to this part of the door. 1) the outer skin, 2) the sheet metal support, 3) the nut plate that the mirror screws into. In my case all 3 had been destroyed.

So I started by making the sheet metal support. I tried using the pieces I cut out to make the holes for the new piece and that was a mistake. They were off by about a 16th of an inch. So I grabbed an old broken mirror and made a new one using the proper measurements...



Then measured to make a new screw/nut support plate. After drilling the holes, I tapped them to fit the mounting screws for the mirror....



Then welded the screw / nut support to the sheet metal support. Then welded the sheetmetal support back into the door ....



Then double checked the allignment by attaching the mirror to the support. I am please with the allignment in the end.



Tomorrow I will weld the outer skin back onto the door.

[Literati914]

Nice job, keep it up..


.

[Puebloswatcop]

Got the support metal ground down and primed



Then cut and formed the patch piece



Checked the fit, getting the curvature correct took a bit of time, but finally got there and tacked it in



Got it all welded up and the properly aligned holes re-drilled.



And for now shot it with self etch primer. Will come back later and finish up the entire door.



Then went down and filled in the hole in the channel next to the drivers side headlight bucket.

[tygaboy]

Excellent fab work! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

[9146C]

Very nice work Kevin!

The finished product is going to look great!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

[Puebloswatcop]

So today I decided to take the day off from body work....why, because all of my parts arrived for my steering column.....and I love to play with new parts... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Puebloswatcop]

After laying everything out, I decided to start by cleaning, modifying and re-assembling all of the sub-components. I started with the modification of the windshield washer switch.



Taking the advice and experience outlined in Bob Krantz's post (Building Inside Out) I started with the Carmagic Switch (very nice product) I cut off the narrow portion of the push button in order to fit the modification method Bob used.



Then I drilled out the plastic mounting surface in increments until the hole was large enough to accomodate the nut for the switch mount. This ended up being a 7/16 inch hole. Be very careful when drilling so you don't break the activating tab.



Then mounted the switch where the old fluid switch used to reside. As bob stated in his post the mount for the new switch stuck out a little past the mounting surface of the original switch mechanism, so I borrowed my wifes emory board and sanded it down till it matched (hope she doesnt find out).



By using Bob's method I found the mounting to be a bit more sucure IMO.

[Puebloswatcop]

From there i moved on to the ignition switch replacement. As with many of these old cars the switch was cracked so I replaced it with a fresh part. For those who have never done this it really is a pretty simple straight forward procedure.

You simple unscrew the tiny set screw on the side of the ignition unit, remove the old switch and insert the new one, then screw the set screw back in place. The good thing is it will only go in one way.