Ok, about 2 months ago or so I am closing the gate to my driveway and I see a metal part laying on the pavement, see photo below.


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I've see this before, little bar, slight bend, two spot welds, from my Harley? My wife's Toyota pick up? The lawnmower?

This is the start of an exciting ride, for a mundane little item!

Sorry for the crummy photo, iPhone camera, I will try to take a photo of the other side in better light.

Sorry no prizes, just the a little lesson for those of us who think we know everything!

Good luck
Mike

My guess is the little tabs under the 914 to hold up the fuel lines.

no, slighty thicker metal.

Broken off part of one of the brake pad retainers/return springs...

That was my first thought

no, but Keep trying!

OK, so here is the back side of the part with a little better light but the same crummy iPhone camera.


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Anybody?

Brake or fuel line hold down?

Nope! Keep trying.

Is this part off of a 914?

part of the little lever/latch thing in the rear truck for a mobile jack stand?

Yes it is from a 914, I was not sure back then, I pick it up and held onto it, set in on my work bench, I knew I had seen it before small piece of metal with 2 spot welds and a slight bend at one end, but where?

I will try to take a side view of it, sorry same crummy iPhone camera.

Sorry Trent1542 no. Keep trying!

Of course it is, can't you see the areas of rust on it?

This is sorta like asking me to identify something by feel. The only thing that I know by feel is my anatomy or a womans. The shitty picture appears to show a item that was removed with a spotweld cutter though. It was probably removed from part of the sheet metal that usually rusts out that is being replaced and it was dropped and lost and forgotten until now. Good luck

The part was not removed but the spot welds seem to have sheered off very cleanly, sorry the camera does not have macro capabilities as you can see it is only about an inch long.

very good!

Tough to get a life lesson from a small missing piece of sheet metal, the consequences of this part missing were disastrous!

part of the engine-lid latch mechanism?

or part of the gas tank strap?

Piece off the targa top latch?

That piece had to have sheared off since those are fresh breaks at the spot welds so it would have to be at a vulnerable part of the car that met its fate due to a mechanical failure or met an imovable object in your driveway. I'm betting on the latter, in which case it would most likely have to be at the bottom of the car.

Beyond that, I'll be damned if I can ever recall seeing anything that resembles that piece ANYWHERE on the car.

Does your 914 look that blurry?

That looks like the little tab on the A-arm that positions the ball joint.

You got it, I did not think it would take this long!

and here are is what could happen.



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Torn the ball joint right out of the a-arm, this happened 2 blocks after I got off the freeway, doing about 10mph in stead of the 70mph moments earlier!

It was not easy. First I had to picture the part in my head. I realized it had to be small but substantial. Since it did not fasten to something, it probably had to fit into a slot and position or hold something. You also indicated it's loss was a disaster so it had to be something that was suspension, braking or powertrain. I know brakes pretty well, and a fair bit about powertrain parts so that was pretty much eliminated. I believe that later A-arms, with which I'm more familiar, have a bent tab instead of your welded tab.
The damage is impressive.

Yikes!