currently locking mechanism broken*, if one never planned to park on a hill, should one bother fixing it?

as an anti-theft device, the steering wheel can be unlocked if enough force is used (I've done it by cranking on the wheel without too much effort)

*can turn wheel with key out of ignition

the only thing that'd bother me is if one day the broken bits decided to come together in such a way that they jam the wheel. Murphy says this will happen at high speed in traffic, or on the track. if you KNOW that the failure mode makes this kind of thing impossible, i can't see what it'd be doing for you -- hills or no.

the steering lock isn't supposed to activate until the key is removed - so i always thought. frankly i just don't remember if that's how the 914.6 lock works (although i do know my Euro didn't have one ...)

my '71 911 is locking the wheel with the key in the switch but turned off - that caused a bit of an issue the day i had to switch off with the key 'cause the throttle stuck ...

i figured since it was broken, I'd eliminate any chance of "the little bits" getting jammed by moving the ignition switch to the correct location off to the left side of the dash

Mike: Always hated the locking steering, and many other of the governmnet mandated features of new cars. i have the habbit of turning off the engine and coasting into my parents driveway in my older cars, (worked great in high school days while quitely sneeking in late past curfew). I once was driving a car with locking steering, and tried that trick and almost crashed!

As far as locking the wheel for parking on a hill, do not worry about it. Cars with no locking steering can curb the wheels just fine, youd have to roll a good distance before the wheels straighten out. The locking steering is purely a anti theft device, and as you have found, is of marginal value.

I would be concerned as the other writer mentioned, that the broken piece might fall into the wrong place at the wrong time, and cause a crash, so i would pull the steering wheel, and get the broken bit out of there, then put it back together, and never mind fixxing it.

Locking steering to me is as useful as seat belt buzzers, and starter interuption unless clutch is depressed (as on friends mazda truck) this by the way is hard on the thrust on main bearing (pressure on bearing when clutch depressed, before oil pressure is built up)

At anyrate, get the broken piece out of there, and you will be just fine. For theft protection, get a big bad dog or buy a gun!

By the way, did you get the 1.8 running yet????

dave

Hey Dave....

nope the 1.8 is not running yet, it is installed into the car....I broke an exhaust stud on the original 1.8 heads, so I installed re-built 2.0 heads on the 1.8 motor....then I had two exhaust studs pull out of the head while I was installing the stub pipes of the header.....

today I will heli-coil and re-install some brand new studs in that one particular head. The other two studs came fairly easy.....

my '70 didn't have the locking thing when i bought it.
never missed it.

now that i have a '73 column, i have the locking.
i got used to it, don't know if it is any useful ...
<_< Andy

btw, when i took the '70 column apart, the main shaft didn't have the steel "sleeve" with the slot on it, so, it looked like it never had a locking mechanism from the factory ...

Andy

Has anyone done this before?

yeah, about 3300 of them came that way from the factory.

Andy

Lemme first say this, I am a NOOBIE.

Now that thats out of the way, what 914s come with the left side ignition? The only 914 Ive really ever been in or seen in any extent is my 73 2.0... I was in a '70 -6, but I was a passenger.

welcome.

1970 and 1971 (which is to say almost all of them) 914.6 had ignition on the left side of the dash -- which is as expected since they used 911 columns and were built on the 911 line in Zuffenhausen.

I deliberately removed the lock on my car, which I think is required by some santioning groups but regardless seemed like a good idea anyway.

If you ever need to suddenly turn off the engine at speed (i.e. fire, engine grenade, crash) then you DON'T want to lose steering! That was more my concern than failure/jamming of the lock, but I guess in a 30 year old car that could happen too.

With the locking column, you can still turn off the car and steer, just don't remove the key...at least that's how my car works

My locking colum is finicky. But I know the trick. Just give it a little downward pressure when I remove it. Kinda pulls the lock in place, then it'll lock, and I release the pressure and take out the key!

Kinda nifty.

First time I figured it out I was like "Woah, Sweeeeet!!!!"

lol

Every sanctioning body that I have every raced with has required that the locking mechanism be removed as a safety issue.

My old 1970 914-4 wheel never locked since i owned it second hand. Do not know if it ever did. But what did happen is the lock cylinder one day decided to fall out while driving. If it had been a locking type, I might have been in trouble on the road.

Good point about emergency shut off in case of fire (need to turn off fuel pump with key)

dave

yupp, same on my now '73 column ...

as long as you leave the key in there, it won't lock. you can turn it off all you want, you have to remove the key before it will lock up ...

Andy