tonight I spent about an hour under the car putting the alternator tin back in place and getting the thermostat bolted in.

As I was fishing a string down the hole in the tin for the thermostat wire, on a whim I jiggled the flaps arm. It was stuck. It is stuck. Feeling in with my fingers from the no2 spark plug hole, I can feel that it is open, but it is not moving.

Is there a way I can diagnose and fix this without pulling the engine? I have this horrible feeling that if I pull the motor the chances of me driving the Porsche this summer are slim and none.

But, on the other hand the carbs are off, fuel is already disconnected - its the right time if I had to do it. And I could find that pesky oil seep in the front of the engine.

I know what I SHOULD do. I just really do not want to do it. :-( I have so little time these days to work on the car.

Zach

I was reading some threads on this recently..I recall open was fine?Just shitty when cold..I do drink beer on occasion,so dont take my word for it.
Cheers!

I have been running with the flaps open for the past few years.
I decided that since I was moving from headers to exchangers I wanted to have a functional thermostat.

Zach

I was looking at some spare parts this last week, and noticed that if the whole flap unit gets shifted towards the driver side, the passenger side arm fall out of alignment with the slot in the fan housing, preventing the arm from moving. try sliding the whole flap unit towards the passenger side of the car. This might fix your problem...

I imagine that the thermostatic cooling setup is to help warm up those cylinders quickly to match the exspansion rate of the piston's inside. This I imagine is more to help that little aircooled beasty last that much longer.

DO NOT PULL THE MOTOR!!!

I forbid you.






Drive it damnit

If you have the carbs off, it's a matter of removing all the attaching screws to remove the cylinder covers. Once they are off, the cooling flaps are exposed on both sides.

You decide ....

This option is tempting. I should have an hour this evening to work. I hope. Took morning duty with little guy to have the evening off.

Zach

And indont want to upset Joe. He will kick my ass.

The linkage on the pass. side. (1 & 2) can get bound up it it tried to move the wrong way. Just pull that side and you'll fix it.

Brain fart. I meant the 3 & 4 side.

I knew what you meant. The linkage was my initial guess as well. Turned out that the pass side flap was cocked under the lower tin. No way it was going to move. Removing that big tin with the engine in the car was a bitch. Taking a post thunderstorm rest before i try to replace everything.
Zach

The driver's side tin is worse, IMHO. Working it around the dipstick tube is always a pain, even with the motor out...

--DD

I got the flaps functional and the tin back in. Fixed a tin sealing problem that had been pestering me while I was at it.

How much tension should the flaps be under?
The spring is wound fairly tight. Should the flaps move easily, or should you have to put some force on the lever? I may have put too many winds on the spring when I put the flaps into place.

Zach

You did it right.
The last twist makes it tough to get the spring onto the little stop.
Cant wind it past the right amount and it wont do a damn thing unwound one rotation....so you are ok.

Rich

You'd know if it was wrong.

Great work!

Cool. I have a feeling it was wound too loose before which lead to the flaps failing closed and me disabling the thermostat in the first place several years ago.

Any tricks on getting the therostat wire into place single handed?

Zach

I just re-attached the thermo cable this past Friday. Fish something down the tin and connect it to the cable. Bring it back up and wrap it around the set screw on the flap cross bar. Easy Peasy. You shouldn't have that much trouble doing that seeing that I can do it.

I meant to remind you to not get the cable wrapped behind the little pully above the thermostat.

I dropped a solid straight steel rod used to hold up insulation and tapped the thermostat wire to it and pulled it up.A coat hanger would work too.

connect the rear end to the ts, use a piece of masking tape across wheel to keep the wire secure in the little metal wheel, pull the loose end up with a piece of small gauge wire.

k

So, for the past several weeks I have been in the process of replacing my thermostat. It was a DWD "while your in there" type deal. And I only get an hour a week to play with my car, usually - and some of that time is spend dicking around while I recall where I left things last week.... So it has taken a while. Tonight I got the cable attached.

And a few moments later watched it snap! DAMMIT!

My thermostat is functional. Can you replace the cable?
I need to move past the thermostat and just get the car driving, but I am fixated on getting the damn thermostat functional.

Can I get just a new cable? I am so bleeding close here! And my garage hour is up.

Zach

Yes, you can get a new cable. Unscrew the attachment nut from the end of the t-stat; you'll see the cable is just a length of cable with something wide on the end to keep it from slipping out of the hole in the attachment nut. I am told you can get a very good substitute for this cable from your friendly local bicycle shop.

--DD

Zach, just went thru this last week. My first attempt I used some stranded picture hanging wire (which I had in my garage). I found that it was too soft and was breaking after a few cycles. I heat gun works great to test one. Anyway I used a piece of avaition grade cable the second time around. Works great.
Click to view attachment

To clean it up a bit I covered the splice with 2 layers of heat shrink tube. Just be sure that the splice is short enough that it doesn't interfer at the tin or the attach point.
Click to view attachment

Zach you can scavenge my 2.0 in the Garage. I believe it has the thermostat still bolted on. If not I probally have it in a box.

I am at work, but if you really need it NOW .... I can call the wife


Then we would be even for the Zuchini

Hang in there Zach...it will all be worth it to have a functional heating system again!

Bob

Zach...I think it is time

Pfft! I'd find a way to keep even a Miata on jackstands. It would need a turbo and green paint and and and I'm better off just keeping the 914 and pretending that sometimes I get to drive it.

Zach

Play Nice!

Dave Darling is the MAN.
I had a spare brake cable for my mountain bike. It was a bit long but worked like charm once trimmed. It's a thicker cable and has a sheath to keep it from rubbing against the tins. The thermostat is now attached!

so you are driving it right now???

Well, I'm at work right now.
Stl have to attach the muffler and do the carbs. Might be drivable by Sunday though if I ignore work that needs to be done aroundthe house.