I bought my 914 about 2 years ago and have been working/driving it since. It's my good-weather-weekend-cruiser. The PO seemed pretty knowledgable about the car and had mostly restored it about 10 years ago. I could tell (from working on it) that he was a bodyman and not too good with electrical. He had most of the work done at a local Porsche specialty shop.

Working on the car over the weekend I was trying to find the source of a high-speed vibration from the front end. I narrowed it down to a couple of things;

1. No weights on the front rims. I can see where they were but are no longer.
2. Taper bolt that holds the ball joint to the shock was ridiculously loose on one side. I could actually see the play when moving the tire back and forth. Scary.
3. NO cotter pins on the castle nuts for the tie-rod ends on both sides! Very scary.
4. Wheel bearings loose on one side.

The moral of this story? Don't trust the PO!!

After checking all that stuff I was surprised that I hadn't managed to kill myself on one of my joy rides. Seems the PO or his mechanic did NOT know what they were doing.

I did not get a chance to test drive the car. The tires have been on it for so long I think they may be permanently flat-spotted. Not worth getting the wheels balanced as I plan on replacing the tires and getting an alignment.

I still detect a small amount of play somewhere on both front wheels. The wheel bearings are tight. No discernable play in the ball joints or tie rods. Is it common to feel some play in the steering rack itself? The play seems to be the same from both sides of the car.

Check the U-joints in the steering column under the dash to be sure they are tight. Also, check that your play isn't simply from a worn out bearing that supports the steering wheel (wiggle your steering wheel up and down to see if it has much play, and it probably does - most do). If it does, then you might be mis-judging a 'loose' steering wheel for steering play. The worn out steering wheel bearing is not really a safety issue - just an annoyance. The inner diameter of this bearing is plastic and disintegrates over time. If you are lucky, you can replace this bearing from the front of the steering column pretty easily. If you are not, then it is much more involved to get access and push it out from the rear (I was lucky so I didn't have to do it the hard way).

Demick

No play in the steering wheel. I'll have to check the u-joint and also check the steering rack bolts holding it to the body. I wouldn't be surprised if I find more things loose!

Truer words were never spoken!

After I got my '74 up in Chicago (gave a once over and drove it home from there...353 miles), my wife and I went to a little "fun run" down in SE Missouri on some of the squirreliest roads I've ever seen. On the way home I started feeling that the brakes were definitely less than acceptable, so I pulled the wheels the next day. Nothing particularly scary about the brakes, other than 'zip' for pads left. But upon removing the lug nuts I realized that the PO had used the stock steel wheel lug nuts to hold on the Empi repro rims , each lug nut had only 3-4 threads in the hub!

Here's a pic only Sir Andy could appreciate

The discolored 'blur' at the end of the larger blur (lug nut) is all that was threaded into the hub.

Oh...did I mention that my digi camera is a POS <_<

Is there a bolt in that picture?

Even Andy would look at that picture and say, "damn, that's really blurry"

give me my camera back !!!



Andy

PS.: scary stuff, the bolts i mean ...

What's sad is that this was the better of the two pics of the lug nut...My wife's birthday is Oct. 17 and she's been talking about getting a new camera.... Just in time for the FFC.