this can't be good...


Click to view attachment

Yes...it absolutely can't.

Tiger hair, some bondo and paint, it will be fine.

Not a good place to have an air gap!

DUCK TAPE CHALLENGE!

Man you cant catch a break with these cars lately can you?

:-(
Zach

Be glad you caught it. Been there & like you caught it before it was catastrophic. Really isn't to bad a fix. Pull off the ear & replace it. Then use Tangerine's reinforcement plate. Seriously good catch as much as it sucks. Could have been so much worse

Raise suspension console????

Nope, they hate us.

Unfortunately this also means no 914 for us at Okteenerfest...

I have no way to fix this myself, let alone the money at the moment...so another car is going to sit in our garage under a cover...

Dude...

It'll be fine....

Looks familiar



http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=113186

That really sucks, Huey will be sorely missed!

Major bummer.

I am sure your cars don't hate you. They just are getting older (like all of us) and as your cars get well used, (again, like all of us did once) they need some touch up work every so often. Be thankful you spotted that sitting still and not at 100 MPH in a sweeper.

This would be the equivalent to a 914 Hip Replacement

Been there myself, doesn't look like yours is entirely a result of rust though.

BTDT Drop the engine, Chris can have the reinforcement plates to you pronto...look hard at the other side & do it too. Grind the paint off & fit the plate & weld....actually goes really fast. Good luck...

Bubblegum?

Sorry to hear this, Bob. For what it's worth, it will be cheaper to fix than the motor in the other car ...

Mine was like that about 13 years ago. A welder came to my house (yes, he makes house calls) and cut out the rusted section and welded in new metal. He used one strip of metal and welded around all the curves of the suspension ear. An absolute artist. Since then I have welded Chris's reinforcement plates on myself. I am NOT an absolute welding artist but the plates were relatively easy to install.

Remove wheel. Drop trailing arm. Cut back thin steel in small sections so that replacement steel can be inserted. Where sheet steel spot welds have unzipped, drill holes so that plug weld can be used to repair. Once thin and fatigued steel in existing ear has been replaced and repaired, install the stiffener kit described above over the entire ear. strengthen any other areas on the whole suspension console that are suspected of being rusted inside. Use a metal tool and tap on the suspension console listening for the sound of full thickness sheet steel.

Once repair is made and arm and wheel are back on, jack up the other side of the car a foot or more off the ground and put that side on heavy blocks or safe jackstands. Shake the car or jump on the drivers door sill while watching rear suspension for any undesireable side motion. You should be able to convince yourself of the adequacy of the repair to the suspension console ear. Or you can choose to remove the engine and replace the entire passenger side suspension console with a new part.....a much bigger repair job....

Seems to me you could just slap some plates on Papa Smurf and drive it there...

Except Papa Smurfs engine is out of commission....again...for the 5th time in 3 years has a spun rod bearing...

Had this on my very 1st 914, fortunately it's not that difficult of an repair. Just takes some time, and thankfully we have a vendor like design restoration that makes this part.

What about Huey?

That broken suspension point IS Huey

Damnit!

I had this done for Dads car. You get the impression that all cars will have this issue eventually, especially higher HP track cars.

Good luck with the repair!

BTW - Tangerine Racing makes the dog ear plates.

SInce this car races and gets beat to hell in the hillclimbs...we're going to go with plan B - remove engine, replace the entire console, stiffening kits, etc...

Raise suspension point....talk to foley.

Do you have brace bars on the console?

Before I had brace bars on my old race car it happened twice to me
Zero times since in about 20 years of racing since adding the braces

Will someone loan him a damn teener so he can go have fun? He needs a break.

Did that on Papa Smurf, not going to do it on Huey - it actually encroaches on the 914/6 oil tank in the fender, which then needs modifying. Besides it may violate some vintage rule or something if we ever decide to make Huey a full vintage race car.


Currently no, but soon to be yes!

I'm thinking we're going to replace the console, then get the entire reinforcement kits from Chris, complete with brace. and while everything's off, we may just go all the way and replace the shocks with Koni adjustables. I have no clue how old the shocks on there now are - Forbes just found a set laying around and we put them on back in 2006 for Targa Newfoundland.

Thanks Bill....we'll probably just be driving our daily driver for the event.

It's very repairable. And although a lot of work it's nothing As pricey as a motor
Yes do the whole console
You can drill the spot welds out and prep for the welding even if you pay someone else to weld.

Sorry
But it's going to be great when your done!

Yeah, I know...timing just sucks. No 914 for Okteenerfest
We've spent a ton of time organizing this thing, and the feature for this year is the GT/471 versions and clones. Huey would fit in that and I've had a lot of people over the past months very interested in seeing the car.

Plus...we've had a fuel cell developed by Fuel Safe that fits into the stock location, but holds a lot more than the Patrick cell (14 vs 10 gallons). It's currently in Huey so I wanted to show it off a bit. We'll be selling it once we work on one or two final details...

oh well...

its been a bad car year
hang in there.
sorry about this

*almost* always happens with race tires and no reinforcement...

what kinda disturbs both of us is that neither of us felt anything wrong. You would think that with it broken that bad, that it would have affected the handling dramatically. But neither of us noticed...and I ran my fasted run of the weekend - actually ever in Huey - on my last run. Nadine took the last 2 runs of the weekend and had her best times too! That CERTAINLY didn't just happen getting on and off the trailer...

strange..

Maybe it gave you some serious negative camber like this 914!

Jeff B

Click to view attachment

Just put it on a trailer and take it with you. I know you can't drive it but it will still show nice. Maybe stick some duct tape on it just to drive the purists crazy....

I know you didn't want to bring a trailer but...

EDIT: of course, then you would have to drive your truck on Friday

Exactly...no thanks...
I'd stay home before I did that.

Just swap your motors . Easy peasy

Sorry for your luck bud. Hell your making me feel lucky

I have been able to get too much negative camber on my car without any pick up point modifications.

we had -3.5 and had to reduce it down to -2.6 to get the car to brake again in a straight line

Bob,
I know you are a bit down right now, but remember.... these are 40+ year old cars and we have definitely advanced tire technology since then. That means the extra load is going to break things.

As for your 914s hating you... Join the club buddy.

My six is down with a crack in the left engine case. It runs great, but I cant' drive it because it leaves a huge oil slick and will run out of oil in 30 minutes .... 12quarts.

If anyone has a lead on one, I am looking for a 964 engine to put in my car (can you say 4.0L flat six?)

Betty's 914 was making a weird noise. I got a second opinion from Ed Mayo, and he agreed with what I was thinking. The rivets in the cam gear had come loose. So I dropped her motor, and pulled the oil pump. You could see the rivets had come loose, the holes were elongated so much you can see them past the rivet heads. So I split the case. Now i found that the intake lobes on the cam had 3.5mm different lifts, and the exhaust lobes had 1.5mm difference in lift.

The new Raby 9590 cam kit is sitting in the living room (It's good to have a 914 loving wife), and today I get to spend cleaning dirty engine parts in the parts washer. Tomorrow after I get home from work I will be working on her engine.

It probably won't get put back in until after Rennsport. But I keep in mind things like looking over at you and Nadine in Huey at the end of the first tour on the Dragon last year, and saying "Damn that was fun!". That keeps me going.


(Yes, I work Sundays all the f*cking time, plus 60+ hour weeks. That's why I have not been on here lately)

And I am going to learn from you. I am getting a set of the control arm stiffening plates for Igor before I go to the 4.0L motor.



If I was in your position, I would have dropped the motor out of Huey and put it in Papa Smurf to take to Okteenerfest. Just put Huey's license plate on Papa Smurf and drive.

Or you could have gone to a local place that wraps cars and had a wrap done for the 911 that looked like Huey......

Clay...good to hear from you...and sorry about your problems too! Misery loves company!

Regarding the engine into Papa Smurf...not even close to possible. Papa is WAY too low and WAY too not street legal. 2" off the ground, no passenger seat or lights, and everything has been modified for a 915 trans vs. a 901. Oh, and Hoosier slicks...and I think the big wing would draw attention? and no windows...and different computer systems (Huey is stock 3.2 Motronic, Papa is DTA Fast ECU)
..would be easier to fix Huey than do all that in 1 day.

OK, so the work is getting started this week at Black Forest Racing. Their guy Jeff over there has been doing tons of 914 repair/fab work over the years, originally came from Crawford Composites (look them up). His work is top notch...a lot of 914 owners in the Southeast have had work done by him...since 914's ALL seem to need SOME chassis fab work...

So we are replacing the entire inner console (BIG Thank's to Restoration Design!!) and reinforcing it all with the kits from Tangerine Racing (Thanks Chris!)

We plan to use Huey for a SCCA Time Trial at Roebling Road in mid November with me and Nadine having a shot at Southeast Div Championship 1st and 2nd in GT2 class. Wish we had Papa Smurf, but hopefully Huey will be up to the task...

Great! Glad to hear the problem is being corrected. Good luck.