Started out the day with this:

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and ended up ordering one of these:

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As I said in my last post, the engine was running inconsistent and continued to consistently be inconsistent. It would start find and come up to a nice idle speed as it warmed up, then idle nice and smooth and rev very freely for awhile. After running about 15 minutes or so, it would start misfiring and drifting. Idle would slowly climb as high as 1500 rpm or drop below 500. Not hunting. More like drifting. It would misfire and run rough and the tach needle bounce all over. So many possibilities for problems, I decided to simplify and pull the dizzy and plug the NOS 050 dizzy I bought 35 years ago. I had to also swap out the coil and grabbed an old beat up one out of the parts bin. Trying to set the static timing, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting any voltage until I noticed I had forgotten to plug in the condenser to the coil. I quickly plugged in in the the coil, forgetting that I had rotated this coil 180 from the one I just pulled and plugged the condenser right into the positive side. Of course the points wire glowed red hot and burnt in half.

I then scavenged a crappy set of points and a condenser from a spare dizzy, got the static timing set and cranked the engine. Nothin'. Cranked again, still nothin'. I tried incrementally rotating the dizzy to advance the timing a little at a time. No go. I tested the coil and found the primary winding had too high of resistance, so I swapped in the one other coil I had which tested fine. Still nothin' WTF? Checked and double checked the points gap. Nope. Pulled #1 spark plug. Yeah, there is spark. Well shit. I decided to throw the Pertronix in so back in went the Flamethrower coil. Crank, crank, crank, nothin'. Screw that. I went inside for a break to think on it a bit. Then it hit me. I'll bet I set up the dizzy 180 off.

After relaxing for a bit, I went out and checked. Sure as , I set everything up for TDC on the exhaust stroke. What a dumbass dipshit. Well crap, the Pertronix is already in there, so I reset the timing and wiring for TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke. Crank, crank, VROOM! Well there is a morning I'll never get back. Anyway, I dialed in the carbs again and had it idling steady at ~750-800 rpm and the Tach seems as smooth as I ever remember it. Every now and then I see it drop a note on idle, but otherwise smooth. It revs okay but has a small hesitation coming off of idle. Not as bad as the flat spot of a 009, but a much shorter version of that. It would be drivable, but that isn't good enough. I want that quick response I was getting with the vacuum advance.

To be honest, the stock dizzy I tried has a pretty sketchy history. It was rather flaky all the years I drove this car. It left me and the wife stranded for nearly a full day in McKinney, TX once while my brother and I chased down what turned out to be a thrown centrifugal advance spring. That was fun to figure out. I was hoping a good cleaning and lubrication would restore it to serviceable condition, but given that the Pertronix seems to be working just fine in the 050, I guess not. I'm 99% sure the dizzy I ordered is the exact unit sold as the "Pertronix SVDA" but with conventional points. I already have a Pertronix and they have gotten rather spendy recently, so I'll just swap my module into this $60 dizzy.

In other news, my NOS heater flapper bolt finally arrived all the way from Latvia.

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Now I know how to finish the other bolt that was donated to the cause by @brant when I replate it and the barrel connectors for the cables.

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I also picked up my brand new Mom's Service Cover from Perry Kiel today So happy to have this little beauty.

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Finally, a couple long overdue pics of @mb911 's quiet muffler installed. I can't really say how it sounds yet since I've only run the engine with the engine lid and air box removed. The racket from the engine and carbs is way too loud and I am hopeful once everything is buttoned up, the exhaust note from muffler will be mostly what is heard. I do like the look of heat tempered SS though.

Speaking of air box, I should probably do something about that. I wonder if I could just trim the rain tray to make it fit

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Sounds as though today was a good day. Near victory

Gettin' low

I only got a half day in the shop today but made good progress. Here's how to do something the right way and not the lame-ass way some of you tried to get me to do... and you know who you are...

I'm speaking of course, about that air cleaner. The original design nestled the air box bracket down as low as possible and still clear the CSP carb linkage tucked underneath. Of course, that wasn't low enough so there is only ONE solution. Lower the linkage. Here's the partially disassembled center pivot.

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And here is the bracket filleted like a fish.

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And here it is put back together the way Picasso might have done it.

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This drops the pivot mechanism a little over an inch. Everything at this stage is just rough ground and tacked together as there is a lot of trial fitting that needs to be done before moving forward. That triangle void at the bottom will get filled to restore structural integrity. Here it is back in the car to make sure everything works as it should and there are no issues. We have clearance Clarence

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That's looking good, now it's time to chop down that cleaner bracket a bit more. I need to weld the feet back on, but this will work for test fitting.

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Engine cover back in place and air box clipped in. Notice how nice and unmolested that rain tray looks.

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Now for the big moment. Drum roll please......................

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To see how much clearance I have, I plopped a lump of modeling clay on the high point of the air box and shut the lid. The clay compressed down to about 1/2" thickness. That's just about perfect I think.

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Of course, dropping the air box but not the carbs changed the geometry, so I now have a gap on the outer edges of the carb intakes roughly equivalent to the depth I dropped the box.

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But I have a plan. We'll see if it works.

Very nicely done.

The devil is in the details, keep up the good work.

First drive?

Kind of a big day today. She's (almost) street legal!!!!

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I'll describe the process for getting the tags because I think it might get under the skin of some of you Californians from what I've read.

Strolled into the DMV a little after 4pm today with a Kansas Non-Highway title that probably should have been transferred when moved almost 20 years ago. I've learned that a "non-highway" title is a weird little beast that AFAIK, only Kansas has. If you have a functioning and otherwise street legal vehicle that you are not driving, you can opt to title it as non-highway which waives the need to carry insurance or pay annual registration. A no-brainer for a car that was disassembled into boxes and the chassis was half rust, but I was nervous that Montana would interpret it as a salvage title.

The woman who helped me had never seen one before. After asking a few questions, it was clear she understood that this was not a salvage title. She conferred with a co-worker, looked up the Kansas title code, and came back with the appropriate affidavits and other paperwork for a smooth title transfer. Then she took it upon herself to hand select a set of tags that ended in "73." How's that for service? I paid a total of $124 and walked out with a set of permanent tags - meaning I'll never have to pay registration or taxes on this car again as long as I'm a Montana resident. I should have a copy of the new title in 4-6 weeks. Total time spent from walking in the courthouse door? 35 minutes.

Is that the way it works elsewhere?

Now that is the way it should in all states. Congratulations on a milestone.

Umm well some of it. Here its $220 for life time collector plate and no registration needed ever again but can't drive in January. You can also have non op title which is what I am wrestling with for my 928. Cool that you can do that at the courthouse though.

Oh, I forgot to mention that too. That is a standard MT plate with no driving restrictions. Several years ago they decided to go retro with the standard plate design, so no special plate. Just a permanent tag on a regular plate. For an extra $30, I could have gotten this period correct antique plate for a car not to be used for general transportation:



Wait, what!?

Nice story, Brent. We are in sync on getting a new title. I also did that this week, after being negligent for about 18 months. Here's the Colorado way, for a new title and with the vehicle coming from out of state:

1. Get the VIN inspected. For a running vehicle, that can happen at the county tax (DMV) office. For a 914 with no drive train, that requires an official home visit. In Durango, the city police department sent a certified technician on Monday morning. He brought a form pre-printed with the info I gave him when he called before arriving.

2. Take the VIN form and the old title to the county office around 11:45, take a number, and wait for about 20 minutes.

3. Go to the designated window, turn in the paperwork and my ID, explain that I want a title only--no registration or plates yet (why pay for the months I still need before I get to drive it).

4. Sign the title application and pay about $450, and at 12:30 walk out with my Colorado title. Pretty good service here, too.


BTW, why such a big, complicated plate number? I thought only about 100 people live in Montana. How many cars do each of you own?

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I had a marginally more demanding process to get this titled and registered with the last pink (out of state) signed in 1998 to my (now deceased) grandmother and never registered between. A record of custodianship from 1948 was beneficial.

Sore subject. We are the fastest growing region in the country right now and it isn't good.


Is that the rare Willys that used a 914 spare tire hold down?

Another update. Yesterday I welded up the modified linkage bracket.

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It's no longer completely stainless steel so I gave it a good coat of paint tonight along with the cut down cleaner bracket. These are ready to go back in tomorrow.

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It may yet be.


The nearby license plate light is also considered.

Got the newly lowered carb linkage pivot and air cleaner bracket installed today. And hooked up the accelerator cable.

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I had the cable made 4 inches longer than stock based on advice here. That length works well for connecting to a CSP carb linkage using stock routing except for one thing. It is not long enough to loop through the orange loop strap bolted to the ECU bracket. I'm going to order another cable 8" longer than stock and keep this one for a spare.

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Now the air cleaner is nestled properly down in the engine bay. Just need to adjust the intakes to make everything work.

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I'm noticing we're on page 99 of this absurd journey and @tygaboy laid down a challenge that had something to do with that. I don't know which way he wagered, but time to find out if he won a bet.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUCpNfdk-cg


Just a short trip across the road to show off the car to the neighbor, but I now have one mile on the odometer. Still no windshield and need to give it a good alignment, but I'll say I am impressed with how smooth the engine is running. To the extent I dared goose it on my gravel driveway, it feels pretty torquey too, and Ben's muffler sounds really mellow from inside the cockpit. Looking forward to hearing how it sounds with the air cleaner fully installed.

Oh. Since this was the first time this car has moved under its own power since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, I suppose I should do something like this.

Thats just plain awesome. Congrats!

Congratulations! You're living the dream.

Congrats. Now you know why they call that thing a windshield. When I got my first 914 running it did not have the windshield installed either. Come to think of it there is no comparison. We have paved roads and I got up to 45 before I realized the importance of these things. Enjoy.

Awesome achievement, Brent. That must be a hell of a good feeling. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

......and they said it couldn’t be done. Tsk, tsk.

A monumental moment in a monumental journey!

Next time, see if you can get it into third...it’s a great gear.

Congratulations, Brent! Sounds good!
You even had an assistance dog with you on your first drive to clear the road.

Well done Brent! Congrats! What an accomplishment. Brought a smile to my face. Really happy for ya.

Wow.

Driveway and road look great! I guess you didn't get any Beaver. I only wish the Idaho access road looked that good.

Congratulations. Sounds nice. Fuch the windshield - jut put on a pair of ski goggles and get er' down to the freeway! Head East away from town. It's probalby legal in Montana anyway. And even if it isn't, what the chance that the long arm of the law would even notice if you drove right past?

Thats what I did with my 1st 914-6.. was like riding a motorcycle with no helmet.

Congratulations Brent. It still made me cringe that you drive it on dirt/gravel roads, but I could get over that. I think your dog as very happy to see it driving too.

Great accomplishment and documentation

It has been a long journey and I'm sure the feeling of driving it must be great, along with the sense of accomplishment. Well done! Looking forward to more driving videos and pictures in different settings out and about. Congrats

Brent - Running/driving before the 100 page mark... You did it!
What a journey you're taken us on. We can't hardly wait for to see glimpses into the journey your 914 takes you on.

Big congrats, well earned and well, WELL done, my friend.

So Cool! Congrats on keeping the project going. So close to taking it out on the open road!

Brent buddie,

You are almost done with your car. Congratulations coming out to you and your wife.
When you first showed your car, I suggested that you find a car will much less rust.
Well you showed quite a skill set and also taught us a little on Montana and a bit on the restoration of a car that has a lot of meaning to you and your wife.

I want to say bravo Brent. It really came out nice. I like that you just went for it. Some of us have the “ I can do this even if I am not 100% sure where it is going” You just did it. Your build is very memorable and looks great and you should be very proud of it.

All the best to you and your wife.

Bob B

Wow Brent! It was great to see your ride under its own power. I want to thank you for taking the time to post your journey. I have referred to it often to educate myself on how to do things the right way. And many of the projects you were able to accomplish, I would not think about or have the skill set to attempt , like flocking the glove box, wrapping the steering wheel, painting your whole car, fabricating a cup holder out of a ash tray, etc, etc.
I hope to have mine on the road soon as well.

Cheers
John

I feel honored to be the first post on page 100

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I am truly humbled. And fitting that you were the one to kick us over to page 100 John. Your build is in that top tier. Let's be clear about the flocking though, that's all @raynekat . Heck, Doug even sent me his flocking kit. I didn't even know the glove box was flocked, but now it's one of the first things I show off. Yes, almost everyone looks at me like I'm crazy, but we get it.

I have to admit that I was feeling a bit of regret over yesterday's drive. I really didn't expect the car to be running so smoothly already. From dead cold the thing just barks to life and idles low and smooth. The throttle is buttery smooth at low rpms and I just want to take it the 3 miles out to pavement and put my foot in it. I did get some good news today. I called my windshield guy again and told him I'd be willing to drive to Billings or similar to pick up the glass. He called back and said he can get it delivered to Helena if I'm willing to pick it up. Hey, it's only a couple hundred miles, so heck yeah!

So back to the engine tune. The new SVDA dizzy arrived today so that will go in tomorrow. I know there is still work ahead to dial in this engine but it sure seems like it's off to a good start. Yesterday's drive just kicked my excitement into high gear but I need to not get ahead and skip important details.

“ Just a short trip across the road to show off the car to the neighbor, but I now have one mile on the odometer.”

Awesome! Incredible! Such determination and persistence. This thread is golden. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Funny thing about how meaningful it is Bob. When I was bumping up the insurance to full coverage, the Haggerty agent asked if I wanted the "cherished salvage" option. After explaining what that was, I told her that I've had this car most of my life, but I'm not sure I cherish it "that much" and declined. Maybe I'll feel different after building some new memories with it, but at this point, it is still just a machine.

Happy May from Montana everyone. Yes, same driveway I drove the car on in 70 degree weather 2 days ago

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Wow. If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute...

Brent.....I think you could either go this route:

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I know you've got the engineering chops for this.
Or if you need to fund your project a bit, you could go this direction:

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Either way, I'll support it and be your biggest fan.
Ha

Oh man I want... no NEED... a 911 snow plow!!!!!

Why stop at snow plow......make it a road grader.

I was just trying to help.

@BB, very informative (long) thread. How is she running?

Couple Q's, are you running Weber 40 IDF wit 28mm venturis? vacuum advance dist?

thank you

I was going to reply to your other thread but don't have much to report just yet. Yes, 40 IDFs with 28 venturis. Bear in mind that the only actual driving I've done was that short little trip at low speeds across to the neighbor and back, so no real road testing.

The first dizzy I installed was the stock 2.0L DJet dizzy with the FI trigger points removed and blocked off and both vacuum advance and retard hooked up. I really think that would be a good dizzy for my cam which is just a little longer duration from stock. I'm pretty sure it has a bad centrifugal advance spring though which was causing it to run inconsistent.

The dizzy in there now is a full centrifugal 050 which I think would be a pretty good dizzy. There is a slight hesitation just off idle, but nothing compared to the insufferable flat spot from the 009s I ran on another 914 and a VW Bus. However, I'd like to do better than just tolerable so I now have this Pertronix SVDA waiting to go in. Hopefully I can report at least a little on it after this weekend.

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Of course, not being one who is easily satisfied, I'm thinking of sending my stock dizzy in for rebuild and give it another go.

Thanks, we are not far behind. Is it possible your hesitation is coming from the initial spark timing being retarded? When do you plan to get her out for an Italian tune up?

NO! That's a perfectly good donor car.







What does the snail (AFM) read at warm idle?

It's running pretty steady at 7 on both sides IIRC. Will double check before pulling the 050. When I say slight hesitation, it is very slight and don't know how noticeable it would be while driving, but suspect maybe more when the car is under load. I did not notice it at all in my little drive across the road even when I stepped on it a little coming up my steep driving. When I notice hesitation is with the car idling in neutral and I rev it quickly to something near WOT, and even then, I might not have noticed it if it hadn't been a back to back comparison with the stock dizzy with vacuum advance connected. That one snapped the advance up the instant the throttle opened.

My understanding is that centrifugal advance will never respond respond to increased load and the 050 is better than 009 in that the centrifugal advance kicks in at lower rpm to eliminate the flat spot. Still learning though.

A Tale of Three Dizzies

Let's start where I left off, with this SVDA dizzy.



First I'll mention that little spring on the right. That is a return spring for the CSP carb linkage. I decided to add it because the springs on the carbs are a little soft. Adding this spring gave me a much nicer peddle feel and more certainty the carbs will fully close.

The SVDA is Chinese made and seems to be decent quality, but not great and it is no Bosch. Per recommendations, I took it apart to clean and lube. Mine was really clean inside but there was zero lubricant between the advance plates and they had a bit of a gritty feel to the action so I gave them a very thin smear of high temp grease. There was a rubber plug instead of the felt lubricating plug at the top of the shaft and they had squirted a little silicone grease in there. I didn't like the look of it so put a drop of oil in and transfered over the oil soaked felt pad from my old dizzy. I also transferred the dust cover (because it says "Germany") and the rotor I modified to remove the resistor so the high output coil won't fry it. Finally, the new dizzy has a chintzy looking O-ring so I transferred the D-shaped seal from the old dizzy. Then I switched them back after I discovered the new dizzy is machined just different enough that the OEM seal won't work. Oh, and of course the points and condenser came out and were replaced with the Pertronix Ignitor III.

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Plugged the new dizzy in, fired up the engine, set the timing, and then tried to redial the carbs. Couldn't get the engine to idle for shit. It ran every bit as crappy as it did with the stock dizzy. This time I could tell for sure the ignition was missing badly and could see it on the timing light. I could dial the carbs in to get the engine to idle smoothly at about 950 except for occasional misfires, and then the idle would drop until the engine nearly stalled. I f-d around with various things for about 2 hours and the said "fuch it" and moved the Pertronix back to the 050 and plugged it back in. Plugged it in EXACTLY on perfect timing and after de-fuching the carbs from the previous adjustment, had it purring like a kitten and revving like a tiger. It was running so nicely, I decided to drive it down to the beaver ponds (yes, that is a thing here) and back. Damn I need to get this thing on some pavement. I can tell that this engine wants to SCOOT!

I'm going to stick with the 050 for now but will fiddle with dizzies again. Because the Pertronix is running so well in the 050, I had ruled it out as the problem on the stock unit. I'm rethinking that now. Either I have two bad dizzies which seems unlikely given one is brand new, or the Ignitor just isn't playing well in them. This latest version doesn't use a magnet ring like the earlier two, and doesn't have an adjustment for the air gap. Instead they just using the dizzy cam lobes themselves to trigger the Hall effect, but I'm now suspecting these are more sensitive to air gap than the engineers thought. Oh well, a mystery to solve at a later time.

I posted this in another thread, but in the middle of all this, I had to get gas for the car and a neat thing happened. Went to Livingston to pick up 5 gallons of petrol to put in my teener. As I pulled on the frontage road at Livingston, I passed a Montana Whizzer. That is a guy standing full frontal facing the road whizzing away with Johnson in full view. For reasons that are not clear to me, this is not an uncommon sight along the roads around here. That was the most interesting part of the trip until I was near home and pulled over to pick up our paper at the frontage road just as the same red 914 I spotted on this same road last fall pulled off I-90 to turn onto the same road. I pulled up next to him and told him I had a 914 too but I'm not sure he could hear over his engine. He said this was his fantasy drive and started telling me the route he likes to drive. Then a car pulled up behind and he had to go. Good to know he is a regular so hopefully we'll cross paths again while I'm driving mine. Sadly, I had left my cell phone at home so again, no pic.

The other project I've been working on is the air intakes. I said I had a plan, and here it is.

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Slice the can open like I'm giving it a face lift. To drop the outer edges down about the one inch that was needed, only required trimming about a quarter inch on the back side to bring the whole thing into the correct plane. Then it is a matter of stitching them up.

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Geometry 101, if you flatten an arc, the distance between the end points increases. And that's exactly what happened when I lowered the air box to bring it closer to the same height as the carbs. There is enough adjustment in the center mount that I could shift it all to the right side, but I had to chop off the inner end of that right intake and rebuild it to shorten it.

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Then there was the matter of fixing the interference with the right intake with the trunk torsion rod. Here was my solution.

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This also required relocating one of the spring clips.

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After dressing all the scars and fresh coats of paint, it is back in the car and I'm just going to say it. It looks BITCH'IN

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And yes, the engine lid closes WITH the unmolested rain tray in place.

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I'll have to take some sound measurement with and without but for now I will say that there is a lot less whoosh and clatter and what you hear from inside the car is almost entirely exhaust note. Ben's muffler becomes the star of the show and it sounds totally badass. The engine has more of a woof and a growl with the intakes on. I'm going to be honest though, it is too loud for me. Ninety-nine percent of you guys would love the sound of this muffler, but if I can find something quieter, I will probably switch. When I pulled up next to that 914 today, my first thought was "goddammit that car is fuching loud!" I'll have to spend some time with it though. I will say that driving down the road slowly with the top off, the sound was not at all unpleasant and I had no trouble hearing the radio. I just need more seat time but as far as I'm concerned, the fewer mechanical decibels there are in this world, the better.

One last thing. These have been on back order for so long that I can't remember when I ordered them, but the rear tail light lens seals came from AA this week. I don't say this often (or ever) about AA reproductions, but I'm very pleased with these.

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The news seals are so plump compared to the old dried out ones that I used a screen spline tool to roll them into the grooves before installation. This helped a lot getting the lenses to seat properly.

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Looks bitchin, keep it goin.
Thanks for posting

Here's the possibilities that I see.

1) Montana closed too many rest areas. I don't know if it was due to the Rona or just an opportunity for Montana to try to save money in the winter. When I passed though in March nearly every rest area along I-90 in Montana was closed. Other states on my route have not closed thier rest areas like Montana did.

2) Not enough trees to hide behind? That area is a bit barren along the highway!

3) Trolling for Beaver?


Car is looking great. Distributor and Pertronix woes are a mystery to me. Your experiences make points seem even more attrative to me.