I have this cool P-A dealership book from 1973 that indicates suggested repair times aimed primarily at dealership repairs and warranty work. Covers every assembly on the car. This would be a great resource for you guys who wrench on 914s for a living. Was reviewing this today and noted the following times in minutes for the 914/4 (it also indicates times for the 914/6):

360 Remove and reinstall engine and transaxle (incl disconnect/reconnect wiring, control cables, hoses, drive shafts, disconnect/reconnect transaxle from/to engine, check/adjust dwell, timing and idle.
30 Check complete fuel injection (uses VW tester and includes ECU R/R)
70 R/R all four injectors
240 Replace alternator (with engine installed)
220 R/R transaxle (with engine installed, incl. R/R muffler

I am pretty sure I can beat at least some of their times, how about you?

Whats your guess on how long it says it takes to replace the main wiring? (chassis harness)

I think it was +/- 40 hours or so.

That binder was known as "The Billing Bible" at some of the SoCal P+A dealerships back in the day Jeff!


Tom
///////

And people wonder why 914s never get finished

I'd love a pdf if you have time. It would be fun to look thru.

I would like to know the time to adjust valves in a factory -6. Did that include 'cooling off' time since they weren't supposed to be done hot.
Think that goes for the -4's also.

Post your best guess on these and I’ll look it up and post the times.

Too high Tom. To swap the chassis harness is 20 hours time.

360... what does that mean? Is it hours or minutes?

Clay

Damn.. can't believe I missed the "in minutes" in your post.



6 hours to remove and reinstall the motor and trans? I can easily beat that. I can have the motor/trans out of the car in 30 minutes. And I can put it back in about an hour. Maybe 90 minutes if I take my time.

I can change a clutch in about 90 minutes too.

But I am a retired pro mechanic. Beating the book was how I made my living for years.


Clay

Clay, how long would it take you to do a valve adjustment on a /4 and /6?

About 1.5 hours on a 4, and longer on a six. I prefer to drop the motor on the six and do other maintenance on it at the same time, like oil change and fan belt replacement.

HA! For a valve adjust the Book says:

120 minutes for a /4 (R/R valve covers [duh?], replace gaskets "if necessary")
290 minutes for a /6 (incl R/R heat exchangers)

Volkswagen/Porsche/Audi has always used “time units – tu” for suggested repair times. There are 100 time units in an hour. So 25tu is 15 minutes and 100tu is an hour. So 360 time units to R&R an engine is just over 3 ½ hours.

And no they didn't allow cool down time so you would pop the valve covers first thing once on the lift and do the valve adjust last. Hopefully there was enough other work on the ticket that the engine cooled.

Thanks Ed....now the timing numbers make sense

There is no indication in this book of what units the stated times are in. I don't doubt you Ed, it just seems like an odd way to measure time. The entire world is on the 60-minute hour, 24 hours/day standard. Using tu:

1.2 hrs for a /4 valve adjust seems tight, even Clay P would be challenged to do it that fast.

1200 tu for a chassis harness swap is 12 hours. Its a rarely done procedure so its hard to verify.

0.3 hrs to check the fuel injection even with the tester seems unlikely. I have the tester and know how to use it. 18 minutes would be nearly impossible with all that is involved.

How about an alternator change in a /6?

The book says you have to pull the motor or the carbs. Guys like me find work arounds to speed it up.

420 tu engine in car
60 tu engine removed