Good afternoon everyone,

I am about to drop the rear suspension on my 1975 914 to replace the suspension bushes. I have removed the engine and transmission and got to thinking about the inherent hell hole rust problems.

As we have all discovered, the 914 is a superb very under rated vehicle but, it does have one or two quirks, including a bad hair day piece of design with water/battery acid collecting in the area under the battery mounting tray. Then this corrosion eating its' way through the structure below.

I am lucky, my car seems solid enough but I have seen some horror stories with some cars folding in half through rusting.

Therefore, before I repair the rear suspension bushes I thought I would ask the question of the knowledgable people on 914 world... has anyone ever installed some decent size drain tubes in the hell hole to get round this ongoing problem?

If they have, can you link me with any information or videos please? If they have not tried installing these drainage tubes I might have a go. If I do, I will post a video of my efforts on my Youtube channel and send you all the link.

Thanks in advance,

Tony

Neutralize the area (baking soda)
And use an AGM battery

Will do more good than a drain

The factory provided drains to both hell holes. They also put in plastic baffles that easily plugged with debris. Just remove the baffles if they are still in place.

Hell hole does have a drain. OEM had a little rubber nipple that went through the drain hole.

Most have been allowed to become clogged - that is the problem

If the rubber nipple is removed and the sheet metal hole is left open and unobstructed it will drain properly. There is a drain on both passenger side and driver side.

As previously stated - run AGM battery and there is no concern for acid spillage.

My 1st 914 had a rusted out battery tray. I repaired by making a fiberglass one in it's place. When doing so I built in a drain tube. Having just replaced the fiberglass conglomeration with the proper factory tray I noticed the center of the tray has a drain hole. I briefly thought about lining the tray with rubber mat and extending the drain hole with some plastic tube but did not as it wouldn't have been OEM. Now I'm having second thoughts.

Thank you all for your comments. When I get inside the hell hole area I will have good look for the is plastic plug.

So if these hell holes had drainage outlets where did the water drain too? On to the chassis area?

Onto the ground

Get the sealed battery and you’ll never have battery acid again

Very many thanks.

See the trend...
Its the 21st century.
Battery technology has moved on, Move with it!