Cool. I do wanna clean the top of this puppy off -- just seems sensible to start clean, as they say. Thx.

kim.

Alrighty then. Somewhere in the past, a PO with more grunt than thinking fractured the shroud around the fan area. (I have some sympathy -- before I found all the secret bolts, I was thinking of using mere violence to rip the sucker out)

Anywho, I've added some 'glass to repair the shroud. (hm... it's prolly a halloween feeling, but the word "shroud" seems to remind me of things like "the shroud of turin" and so forth -- it must be git'n late!) In the morning, we'll tune up the repairs from a cosmetic point of view.

It also gave me a chance to wash up other bits before they go back on. JP is right -- any stray oil (or anything else for that matter) is nicely routed down the a channel in the shroud directly into the oil cooler. The channel in the shroud had a reasonable layer of crap in it -- not enough to choke air -- but enough that a cleaning was in order.

So tomorrow, with some luck, and after I take care of some "honey do's" (a new cabinet needs to be picked up, which means I need a truck, which means... well you get the idea), the next piece of work will be to clean off the top of the engine, and reinstall everything.

kim.

I know I don't have to ask for pics of the "clean" upper side before shroud re-install?

Damn, Gint, I was gonna cheat a bit -- pics will make me actually clean all that crap up!

But yeh, I'll shoot the reassembly process. (mostly cause I can't remember how it all goes back together -- this way I get to ask questions )

kim.

Reassembly has begun. The alternator is seated, and the diffuser (or whatever it's called) attached, including the ground strap (Thanks Carl!!!! I couldn't remember where it went, and none of the photos had it -- and talking with him reminded me where it went)

So I have the shroud and it's bits (the two "other" pieces") tacked in to place. But I have a couple of parts that I have no recollection of where they go, and in scoping around, couldn't see any possiblities. I normally group parts and bag them -- but this time I did not label them (shame on me) so I have a pic of three parts that I just don't know where they belong. And I don't wanna tighten things down without knowing they don't somehow go "underneath".

Here's the pic. Any help appreciated as always!

kim.

the sheet metal capscrew i can't help you with, but it probably is used to attach the Z bracket to the fan housing, where it would have been used to hold a plug wire separator. the square grommet sits in a center manifold hole and is used as a plugwire separator.

Rich,

Thx muchly. That makes perfect sense. (the other bits will no doubt find homes in a similar area -- I package neighbors together)

kim.

Rich is absolutely correct on all counts.

Ok, putting in screws from the sides are clearly the ugly ones. There is one under the dizzy that is just blind, and the surface isn't a level fit. I've no idea how I hit that one. But there are two on the back of the oil cooler that tonight I can't even find. (If the damn shroud went "outside" em and hide 'em, I'll whack something.) Ah well -- too late and too dark. Tomorrow we'll see what I've screwed up this time.

I love this.

kim.

Dont ever buy the Carbon Fiber shrouds. We spent a solid 8 hours drilling/cutting to make the damn thing fit. They come with NO holes in them for fasteners or INTAKE manifolds.


Good job Kim. Looks like you are well on your way.


B

I noticed you had a carbon fiber one on one of the cars -- meant to ask you about that. Mind you, I was a lot more enthusiastic about the idea before I started this bit of silliness -- I'll be reluctant to remove it anytime soon (and certainly not for one with that much work to fit)!

It's getting light outside -- can I start again now? (actually not -- it got below 40F here last night so "it's cold out there campers!")

kim.

So I took a couple of hours of this afternoon -- weather is just too darn nice to let go. Finding and installing all of the shroud screws was a bit of fun. Had 4 left over at one point. Then down to 1. Got them all in finally and tightened it down.

Intake manifolds went on easy, as well as other bits of things (some trippy throttle manipulator that's likely a smog device of some kind -- vacuum line, plus two wires.)

I'm hooking up the last bits of electrical and I find I didn't shoot a pic of the coil wiring. In particular, there is a brown wire on the negative side of the coil that has to go somewhere. Anyone got a clue for me?

(after that, it's on to carbs/linkage/etc)

kim.

It goes back to the post on the alternator fan housing.

kim.

You got it. It's a ground wire.

So at the end of a long day, there's good news and bad.

The good news. Got everything reassembled, and with a fully charged battery, the machine came back to life. (to me this was a minor miracle -- I haven't done this much reassembly in some time...) The wiring seems correct.

And it runs. (Gint, brake cleaner on exhaust stinks -- but it did work really well -- I'll post pics later)

And it now has an exhaust leak it's never had before. (how can a sitting car on its sorry butt acquire an exhaust leak? too much effort to smile in the morning as I rust? must be spite)

One of the carbs leaks at the accelerator pump. I guessedI would have to revisit the miserable suckers, so that wasn't that much of a surprise. I have complete carb kits, but I wanted to find out if the charging problem was solved, and I wanted to see how the jetting worked before ripping them to bits. Most of this was trial anyway -- tho I really don't wanna take that frik'n schroud off again.

But here's the real ugly part -- the original problem continues to exist. The alternator light does not come off at any rpm. I suppose I could have something wrong that blew up a perfectly good alternator -- clues welcomed! -- but other than that, it seems the problem may be elsewhere.

I'll look at it again in the morning.

But thanks for all your help! There's no way I'd have got this far flying solo.

kim.

Ouch.

What exactly was the original problem? Other than the light being on?

Alternator light never goes off. At any rpm.

kim.

That was 2 degrees too glib. Grotty bits are detailed here:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act...ltage+regulator

kim.

"glibass" Thanks for the refresher link.

Now I remember (he says after reading the full description - again). Sorry I'm not an automotive electrical genius. Have you asked your alternator vendor (Auto Lectrics, Campbell) about your symptoms? They're in the business apparently; they might have some valuable insight.


I did pull a Bosch reman alternator out of my step-son's Cherokeee last night though (from underneath the car). Not quite as much fun as your job was, but it wasn't pretty either either.

rust never sleeps...

Heh. It's funny. Apparently rust (and this car) are active i my dream state too. I woke up minutes ago thinking "you don't suppose that the brake cleaner that I put down the oil cleaner could have leached over to the end of the exhaust manifold and munched part of a gasket or something?"

Wadda ya think? Should I just go back to bed now?

kim.

Blown diods (sic) from misc. reverse current?

You coming tonight?

Possible -- I'm thinking that I should check the fan belt once it warms up a bit outside. If it's not on right (or at all) or too loose, it ain't gonna turn the alternator up to speed. (I should have thought of that last night -- could have checked then)

re: tonight -- don't know. Right now, i don't have a car/ride to get there.

kim.

How far from the San Mateo Marriott?

In traffic, prolly 45 min give or take. But it's due south, directly away from The City™ which is probably an hour + back in traffic.

kim.

Some good news. I hosed the install of the fan belt. With the fan belt in and at appropriate tension, the alternator works fine, and the charging light behaves appropriately!

So the car starts and runs. The passenger side carb leaks gas like a good friend of an oil producing nation -- it's more than the little drips around the accelerator pump cover. I expected to redo them anyway -- I was mostly interested in seeing if the initial jetting/etc would at least work for a while. I'll work on buttoning them up next.

The car sounds good. I've not even played with the synchrometer/etc at all, so I'm sure things are out of balance, but even then, it sounds way better than before.

On the exhaust leak, I'm not sure. I'd forgotten all the interesting noises that webers make on a running car. heh. The noise sounds like a leak, but it is not there on start up -- only after the car warms up a bit.

kim.

Nice work Kim.

I can't wait to hear that in my own garage.

You want my car? After all this high quality mechanical attention? [I'm thinking we should have fed you the beer ]

kim.

I've finally learned my lesson (Ha!). One is plenty, thanks.

And you thought this thread was dead. Shame on you. No "fixing a 914 thread" is ever really dead. Not 'till the great red one silences the beast.

So, I have two missions tonight, based on a camera card that is getting full and a list of things that need to be updated. A couple of final pics on this thread is one of them.

The /6 runs pretty well now. That's credit to David Modderman (of Modderman Porsche Service in Mountainview) who got this puppy when I ran out of time. He retuned the carbs and the car runs pretty well. (I'm driving it daily, and the roof has been in the trunk for a week now since I got it back -- gotta love CA!) Accelerator sticks a bit (I have some worn parts to replace) and there are engine oil leaks I have to look at. C'est la vie.

But I do have some final pics of cleaning the oil cooler with Brake Cleaner. This was suggested by Gint earlier -- my wrench said "be really careful -- it's very flamable and if the exhaust is hot you will not enjoy the experience!" I mentioned earlier that the brake cleaner may have messed with the exhaust -- I was totally wrong.

So here are the pics (before/after) of the oil cleaning exercise in one place.

First the before. For those new to this part, the /6 has a channel to funnel air from the fan into the top of the oil cooler. On an 914, it is visible on the top of the shroud from the fan, back to the rear of the engine on the driver's side. Oil leaks, or any other crap entering the fan, are well funnelled to the top of the cooler.

Before Pic.

Nother before.

My cleaning approach: First I used a shop vac with an appropriate attachment to clean off as much debris from the top that I could. Next step is to spray cans of brake cleaner down until you are bored. I used a turkey pan to catch the drippings. It will drain over the exhaust on the drivers side.

I used up 2 large cans of brake cleaner. It's not obvious when you should stop. I quit when it didn't seem to be draining anything with particles in it. But it's very subjective.

Oops. The Pic!!!!!!!

And finally, for the really perverse -- you need to see what drained out.

Here is the turkey pan.

I know -- nothing stirs the soul like someone cleaning old crap out of something. What a great way to end a thread!

love, kim.

Well, THAT gives a whole new meaning to basting the Butterball.
Are you gonna save that for Thanksgiving with the in-laws?

That "before" photo looks like the cholesterol buildup after a lifetime of Big Macs.

Good job getting the job done.

C

Carl,

I'm not sure it's safe to pick on hamburgers on this board. You know how politically correct we are.

But there is no doubt that the car runs cooler. Even after only a week of being back in service, the temp gauge tells the story. Gum up your cooler and you will pay. I had no idea of course, so I was looking into under car flaps (prolly will still install them) and so forth, but if your cooler is plugged up, none of that will matter.

kim.

It looks great... now. Nice work Kim. I'll be tearing into my leaks and grime in a month or so.

I have one last pic. There are old webers and new webers. The carb on the left is an old one, and the newer on is on the right. The tell-tale is the quality of surfacing that is done on the outside casting. Inside these carbs look pretty much the same. They got chinzy over time and the outer casting was left rougher.

I'm not sure I envy you or not

It's certainly *way* easier if the engine is out of the car, so I suspect you're way ahead of the game!

kim.

Since I have a 914-6 that I am restoring now, It would be cheaper in the long run to install a rebuilt / new alternator at rebuild than to have to change one later. NEXT THOUGHT ! How about for a "quick disconnect" of the wires using a Trailor Plug. The kind with the large contacts for trailer braking since the main hot wire goes throught there.

The time has come to move this thread to the Lapuwali Classic Thread Forum.