BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: New 914 owner...what have I gone and done! Options

[Darren C]

Hi everyone,

I have been looking for a 914 on and off for a couple of years now and late one evening I bid on ebay for a car in Desert Hot Springs CA. A real leap of faith for me as I live in Chichester UK!
My first car was a VW Beetle and I’ve owned quite a few air cooled VWs and always wanted a 914, so now almost 25 years later I finally took the plunge and with sweat on my brow placed a last minute bid on ebay on a car I’d only seen in 4 small photo’s on line.
To my surprise I won the 914.
Problem was it lay 8000 miles away from me here in UK. I got hold of the sellers phone number and gave them a call. The car is a 1974 2.0L one owner from new sold in Palm Springs 914. The seller was the owners daughter. The gentleman passed away several years ago and she’d had it parked up on her driveway for 5 or 6 years. From the description in the listing it had a Salvage title due to sand storm damage on the paintwork. It looked reasonably solid in the few pictures I saw, but very sorry for itself with flat tires and bad paint. It was a gamble, but sometimes these things pay off.
I got the car picked up by a shipping agent and taken to Long Beach for shipping.

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2 months later it arrived in Southampton UK

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Last week I went down to Southampton and collected my new project just in time for Christmas.
I was recommended this site from another 914 owner and it's a great relief to find such a large active community. 914's were never sold in the UK, so all are personal imports and a rare thing to see on our roads.
I’m pleased to now join you guy’s and post my restoration progress in getting this little car back on the road.

Regards
Darren

[Darren C]

Ok, Lets call this post a bonus!

There’s been a lot of posts and threads asking for advice on Carb Conversion throttle linkages and cable positioning. I’ve been kinda sitting on some information from my experience of restoring my 914 that will hopefully be helpful to other owners.
So I’ve decided to break cover in the middle of my thread to add this little post.
Enjoy

Regards
Darren

This is how to make the ultimate smooth running, easy returning and very accurate balance adjustment twin carb 914 linkage.


First sorting out some thick 316 stainless plate I spent several hours hacksawing by hand, this.

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I continued to file, drill and fettle that piece of Stainless plate until it was a reasonable match for my cornflakes box imagineering template.

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I spent a couple of hours in my shed and started to turn down a piece of 316 Stainless bar.

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I machined out two counterbores to an interference fit for two ball bearing races I’d bought. I selected high temp bearings with steel dust covers to keep the grease in while exposed to engine heat. Next the flange was drilled and the bracket tapped M5 to hold it in place.

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The following afternoon I turned down another Stainless bar to make a spindle. I incorporated a boss to sit between the bearings and run freely with 0.25mm clearance, so that if ever a bearing failed it would run on the boss rather than collapse.
To finish the ends were threaded M8 and two opposing flats filed accurately to accept the levers (yet to be made).

I continued in my shed and made a top link arm with an off-cut of the stainless sheet. Very carefully filing out the slotted hole until it was a nice fit on the spindle I made yesterday.
Afterwards I carried out a dry run with a few parts borrowed off the worn FI throttle body (un-modified).
With the re-used spindle return spring it should give a “stock feel” to the pedal. I just need to make an anchor for the spring near the base and a cable fixing arm during the week and it should be good to go.

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The following evening I returned to my shed and made a spring anchor from more stainless to tie in the linkage return spring. While lying in the MRI scanner that afternoon in Hospital (long story) I had the idea to use one of the threaded bolt holes in the bearing housing as a fixing point (which fell just in the right place for spring tension) instead of welding a tab on. Much neater idea, I thought, and also variable if required, unlike a permanent weld if I’d taken that route. I also made a stainless spacer/bush to go between to factory recycled throttle arm and my new dual arm (to replace the packing washers I'd used to help set the positioning up during design)

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The next evening I spent a few hours fettling the top arm, drilled and tapped it and fitted the ball joints for the throttle rods. I also used another bit of Cornflakes box to inamgineer a nice looking bracket to attach to the assembly to anchor the throttle cable. Just need to pick up an off cut of 3mm stainless plate tomorrow to make it with.
The parts I removed from the old throttle body (arms, washers, bushes etc) I bagged up ready to drop off at the zinc platers . I plan on getting the whole lot done in gold zinc (including the bits I’ve recycled on my new linkage plus those I haven’t) in this way at a later date when I invest in putting back the FI system, they’ll be all shinny & new looking.

The following day in the shed I spent 3 hours cutting out and filed into shape the throttle cable mounting bracket.

After getting home late from work the next day I manage to mark and drill out the throttle cable bracket I made last night with several holes and fettle some 5mm stainless bar to make the linkage arms with. I also made two angle gauges to enable me to bend the 3mm stainless plates tomorrow at work to the exact angle.
I also had an M5 left hand thread die turn up in the post so fingers crossed I have the tools required now to make the adjustable linkage rods at the weekend.

I took the brackets into work the next day and used the bending press to shape them. I also called in at the platers at lunch and picked up the gold BZP replated original throttle arms, bushes, nuts and washers all looking fantastic shiny and new. A final call into the tool shop before going back to work and I picked up a small 13/16” die wrench for the LH thread M5 die I purchased earlier in the week to make the linkage rods. (My other wrenches are too large to hold the tiny die)
This evening I started to clean up the brackets to get some of the press marks out ready for assembly the weekend.

Finally I assembled the parts of the throttle linkage I d made that week after cleaning all the fold press machine marks out to give a brushed stainless finish.
The freshly gold BZP parts were added. (The return safety spring has the tension off in the picture. When fitted it will be rotated 180 Degrees, and the allen key is just holding in the throttle cable clamp temporarily for the photo)

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As I’d said earlier, Carbs were fitted from my shed stock way back in October 15 to get the engine running for the first time in several years so that I could find out just exactly what I’d purchased blind. The paint shop had also said to me that they’d only take the car in for paint if it drove, so carbs were a quick no cost solution for me as I have numerous old & new sets in my shed from my VW days.
Here’s an OLD PICTURE from October, showing the “replica” Chinese Webers and an old Empi throttle linkage I used to see if the engine would run.

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Next I fitted my home made throttle linkage. Far, far better than the mass produced Empi linkage I’d had on the car earlier, that is crude at best and not throttle cable friendly in a 914. This was the main reason for making a much better linkage that works well with the STANDARD 914 throttle cable, using the STOCK position of the cable as it travels in the engine bay, thus removing any binding or length issues.
All those cornflake box templates, measuring & measuring again paid off.

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Perfect fit.
Next I made two 5mm diameter stainless throttle rods, LH thread one end RH thread the other, then fitted lock nuts and ball joints.
I then swapped out my old replica Webers for a genuine set of carbs and replaced the mains and idle jets to better suit a 2.0 litre. The floats were set and with new gaskets and home made stainless studs in the manifolds, they were fitted to the car.
In the afternoon with a fire extinguisher at hand I ran up the engine and tuned the carbs with the linkages off before setting carefully the rod lengths (of the new stainless linkages I’d made that morning) and fitted them between carbs and main assembly.
With the 914 throttle cable fitted and adjusted it all worked a treat and looks pretty neat too!

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The key is to understand the geometry, length of pivot arms and optimisation of cable layout and positioning to obtain a good proportional smooth throttle opening.

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I hope this helps other 914 owners with Carb conversions that are experiencing issues.