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]

Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated.

There’s been a lot of good progress this last month with the other challengers build off threads, some impressive work going on out there!

Month 11


Day 306

This morning I started by very carefully painting the retaining nuts holding the Porsche script letters black through the grill so the couldn’t be seen so easily. The originals were black as far as I know, but the Porsche superceded nuts came BZP and could be seen through the grill which played on my OCD, so they needed to be blacked out.
At lunchtime I checked in on the wheels at the bead blasting company. They’d promised to start them yesterday so I thought I’d see how things were going. Not finished yet so will try in a few days. Today the fine pipe turned up in the mail for the vacuum advance tube I plan to make.
This evening I spent a good few hours with some fine gas welding rods to bend up a “pipe wire” the guide I plan to use for bending the pipe. I tried a few options before coming up with what I think is the neatest route where the pipe can be clipped easily at even spaces and doesn’t offend the eye or obstruct anything in the engine bay.
For the sake of a good vacuum advance/retard curve I’ve retained the original distributor. Most people swap them out (with all good intention) to a centrifugal type. These are ok to a point but never match the original advance curve exactly and can cause issues at certain revs with timing. With my twin carb modification the Webers that I’ve used have vacuum ports. The key here is to use BOTH carbs vacuum ports linked in one pipe to stop “pulsation” that sometimes occurs when your only running a vacuum advance from one bank of cylinders in a Boxer engine.
With the pipe wires made up tonight I hope to start bending my new pipe tomorrow.

Day 307

Today was another manic Friday. I did however manage to get a blanking disc made to fit in the centre of the alloy wheels (about 77mm diameter) to help the metal polishers keep on track.
I also started to bend the new vacuum advance pipe to match the wire I’d bent last night. I need to check & double check one end of the wire for the driver side as the welding rod I used was too short for the complete length (it exceeds 1m between carbs). I started to venture out of my shed and over to the garage tonight just after 9pm and had second thoughts due to the drop in temperature; so returned to bending pipe and sorting out some nice stainless rubber lined P clips to hold it in place.

Day 308

Today I took my son out for more driving lessons, he did really well and by noon we’d been out almost 4 hours so called it a day and dropped him off back at his mom’s house..
I carried on this afternoon with the vacuum pipe. Taking a few things off the car to have good access I went too & fro from garage to shed getting the bending just right for a perfect fit.
I marked up the area nearest the dizzy and cut a short piece of pipe to make a tee and silver brazed it in place for a very strong joint. Next I ran a small drill down the pipe to create an opening inside the tee.
After sanding it all down, dressing the braze with needle files and a final rub with red scotchbrite; I gave it a paint indoors in the warm with satin black engine enamel.

It doesn't look much, but figuring out a neat route for the pipe to avoid all obstacles and make sure it doesn't obscure service stuff, plus pick up on tinware screws for the P clamps was no mean feat.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496046.1.jpg)

Day 309

Today I fitted the vacuum pipe using a flashlight, it’s no fun in a tiny ex council garage with no power & heat in the dark I can tell you!
The pipe fitted a treat held in place with the new rubber lined Stainless P clips.
If the temperature doesn’t start to rise a little I’m going to struggle working out there in the evenings after work. Fortunately I have only the engine lid to fit back on the car now, then it’s the wait for the wheels to be finished and I should be good to go!

Day 310

Today I did call the blasters and they told me they were in the middle of working on the wheels and they should be blasted (between the area’s to polish) by the end of the week. Hmmmm, I’ve heard that before somewhere?
During the engine lid rebuild I wanted to fit the rubber “L” bracket to my car to prevent the boot hitting the engine lid. I’d purchased the rubber part from Mark at 914rubber way back in the summer with the other bits but had no metal bracket to support it.
Internet and UK parts searches had thrown up the part as discontinued so I thought I’d make one.
Not having the part and only some low res pictures off google, I spoke to Kevin a fellow UK 914 owner who did me a smashing drawing with photo of two brackets he’s hoarding.

Here’s a copy of the picture he emailed me and his brackets. (The one I’m missing)

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This was all I needed to make my own.

This morning I got up a few hours before work and with the aid of a warm air blower spent a couple of hours in my shed before dawn and started to fashion some heavy duty spare metal plate in to a form press to make the missing bracket.
Now I guess at this point someone is going to tell me they have one that I can have; but to be fair the fun and satisfaction for me is in making one. (sad I know)
After work this evening I carried on with filing and checking, welding and dressing the form press parts in my new Imagineering quest.
To be fair this evening I was only going to post a couple of sentences in this thread saying “spent 5 hours in shed filing” or something similar, but hey, I thought post a picture because no one ever realises when I explain something as mundane as an angle bracket, the sort of effort that goes into it.
So with the two parts of the form press roughly measured and made, the next stage tomorrow will be to machine a locating dowel (for the hole to hold the metal precisely in the die while pressing) and a strongback with matching dowel hole for the other plate to lock upper and lower forms together while pressing.
Eager to see how things would work out and to understand the press “shrinkage” I was going to get (so that I could make the actual plate that forms the bracket wider to start with so that when pressed it will be the exact size) I trial pressed a piece of scrap Zintec sheet.
I’m quite pleased with the result as a first trial, there’s maybe another few hours refining the form press but it’s pretty much where it needs to be to make a nice “pattern” bracket.

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Day 311

Today's 914 escapades started at lunchtime when I picked up some slightly longer M6 stainless Cheese heads from the iron mongers. The new throttle bracket I made and a couple of the P clips holding the vacuum pipe barely go in a few turns now as they pass through extra parts so my plan is to swap them over for longer sets.
This evening I had a parcel arrive. It was from Auto Atlanta (about time too) with two new deflectors in. These are the plastic parts that hang under the car just in front of the engine. One of mine was missing (apart from a broken bit of it left, held on with the screws). I opened the parcel with great expectation but my smile turned into a frown. The quality was again very poor. Obviously a back street molded part. Air bubbles and pieces where the plastic hadn’t flowed into the mold properly. I’m beginning to think (from bitter experience) that 99% of Auto Atlanta reproduction parts are like this. They must employ Stevie Wonder to make them and wear mittens for quality control.
Hey ho, at least they weren’t expensive unlike the speaker grilles. I think I’ll repair and tidy up the best one of the two and just replace my missing one.
I decided to take my mind off things and head for the shed.
Using some more scrap plate I cut and welded a strong back onto one half of the form press I made last yesterday. I then turned down a M8 bolt to give a 6mm dowel and tapped out the other half of the form press. Lining the two halves together I carefully measured and drilled the strongback to accept the dowel bolt.
With a second piece of Zintec of the correct thickness, I bent it at 90 and drilled a 6mm hole to take the dowel. This “Locked” it into the form press and because I’d made a threaded dowel, as I pressed the zintec in the form press (using my large vice) I could back off (unwind) the dowel so that both halves of the form press could close fully without the dowel hitting the jaw of my vice.
The result was perfect. Superb definition and no distortion in the zintec as it couldn’t slip & slide like my first trial piece. The shrinkage on the width was a whopping 7mm (calculated from the first trial) so with the second zintec sheet cut 7mm too wide, it finished at a spot on width.
Finally I opened up the 6mm dowel hole to a 7mm slot and radiused the corners and folded the 5mm angle on the bottom to complete the missing bracket.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496046.4.jpg)

I’m really pleased with the result.

This evening I cut a few extra long tinware screws down to an exacting length for the vacuum pipe P clips, rub down the small angle bracket and give it a coat of etch primer before sticking it in the oven in my kitchen to bake.
Fingers crossed tomorrow I can pick up the wheels from the blasters.

Day 312

Today I’ve been tinkering with jet sizes in the carbs and painted the newly made engine lid bump stop bracket a satin black over yesterdays etch primer and fitted it along with the rubber part to the engine lid, perfect!
I then had a play with the Carb intake trumpets. I’d bought some nice billet turned ally ones and with messing about with the jets the otherday noticed that the flange on their base overhung the main jet holes just enough to make you have to take the trumpets off to unscrew the mains. This was obviously a faff, so I took them off and filed a neat semi-circular cut out in the flange to clear the jets and refitted them.
I then spent a few hours making one good underbody air deflector flap from two poorly molded Auto Atlanta replacements and tapped out the 3 mounting holes M5 to finish.
With the wind and rain picking up, I went back out to the garage and got under the car to remove the old remaining part of the broken off air deflector. I had to unclip the fuel pipes to get the old bolts out but once off I gave the area a damn good clean. The underside got touched in with stone guard and behind the fuel pipes above got a good coat of clear waxoil. All this should hopefully be dry by the morning so that I can bolt on the “remanufactured” air deflector.
As promised in between todays escapades I took a few photos in daylight (very dark cloudy daylight) of the engine bay to show the fitted vacuum advance pipe I made last week to sit neatly on the engine.

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Day 313

Today was a busy day with more driving lessons with my son, working on my Audi A4 daily driver (fixing the tailgate latch flap cover and putting another coat of paint on the 4 new brake disc/rotors ready to fit them) while trying to keep things pinned down in the very blustery wind.

I did manage to get the remanufactured AA air deflector fitted to the underside of the 914 and another coat of waxoil over the bolt heads!
With any luck the wheels might just be ready from the blasters tomorrow.

Day 314

Today was a long day.
I was out of the house and off to work by 6am and I have only just got in at 11:25pm !
Straight from work I had a car club committee meeting that went on a while.
Anyway the good news is that I managed to pick the wheels up from the blasters and it was well worth the wait as they’ve done an excellent job and understood everything asked of them.

This is “Stage 4” of the wheel restoration.

Stage 1……. was the clean, scrub and cif to get the dirt grime and brake dust off after the tyres were removed including hours of scraping with soft aluminium home made scrapers to get the black tyre bead marks and old wheel weights & stick foam off the rims. This left cleanish wheels with a good amount of surface corrosion on the rear inside rims.

Stage 2……. was to bead blast the rears to remove the corrosion and leave an even finish, plus cleaning them perfectly ready for Stage 3 (which they would only do with clean wheels)

Stage 3……. was the electrochemical stripping of the anodising.

Stage 4……. was the removal of all marks, scratches and damage to the dull areas of the wheels in between the polished rim and petals, including slip scratches from wheel braces, PO scraping off scratches from old wheel weight removal when the tyres had been changed and the removal of screwdriver lever marks from old centre cap removals.
Here’s a couple of pictures from tonight after bringing them into the house.

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This is still bare metal, no anodised coatings or paint.

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Stage 5….. will be the Polishing of the appropriate areas only and 6 the re anodising.
Tomorrow I need to spend a few hours tweaking the polishing templates and centre discs I’ve already made before I’m happy to drop them off at the polishers.

Day 315


Before work and after this evening I’ve been working on the polishing template/guards.
I plan to drop all the wheels off at the polishers in the morning so needed to make sure all the polishing templates were a good fit. Time spent on this is well worth it for a good lasting result.
The first template is 2mm steel and solid so it wont deform. This sits flat and level in the wheel and I designed it to be used purely to polish the outer rim and leave a neat line between polished and matt alloy to match the original.

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The second template is 1.5mm aluminium that I have worked by hand into a convex dish (using my panel rollers) to sit perfectly around the petals. This is for polishing the petals only. I also made two centre discs to sandwich the middle of the wheel to aid petal polishing and a “spring” ring to sit inside the rim to stop the polishers catching the matt area.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496048.10.jpg)

With the aid of 14mm bolts everything is locked in place so that the polished shapes are uniform around and between each wheel.
I’ll load them up in the morning and drop them off before work.

They form a kinda “idiots guide” for the polishers and should provide mm perfect accuracy and match across all 5 wheels when they are worked on the polishing wheels. It also means it costs me less money at the polishers as I’ve made it real easy for them.

Day 316

I dropped the wheels off at the polishers today. The bloke took one look and said with a sharp intake of breath "oooo they're a bit fiddly!"

"Fiddly, fiddly!”
After all my effort in making the templates so they can go wild with the polishing heads without getting it wrong, the chap thinks they're fiddly?
Just a load of twaddle imho to justify him trying to charge me more money!

Well, we'll have to see. He thinks he'll get one polished by the end of the week for me to inspect.

Until then tonight after work I'm tinkering with rebuilding/refurbishing the whole braking system on my Audi A4 wonder bus that I bought the other weekend to replace my Volvo V70.

Day 317

Today was manic, driving lessons with my son at 8am. We went along Southsea front and it was so stormy a wave hit the sea wall and crashed right across road and the little Morris Traveller. Suffice to say we gave it a good wash when we got home to clear the saltwater stains!
The rest of the day was dedicated to full brake replacement inc hoses, discs & calipers on the new Audi. Needs must on the daily driver.
Anyway a few more 914 tinkering bits turned up in the mail including these….

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So there's still stuff to play with while waiting for the wheels and working on the Audi!

Day 318

Today I visited the polishers......
4 out of 5 wheels done
They look AWESOME !

The last one should be finished tomorrow so off to the anodisers Friday.
I'll take my camera tomorrow so I can take some pictures.

Day 319

Yesterday I called in at the polishers but they hadn't quite finished the last wheel.

Today I called in and collected them in my van.

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They look perfect.
I took them down to the anodisers straight away. They need to fully chemically degrease them and remove any residue polish and dirty finger marks prior to the final clear anodise process. This will protect and calm them down ever so lightly to match the original finish.
Part of me would like to leave them this high mirror polish finish, but with salt on UK roads they’d just corrode real quick. I’ve opted to get them re-anodised to help stop this and get them back to factory fresh finish.
Hopefully they’ll be done tomorrow, it’s a quick process.

Day 320

This morning I loaded up the 5 x new Michelin tyres and took them into work. I called the anodisers this morning to see if the wheels were ready to pick up at lunchtime. The plan was to take them straight over in my lunchbreak to get the tyres fitted.
Unfortunately they were still in the tank as they hadn’t gone in until late this morning.
I got to collect them late this afternoon.
It was quite a surprise to see them at the end of this long process. The wheels had “toned down” massively from the highly polished finish they arrived with to what I can only describe as a dull satin. Apart from all the kerb marks, corrosion on the rear, chips and scratches (that have all been removed now) the wheels don’t look at all like they’ve been refurbished.
Part of me quite liked the very chrome-shiny look before anodising and is sorry to see it lost, but thinking long and hard about what I see before me now, I’ve achieved the goal I wanted….the fact that they look like they haven’t been refurbished at all!
The only down side today is that by the time I’d dropped them off at the tyre fitters this evening it was too late today for them to fit the tyres.

Day 321

Today I did a little fettling on the 914 (after working on my son’s car and my Audi).
In anticipation for the wheels arriving home with tyres on, I wound back the track rod arm lock nuts on both ends and unscrewed the link rod. Everything got a good coat of copper grease and re-assembled. I'll need to get the tracking done when the car goes in for MOT so today's exercise was to ensure it can be done with the lightest of touch and little effort at the garage.
I also went around and under the car with a fine tooth comb and a tiny brush touching in a few bits and bobs.
With any luck I'll get the wheels back from the tyre fitters tomorrow. My friend runs the tyre shop and He knows I want a good job with balance weights on the rear of the rims so they look neat from the front. I’d rather wait a day than get a bad job or a damaged rim.

Day 322

Today I finally got the wheels home with tyres fitted.

Not that it all went to plan, that is…..I telephoned the tyre fitters this morning and they said they’d be done for 5pm today. This scuppered the planned lunchtime pick up, so I worked through and left half an hour early.
After fighting through the rush hour traffic I arrived at the garage and collected my wheels, arriving home this evening after 7pm in the miserable dark & rain I carefully placed the wheels in my No1 heated & dehumidified posh garage (attached to my house) to spend the night.
I’ve taken a few photo’s of the finished wheels.
Please excuse the tyres, they’re covered in that soapy stuff used to fit them still and soapy dirty fingerprints around the holes in the alloys from the fitters (and me) lifting the wheels around. I was going to wash them off but in the hammering rain and darkness outside I’ll leave it until the morning when I can see to do a better job.
As explained a few days ago I was quite taken aback on how they’ve come out after the clear anodising. With the test meter we measured consistently North of 20 microns so they are far, far better protected than they were new.
At first sight I thought they looked as if they hadn’t been refurbished at all, which was a little disappointing considering all the effort.

Then the penny dropped….That’s because I have followed the original processes to a T, so they should look like this.

So to further talk myself into this theory and support the synopsis I started to google old factory pictures (or what I thought to be old).

For some reason I’d gotten it in my mind that there was a stark contrast in light and dark between the polished and un polished surfaces (as in the photo of them in the back off my van leaving the polishers) but in reality it is all about how light hits the wheel, after all its all the same alloy, just a contrast between a smooth and textured surface.
Bingo! In some light and angles the wheels look all one shade and in others the texture strikes a contrast.
So after much ado (and waffle) here’s what all 5 wheels looked like tonight under the light of my No1 garage, seemingly one shade….

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When laid flat and with the camera at an angle so the light hits the wheel in the horizontal you get the contrast. (This is the difficulty of taking pictures on a dark night under strip lights and camera flash)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496049.14.jpg)

So that’s hopefully (an OCD as best as you’ll get in the UK) refurbishment of the 914 Fuchs wheel!

Day 323

I couldn’t wait until the weekend to wash and clean the wheels to get the tyre fitters paw prints and soap off. I gave them a good clean this morning (in the dark before work) and finished them off this evening (again in the dark). After a chamois I brought them into the house to dry.
Off into one of my sheds and unpacked the nice new centre caps that I got in the summer with my large order to 914rubber. I’d taken one over to the anodisers to use their special meter to check firstly if they’d been anodised at all and to what thickness.
The chap said they’d had a chemical brightening process before between 6 & 8 microns of clear anodise applied.
I considered having them re-anodised to a thicker coat but the chap said that he couldn’t do that without dulling them down a little because he couldn’t replicate the chemical brightening on site. After a little thought I decided to leave them as supplied. They’re a relatively cheap item so if in 5 years they corrode with UK salt on the roads I can just buy some more.
Tonight I went over the 5 wheels and selected the one to be the spare then fitted the centre caps to the remaining 4. These were bloomin tight to get in, even with a little PH neutral soft soap, in the end I had to use a block of softwood and mallet to get them in. Hopefully they won’t fall out easily!
I couldn’t resist placing the bolts in the holes loosely to see how they looked.

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Day 324

As I was off work today I decided to take advantage and get the wheels fitted to the car. I got up at dawn (before the rain swept in) and started by coating the mounting faces with a very light smear of copper grease. This should stop them sticking to the brake discs over time and help prevent corrosion.
I carried each wheel in turn out of the house down the road and into the garage block in a wheel relay race to beat the rain clouds. All inside the garage (a bit cosy I can tell you as there’s hardly room to squeeze down each side of the car let alone do it with 4 wheels in the way) I set about copper greasing the newly plated wheel bolts and sitting them neatly on 4 sheets of kitchen paper roll by each hub.
Having checked the owners handbook for the torque setting (for 39mm long bolts) I set my wrench and fitted all 4 wheels before finally removing the axle stands to drop the car onto the floor and torque the bolts up.
Apologies for the dark pictures but it was raining and I didn’t want to push the car out of the narrow garage.

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Within minutes of opening the garage door this morning the car (freezing cold from overnight) began to condense moisture over every surface from the warm humid air entering the garage. By the time the wheels were fitted the car, to my dismay, was dripping wet with condensation! I chamois it off but it fogged up straight after so there was nothing I could do until it physically warmed up to the outside temperature.
I retired to my shed and unpacked the front undertray that I’d had previously blasted and powder coated. With the axle stands now removed and back into the shed I could fit the tray over the steering rack. I’d got some rubber trim from UK supplier Woolies, they list it as “mudflap” trim, some call it feather or lip edge, but it’s the same stuff as original. The lip on the Woolies trim is about 4mm wider than the old trim, but apart from that its identical. I’d put the trim on the undertray in the same orientation as the old one that came off, but had to admit the old one didn’t look great when it was on the car.

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I fitted the tray after cleaning up and waxoiling the bolts, but wasn’t happy with the fit of the seal to the car underside. Lying under the car looking at it I pondered for a while (while watching the suspension arms slowly fog up with condensation!) and decided to take the tray back off, remove the seals, flip them over and refit the tray.
Perfect!
With the seals reversed the curl in the lip met the underside of the car and followed the contours perfectly to close all gaps.

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With the axle stands gone I went around and did a little underbody guard paint touching up just as the wind and rain moved up a gear so I called it a day as the wind kept lifting and rattling the half open “up and over” door allowing the rain to blow all over the rear of the car! Lets hope the weather gets better tomorrow.

Day 325

Today I was up and out before dawn to attend a classic car show in Wickham Square, North of Fareham (An old medieval village about 20 miles form Chichester). There’s always a varied turnout of cars and today was no exception. My favourite car of the day had to be a lovely burgundy 912, with a 3 letter 3 digit 912 licence plate. Anyway I had a nice day out and the weather stayed dry for once which helped.
I got home mid afternoon and straight on to the 914.
I took the carbs apart and fitted my new 32mm venturi’s in place of the 28’s, reduced the air correctors to 175’s and the mains to 125’s.
The engine ran up easy then as it was warming through it started to splutter and died?
Since I’d fitted a fuel return, when the engine stopped I couldn’t hear the pump?
Hmmm, lifted relay cover and took out the Brand new genuine Porsche relay and swapped it with an old one that came with the car, pump ran up again….bloomin annoying.
I did notice that the large voltage regulator fastened to the relay board had got a very hot bracket where it screws onto the relay board (not the dome cover, just the brackets)??? I’m wondering now if its on the blink or I’m getting excess voltage (which might have killed the new pump relay?) or that's actually normal?
The gauge on the dash shows a shade over 14V when running so on initial inspection seems ok. I need to get my meter on it tomorrow in the daylight.
With the relay swapped over I ran up the car and all was good again, apart from a hot reg bracket, but I need to fine tune it now as I have suspicions on the timing as I’ve not checked that since buying the car.
More jobs for tomorrow.

Day 326

This morning, making use of the dry weather, I sorted a few jobs out on my Audi before mid morning then moved onto the 914.

All went well first thing. I turned the engine over by hand (spanner on the alternator nut) and revealed the timing marks on the fan. I gave them a degrease with a small paint brush soaked in cellulose thinners, before using a very fine modellers brush to paint the thin line white. I carefully continued this across the fan blade to cover the width of the fan in a bright thin white line.
With the relay replaced yesterday I started the engine and warmed it through. The alternator output was checked and by meter was 13.44 volts so no issue there, which was a relief.
Next I set and checked the timing to the 27 degrees mark at 3500rpm with the vac pipe off. It was a tiny bit out but nothing to shout about. With it reset spot on I did up the clamp and put my strobe light away just as a friend turned up with his dwell meter.
A quick check of the dwell and it was all good at 45 degrees.
I was just about to fine tune the idle speed and the engine died, just like yesterday?
Today in daylight I could see better than yesterday evening and after initially suspecting the relay (I took it out and tested it….but it was ok) I noticed the fuse on the relay board looked burnt.
On closer inspection it had blown but in a heated slow way which meant that the two halves touched when cold and parted when hot. This was causing the issue yesterday. When the engine was cold it ran up, when it warmed through it parted and cut the engine out.
This was a 25A fuse, so something was amiss?
I spent the afternoon chasing myself around in circles and discovered a partial earth on the 87 pin of the fuel pump relay connection in the relay board when the 14 pin plug (nearest the bulkhead) was disconnected?
At first I thought it must be a fault in the relay board so removed it from the car for testing but all seemed good. After a bit of head scratching and staring at the Haynes wiring diagram I noticed in very fine print, a take off from the fuel pump relay pin 87 (built into the relay board) that feeds pin 12 on the 12 pin connector at the rear of the relay board (nearest the boot). This has a white wire that feeds the FI Supplementary Air Valve that I’d removed when fitting the Carbs. Inadvertently when I reconnected up the main wiring loom I’d got one spare male spade in a single housing and one female spade from Temperature sender II that were both located by the coil. With everything reconnected and the FI loom off the car I’d foolishly connected these two wires together on the basis that they were the only two connectors left and were the correct position on the engine as the loom lay to joint together. WRONG!
So in reality I’d put a resistance to earth on pin 87 of the Fuel pump relay via the Supplementary Air Valve cable…Doh! It was a slow heat of the fuse on the relay board that eventually blew it.
Having realised my mistake I disconnected the wire just as my friend who was googling “blown fuse on 914 relay board” came up with a short on the Supplementary Air Valve wire!
Suffice to say I swapped the fuse over for a 16 Amp (instead of a 25A) as I have no rear heated window and to give a better earlier indication of any future faults.
It wasn’t a relay after all, just a self made error.
The voltage regulator still runs warm to the touch, but as there’s a vent opening under it in the relay board and I’m measuring 13.44V, I suspect that its normal to run warm but not hot?
On the bright side though....I have the carbs running sweetly. No nasty spitting back or popping that you usually get as a compromise with Carb conversions.

Just need to sort out the advance curve now on the dizzy.

Day 327

After the weekends tinkering and setting up of the Carbs and timing etc I wanted to get the vacuum advance working on the original Distributor as changing to a fully centrifugal (which most people do) has its issues with flat spots and poor mpg.
That said if I can’t get the original vacuum advance to work with these carbs then I may still need to go down the centrifugal route, but not before trying
Currently with all the tinkering at the weekend the car runs well with the vacuum plugged. Connect it up with my new pipe and the car runs worse?
This got me thinking and reading up on line articles and also some old 1970’s Weber books I have.
I think the issue is that the new carbs have a single vacuum port with a short stub pipe on each carb and the original FI took the vacuum from the combined manifold at the chamber.
The pipes on the IDF are “ported” vacuum take off, which isn’t quite the same as manifold or “direct” vacuum.
The ported vacuum take off is shown highlighted in red below and is a 15mm long 5mm diameter pipe sticking out from the carb.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496050.21.jpg)

There’s plenty of conflicting information on the internet and reading numerous articles just confuses you more. Many people advise to drill and tap a point in the intake manifolds to get a “direct” vacuum but there is already provision for this on the IDF that most people forget (arrowed as "vacuum ports"). There are two plugs next to the two mixture screws for manifold vacuum take off.
Problem is buying something that fits these (most vendors don’t understand what you want) so tonight after work I set about making some on the lathe.
After removing a blank plug and id-ing the thread as M4, I cut down four 20mm pieces of stainless 5mm diameter bar left over from making the throttle linkages.
The next stage was to face off chamfer and machine a 5mm length on the end, down to 4mm diameter and under cut the shoulder to 3.3mm and cut an M4 thread on it.
Next I faced off the other end and drilled a 3.2mm hole 13mm deep. This was then tapped out to M4 to a depth of 6mm.
The idea is that the plugs that came directly out of the carb to blank the holes will fit exactly the ends of these tubes to blank them. This is to ensure that I have some flexibility in using all or none of these tubes in the end. I plan on experimenting at the weekend with my bank of 4 vacuum test gauges to see and measure exactly what’s happening at the new “direct” manifold and at the carb “ported” tubes.
Finally to finish off the new manifold vacuum pipes I drilled the last 7mm in length at 2mm diameter through the middle of the M4 male thread to ensure it still has a decent wall thickness and strength.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496050.22.jpg)

It was difficult getting a good focus on the camera as these are so small!

Day 328

Today I thought I’d investigate the vacuum/timing characteristics of my car in an attempt to understand the optimum method for ignition timing and use of vacuum advance with a standard dizzy using Weber 40idf carbs.

As I’ve said before, it would be nice to keep the original dizzy (if I can get it to work well) with the carb conversion. It’s a bit like one of those Top Gear challenge specials. I have a fully centrifugal 009 with 050 advance curve lurking in a box in my shed. If I can’t get the original dizzy to work well, then the box is opened.

The first thing I did today was take out the Weber manifold vacuum plugs and fit my new tubes on cylinders 1 & 2.

Next I connected vacuum test hoses to these points (leaving the “ported” vac pipe still plugged and my blue “bespoke” vac pipe disconnected)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496051.23.jpg)

The hoses were run to my Carb Synchroniser panel gauges 1 & 2.
I then connect gauge 4 to the carb on banks 3 & 4; to its single ported vac pipe and ran up the engine with no connection to the vac diaphragm on the dizzy (as you do to time the car).
After warming through and sitting a tad below 900 rpm I could measure the vacuum in the intake manifolds of cylinders 1 & 2 and the ported vacuum of the carb on bank 3 & 4.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496051.24.jpg)

To my surprise I had a reading on 1 & 2 and nothing from the ported vac pipe on the carb over 3 & 4 ??

Hmmm. The balance on 1 & 2 was fine, but zero on the carb ported pipe.

I gently rev’d the engine to around 1200rpm and from about 1000 upwards I started to get a reading on gauge 4 from the ported carb vac.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496051.25.jpg)

Not a great vacuum but watching and comparing “ported” with “direct” (manifold) vacuum, the results are that my 2.0L engine has manifold vac from idle to around 1500 RPM which peaks around 1000 and drops off to zero as the carb reaches about 15% open. The ported vac however, starts at zero when at idle, then slowly increases up to 1100RPM where it balances out with the direct vac (as that decreases) so overall the maximum ported vac is much less that the manifold vac at idle. It’s not a very good vacuum and only present for a short period of time.
Interestingly with the timing set at 27 degrees BTDC at 3500 with vac pipes disconnected as per instructions; the timing at idle is barely 2 degrees BTDC (with vac pipe disconnected). With the vac pipe connected using manifold vacuum to the pipe on the dizzy diaphragm closest to the body it pulls the diaphragm at idle to just past TDC, retarded by a degree or so (hard to tell without markings)
Since this is the “factory standard” diaphragm pipe to use for the 2.0L with the other pipe (furthest from the dizzy body) left unused, I’m quite surprised by the findings?
I’d have expected it to be a few degrees BTDC? More investigation required.

Day 329

Looking on line I got a factory timing table for 1.7 & 1.8. but expect that the 2.0L is different.
However it does show an advance timing at idle. (The vac measurements are pretty much what I'm reading in mm)
From a little digging I've been told the timing of a 2.0L at idle is "around" TDC. It's not really where you measure it as the "books" state 27 BTDC at 3500rpm, and give no indication of where it should be at idle.
Having timed my car this way and used manifold vacuum to the diaphragm pipe on the dizzy nearest the body (the one you call the retard pipe) which is where it should be on a 2.0L; my gut feeling based on how the cars running now, is that I would benefit from a few more degrees of advancement at idle.
This is all obviously my own doing by converting to carbs from FI with a stock cam.

I'm sure I've got it running and timed by the book (including the correct dwell which can give 3 or so degrees of timing adjustment).
It's my OCD that's maybe making me look for something thats not there; combined with my experience of tuning multiple engines in the past that gives me this gut feeling that with these Webers fitted I need a few more degrees of advance at idle to optimise what I've built.
If it ever stops raining today I plan on trying the vac pipe connected to the other (unused on a 2.0L) pipe on the diaphragm. This is the one that folk normally use and refer to as the "vacuum advance". In reality I believe this is the "ported" vac pipe connection, and the one your calling the retard, is the one used for "direct" or manifold vacuum.
The early carb cars used both. Working on that basis it gave you a pull on the inner diaphragm chamber at idle, a pull on both around 1200RPM and nothing after 15% throttle on either. Looking at this logically all it did in effect was offer vacuum at idle and no vacuum early on in the throttle opening as one balanced out the other. This nips the vacuum in the bud at low throttle but seems its loaded in favour of retarding timing at idle. If I play about and put my "direct" vacuum on the outer diaphragm pipe only I'll think I'll initially get what I'm looking for but may get a little too much advancement between 1100-1200rpm.
It's going to be interesting to measure and document all this as I can't currently find any record anywhere of this data.

So after writing my daily diary today, it got the better of me and I had to go back into the garage!

Just been tinkering/experimenting in the garage this evening. It finally stopped raining!
So here’s what I’ve found today.
If the manifold “direct” vacuum is applied to the outer pipe on the distributor diaphragm (against the standard Factory installation) I get my “in my mind”, ideal advancement at idle, running about 4 degrees BTDC at 900 rpm.
Trouble is that as the engine revs the 27 degrees BTDC mark is reached way too early (2000 rpm) and overshoots to give excessive advancement above 2000 rpm.
So I cant place the manifold vac pipe on the outer pipe of the distributor diaphragm.

On a whim I rigged up a second vac pipe from some spare hose with a Tee and connected it up to the Weber ported vac tubes (the brass one) that's in the initial photo had the blue hose attached. I paired up each Weber ported vac tube and connected that to the outer diaphragm pipe and left the manifold vac hose connected to the inner diaphragm pipe. (As per an early 1.7L carb car)
Sceptical if this would work with a 2.0L distributor, I ran up the engine.
Bingo!
I kept a nice 5 degrees or so (hard to quantify without a scale) advancement BTDC at idle and as I gently rev’d the engine up to 3500 rpm it made the 27 degree mark right on target!
I may have answered my own question. As seen yesterday by gauge, the ported vac rise eventually matches the direct vacuum so cancelling each other out early and preventing advancement past the 27 deg BTDC.

It certainly looks like the best ignition timing installation for Weber twin carbs on a stock cam 2.0L using the stock distributor is to run both a ported and direct vacuum pipe (like Porsche did on the earlier cars) after all.

Problem now is I need to make a second one of those nice bespoke vacuum pipes to run between my carbs ported vac take offs and the outer distributor diaphragm pipe!

Day 330

When oh when are we going to have a day without horrendous wind, rain and hail?

Anyway having got soaked 3 times today and having to work in darkness at 1:30pm in the afternoon, I managed to make up a new “ported” vacuum pipe out of 4mm copper pipe.
This is to be a permanent pipe to replace the loose rubber hose I ran last week while tinkering with timing and vacuum advance.
I got the parts delivered through last week and brazed on a Tee pipe next to the dizzy and sleeves on each end to increase the diameter to 5mm at the Carb ends to match the Weber ported vac tubes. The pipe was purposely chosen at 4mm diameter to match the port on the dizzy diaphragm.
The outer diaphragm port is 4mm the inner diaphragm port is 5mm. Keeping them factory sizes stops anyone (or even me in a senior moment) getting them mixed up.
Like the first pipe I made for the manifold vacuum, I painted it a nice satin black and carefully bent it to follow the contours of the tinware and held it down with stainless P clips.
Running backwards and forwards down the street with tools, pipe and stuff I got soaked in the heavy rain which wasn’t funny the 3rd time after changing my clothes twice already!
Having pressurised the washer system last weekend (in its first test since rebuild) I had a leak from the Schrader valve core in the hose nearest the bottle. Again I’d pick one up during the week from the tyre fitters so got to change that over today.
Lastly I managed to source some olde fashioned black cloth woven wiring loom insulation tape on line last week. Today I finally managed to re-bind the “Tee” part of the engine loom at the base of the bulkhead in front of the engine fan for that OCD factory fresh look.

Day 331

This weekend was a bit of a landmark date in the restoration of my 914.
After working in the engine bay, fettling, tweaking, imagineering vacuum pipes and tuning to get the engine running well; I finally fitted the last part back on the car……….The engine lid.

A new set of stainless bolts and stainless washers (made on my lathe) were used to hold it in place.
A good amount of adjustment was needed to make sure it was centralised to give an even gap on each side. It also needed adjustment forwards and back to line up exactly the thin seal between metal panel and grille of the lid, to the two fixed matching bits each side of the opening. Too close to the glass and not only is it out of alignment but the lid catches on the hinges and won’t open fully. Too far back and the rear boot lid catches it when opening.
After a bit of faffing around and in between setting the height of the rubber bump stops it was all aligned nicely.
The final job was to fit the striker pin (purposely left until last so while all the adjustments were going on, there was no risk of snapping the lock shut and not being able to open the engine lid if it was misaligned).
Again the striker pin was set to hold the lid down sitting flush on the bumps stops so it wouldn’t rattle with the minimum pressure to help it “pop” up when the cable was pulled, but not too much so as to jam it.

With the lid fitted the car looks instantly complete for the first time since the car arrived in UK.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496051.26.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496052.27.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496052.28.jpg)

Lastly this afternoon I took the jack out of storage and started to give it a clean up and repaint ready to go back into the trunk.
All that’s required now is to sit tight for some nice weather so I can drive it around the block to see if there are any last niggles and Ministry of Transport test here we go!

Day 332

In the meantime, a small update today….

Finishing off a few final bits and bobs I repainted the Jack earlier in the week. I also had the old tool kit cleaned up and took the box spanner wheel nut tool, the open ended spanner, tow eye and shaft for the screwdriver down to my local electroplaters.
This lunchtime I collected the tools looking all shiny and new again.
The vinyl roll (late type) was missing from my car presumed lost, so after a bit of searching I only came up with some nice (but wrong, I know) early basket weave ones for sale. Studying a few pictures on line the roll I needed looked very much like my old Boxster one. I got a replacement one off ebay for a few pounds and it scrubbed up really nice (thanks Cif). Albeit it has more pockets than the 914 original its not a bad match overall and comes with a sewn on tie tape rather than a rubber band (plus it's genuine Porsche)

This evening I lightly oiled my newly plated tools and popped them into the tool roll.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496052.29.jpg)

Day 333

Today was a BIG landmark day for my little 914.

I’ve been holding out for the good weather to arrive for the MOT. Not only to allow all the salt on the roads to clear, but also to ensure the anniversary of the MOT will fall again next year in the best weather.
So today after a good week of dry sunny weather I drove my 914 for the VERY FIRST TIME (I’d never driven it before) to the MOT Station.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496052.30.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496052.31.jpg)

The rebuilt and RHD converted headlights were aligned to the UK Ministry height and direction.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496053.32.jpg)

After a whole hour of rigorous testing…..

It’s PASSED !!!!!!

The brakes just squeezed in, over the minimum level, but to be fair with all new discs, pads and callipers a 3 mile drive wasn’t enough to bed them in, they started to get better on the way over to my friends workshop afterwards.

Finally this afternoon we set the wheel alignment, to complete the landmark day. The first time in many, many years the little cars been driven, and the first time I've driven a 914!

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496053.33.jpg)

Now I have a mountain of official paperwork to fill in….

I’d already applied for the forms (called V55/5) as it takes around a month to get them sent out from the UK authorities, so this evening I began to fill them in. Hopefully I’ll get everything straight in the post tomorrow morning to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

They take around 2 weeks to process the paperwork and I should be issued an age related UK licence plate number and UK title for the car.

For now I’m NOT allowed to drive it (other than taking it straight home from the MOT test centre) until the paper work returns and I get licence plates made up.

Day 334

Before the MOT and first drive, I hadn’t been happy with “feel” of the brake pedal. Having bled the system 5 times, using a combination of pressurised bleeder and the old fashioned “up…down” method; the pedal continued to feel soft and creep. This was driving me a little nuts. Each calliper had, had at least 2 litres of fluid bled from it yet the pedal simply didn’t feel right.
So, while waiting for a Title Document to arrive I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new master cylinder. This was most frustrating as the master cylinder on the car was brand new, but after checking the rear calliper clearances 4 time, bleeding the system 5 times, taking the pads in and out to check the pistons and looking everywhere for leaks and finding none, it all kept coming back to a master cylinder issue.

The 2nd new ATE master cylinder arrived today, so early this morning with the aid of a friend I changed the master cylinder.

What a difference!

A nice firm pedal at last!

So there you have it. The first new ATE master cylinder from a reputable supplier was faulty or maybe the seals in the NOS unit had degraded with age.
Fitting a good one has transformed the car. Hopefully this was a one off, but if any of you are planning to fit a new master cylinder, please be aware of this issue.

Anyway, moving forwards, this afternoon I decided to make up a bracket to support a fire extinguisher in the car. Having had a good look around over the last few weeks/months for a suitable mounting place I decided to install it behind the drivers seat at floor level so that the seat can still slide back without obstruction. Not wanting to drill any holes in the car or mark or damage the interior I thought the best solution would be to pick up on the two existing bolts at the base of the rear bulkhead.
Carefully measuring the padded trim and the distance between holes and height from the floor; I came up with a simple design. To stop the bracket squashing and marking the bulkhead trim I turned down two spacer bushes on my lathe. One at 5mm and the other (inner one) at 10mm. This set the bracket frame clear of the padded bulkhead trim and the 5mm offset squared it off to look aesthetically pleasing. The spacer bushes were turned so the outside diameter matched the metal ferrules in the bulkhead trim. All designed so that they clamp firmly without marking.
I then made two angle brackets on which to attach the extinguisher holder.
These had two functions.
1, to sit the extinguisher lower to the floor, just above the carpet so as not to foul the seat, while allowing the original bulkhead screws to used.
2, To turn the extinguisher holder 90 degrees so that to grab it in an emergency it lifts upwards to release (had I just mounted it flat to the bulkhead then it would have needed the seat to have been slid forwards to allow enough space to remove it from the holder. This would be too much of a faff in an emergency, when you just need to grab it)
Finally I welded it all together and dressed up the welds ready for powder coating.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496053.34.jpg)

Day 335

So I dropped it off at the powder coaters this morning before 8am and after work this evening in exchange for a box of tea bags it was nicely blasted and powder coated satin black.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496053.35.jpg)

I ordered some over length screws (to fit through the bracket & bushes and be still long enough to fit to the car) on-line on 3 days ago, so hopefully they'll be here tomorrow so I can fit it to the car.

Day 336

The stainless 1 1/2" screws arrived today in the post so this evening I fitted the extinguisher.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1472496054.36.jpg)

Having got the car out of the narrow garage a few times over the last couple of weeks, tweaking and messing with the Carb jets (driving under load always shows up a few niggles you can't see when running stationary) and noticing a few paint issues, I've got it running really sweetly now. I needed the accelerator pump rods adjusting to cover the change from idle to main jets that bogged the car down under load but didn't show while running parked up.

So still waiting for the Title to arrive, I got a little bored this evening so decided I'm going to hand flat and polish ALL the paintwork. It's not a bad paint job, but it generally bugs me to see slight orange peel in places. Tonight I've made a rod for my own back now........by flatting a rear quarter down with 1200 wet & dry.....hand polishing with rubbing paste, finishing paste, then T cut. After 4 hours solid I have a rear quarter that has a glass smooth surface finish now.

Trouble is; it may take me a whole month to do the rest of the car!

So that was Month 11.

For the first time in 8 years this little 914 is up and driving and has been saved and is loved once again….
It’s passed the stringent UK MOT testing and is declared fit for use on UK roads.
I have to wait a couple of weeks now for the Title documents to arrive before I’m able to drive it for the second time ever!

Having worked relentlessly for 11 months, these last 2 weeks are going to be the toughest.

To take my mind off it, I plan on hand flatting and polishing the paintwork. It’s had 6 months to cure and harden, so it’s a good time to get it looking like a $million glass finish paint job!
Another challenge that’ll be in this tiny 16ft x 8ft garage with no power or light……

Thanks again for all your kind words of encouragement and I hope you’re finding my thread interesting.

Regards
Darren