Time to un-DAPO the "new" car, Bad things happened to a nice car Options

[Montreal914]

Yes, that is what I was referring to. I am sure you will keep an eye on it once driving regularly the car.

Nice progress! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

[BillC]

RE: your relay board.

All of the relay boards have the boss for the brass insert, but they dropped the insert, the shaft and the knob in 75.

Take the old relay board and use a bolt and socket to extract the brass insert. Then press it into the new relay board. Put a drop of super glue in the hole before pressing in the insert.

That's an excellent suggestion, @ClayPerrine ! I just posted a wanted ad for an old, broken relay board in the Classifieds forum, since my old board was still working when the car arrived -- I'd rather trash something already broken instead of one that appears to still be usable.

If anyone has an old, broken relay board with a good threaded insert that they want to get rid of, please let me know. Thanks!

[BillC]

Got a little more work done on the car. Installed new clutch, gas and heater control cables. Also installed the rebuilt pedal cluster, new gas pedal, shifter and shift rod (front half) and heater control lever. Since I marked the shift rod on the shifter before I took them out, the shifter should be fairly close to the proper alignment, but won't know for sure until the engine and trans are back in.

Pedals:


Shifter:


Cables and shift rod:



I also started to take a look at installing the heat exchangers on the engine. That's when I discovered that my great pile of muffler gaskets are all for 1.7L engines. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) So, now I have some 2.0L gaskets on order....

[930cabman]

Lookin good, what will you be applying to the floor?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif)

[BillC]

Lookin good, what will you be applying to the floor?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif)

For now, I'm just going to leave the factory asphalt sound deadening, and will put new carpets over them. At some point in the future, if I keep the car long enough, I will eventually treat it to a full restoration that will start with stripping everything down to bare metal, and I'll deal with flooring applications then.

[GregAmy]

So as part of the DAPO crowd (this is the first thread that popped up when I searched...) Trying to find out what my speedo doesn't work in the new-to-me 968 (no worries, I still have the 914) and I find this...

"Why"? Because the PO was trying to extinguish the airbag light from when he installed a Momo wheel (which I covered with a resistor).

So tell me why we do this?

I now have speedo- and odo-age. Cruise still doesn't work though.

Sigh...

[BillC]

So as part of the DAPO crowd (this is the first thread that popped up when I searched...) Trying to find out what my speedo doesn't work in the new-to-me 968 (no worries, I still have the 914) and I find this...

"Why"? Because the PO was trying to extinguish the airbag light from when he installed a Momo wheel (which I covered with a resistor).

So tell me why we do this?

I now have speedo- and odo-age. Cruise still doesn't work though.

Sigh...

Duct tape and wire nuts. That's some outstanding DAPO-tastic work there.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

[BillC]

Things have been pretty busy around here, as usual, but I managed to squeeze a little 914 time in this weekend.

I was going to start mounting up the used heat exchangers I bought years ago, so I pulled them out of the shelves to get started. However, once I got a good look at them, I decided I had to spend at least a little time trying to clean them up.

Here's how the first one looked:


I tried a few cleaning chemicals lying around in the garage, but none of them made a noticeable dent in the baked-on crud. So I stopped, stepped back and thought a bit (yeah, I almost set the smoke alarm off with those thoughts (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) ) -- what gets used for cleaning baked-on oily gunk? Oven Cleaner! So I went up stairs, and managed to dig out a can from under the sink. I still had to use quite a bit of elbow grease while I was at it, but it did a reasonably nice job.


I did top and bottom of both heat exchangers, wiped them off and then took them outside and hosed them off. I think they turned out pretty good:


It ended up taking a couple of hours, but they look sooo much better than before.

[930cabman]

The heat exchangers cleaned up nicely, make sure you check the sealing surfaces. It's easy to have an exhaust leak when they do not seal good at the copper washers

[worn]

For what it's worth, i really like the color!
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

Perfect match to the color of spray paint that I bought way long ago for my pinewood derby model. Why yes, I did polish the nails that served as wheel axles. Great color then and now.

[BillC]

Now that racing season is over for me for the year, it's time to get back to the 914. And today was finally time to reinstall the engine! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

On the stand:


Some friends came over to help. First step was to get the engine off the stand and bolt the trans and starter back onto it.


We also got the car set up to receive:


Then, we slid the powertrain into place. This was a multi-jack operation, since I don't have a lift.


Getting close:


And in!!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)


It'll take a little while before the car's actually ready to drive. A whole bunch of things still need to be connected (cables, electrical, fuel, shifting, exhaust, axles, fluids, etc.). Plus, the last DE of the year is next weekend, so more time away from the car. But, I'm still hoping to drive it before it gets too cold out.

[bkrantz]

So as part of the DAPO crowd (this is the first thread that popped up when I searched...) Trying to find out what my speedo doesn't work in the new-to-me 968 (no worries, I still have the 914) and I find this...

"Why"? Because the PO was trying to extinguish the airbag light from when he installed a Momo wheel (which I covered with a resistor).

So tell me why we do this?

I now have speedo- and odo-age. Cruise still doesn't work though.

Sigh...

I wonder if that DAPO worked as a bomb defuser in his day job.

[930cabman]

My vote goes to GregAmy: "So tell me why we do this"

Maybe we can get a volume discount for group therapy?

[Superhawk996]

So many DAPOs - glad to see this teener getting fixed. I’m also amused to see the DAPO’s are attacking other P-cars with the same vigor the 914 has endured over the decades.

[BillC]

Life continues to get in the way, but I have made some progress on the 914.

Axles, clutch and speedo cables connected:

I used new bolts with new schnorr washers to attach the CVs, plus a little blue loctite. They should hopefully stay tight.

Then, shift linkage with all-new bushings, heat exchangers and brand-new Quiet 2.0 muffler from Ben:


The heat exchangers turned out to be a much bigger pain to install then expected. Whoever had these before had cranked down on the ears and bent them out of shape, none of the ears would fit over the exhaust port studs. So, my son helped me heat the ears as I reshaped them to fit.

I've had the muffler for years, bought it when Ben was having his getting-out-of-the-4-cyl-muffler-business sale. Was a bit relieved when everything bolted up just as it should. Only (minor) concern is the muffler tip is a little close to the valance (no contact, but only about 1/8" gap). I suspect this is because I put new rubber trans mounts in, and expect the gap will open a bit as the mounts sag over time.

[Root_Werks]

It's coming back together!

Yes, correcting others improper work is a lot of work. Looks like your end product is turning out great!

[BillC]

Once again, it's been a lot longer than planned since the last update.

Since then, I cleaned, de-rusted and re-painted the sheetmetal heat ductwork. I media blasted the worst of the rust off the parts and then soaked them in B'laster Metal Rescue, which is their copy of Evaporust. The stuff is nice because it won't eat the metal once the rust is gone, but it takes a long time, is rather expensive and doesn't last as long as one would hope -- I went through 3 gallons before everything was clean.

Turns out I had already scrounged up and stashed away all the sheetmetal needed, except for the flat-ish guide plate that goes above the shift rod. Fortunately, AA had new repros in stock, and it needed only minor tweaking to fit (had to move a couple of holes).

I also connected the heat control cables and the hoses to the body ducts.

Here are a couple of pics of the finished job:

[Dave_Darling]

One of the reasons why I will never sell my car is because I know there would be a thread just like this done about it... There were a lot of things that I did as I was learning, and a lot of things that I did that made sense to me at the time, that will just be utter hacks to the next person who deals with the car.

--DD

[930cabman]

One of the reasons why I will never sell my car is because I know there would be a thread just like this done about it... There were a lot of things that I did as I was learning, and a lot of things that I did that made sense to me at the time, that will just be utter hacks to the next person who deals with the car.

--DD

disagree

none of us(at least 99%) are notfactory trained and are doing the best we can with what we have with these ancient jalopies.


(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[East coaster]

I have to admit that I cringe thinking of some of the things I did to my early 914s. That said, I was a kid just learning and I think that’s how I got to the level of doing proper repairs these days.