Ambition Fulfilled - my 1972 911T coupe

[Arne]

Parts swapping for testing the CDI box.

[JT912]

You could also test fit that fancy side mirror. Good luck. Hope to see you tomorrow.

[Arne]

I should be there. It's not far, and it runs somewhat well until it gets really good and warm.

Parts swapping unsuccessful, other than I now know a couple more things that are not the issue.

[Arne]

Efforts to get it running well continue, as discussed in the tech thread linked in post #78. Waiting on a new check valve to arrive for that effort.

In the meanwhile, I'm picking away at other less important things. For example, the clock now works again after some careful cleaning, judicious lubrication and re-soldering the internal safety fuse. Seems to be losing about 5 minutes a day so far, but I want it to run for a while longer before I start trying to regulate it. The door travel checks have had the rollers freed and lubed, and new springs installed. (Not totally happy with the springs I found, a bit more tension would be better.)

I think I'm going to pull the front bumper off for detailed inspection today. See what I really have, whether it's a good enough fiberglass piece to keep and refurb, or whether I need to replace it with steel.

[Arne]

It's been a while since I've updated this thread, most of my activity has been on the thread linked in post #78 about getting the car to run properly when warmed up. Still working on that, the injection pump has been sent to MFI Werks for some expert attention. So not much going on that front here in my garage right now.

In the meanwhile, other things are getting addressed as time goes by. I did inspect the fiberglass front bumper on the back side, and have decided it is not worth repairing as it is a rather poorly made piece. I will need to replace it, probably with steel. Not sure at this time whether I will do an S bumper (as it has now) or a standard one (as I believe it was built with).

While the engine is down waiting on the MFI work, I'm going through the rest of the suspension. I've replaced the front sway bar link bushings, and new shocks and inserts (Sachs/Boge) are on their way now.

(Side comment - Sachs strut inserts are becoming hard to get as aftermarket parts. Most warehouses are out, and some claim Sachs has discontinued these parts. They appear to be relatively available in Porsche Classic boxes though, at a correspondingly higher price. Probably a similar situation to what happened with the RoW Bosch/AL H4 headlights a couple years back. Porsche seems to have bullied their way to being the exclusive distributor.)

Other little things happening as well, as I bide my time waiting to get the MFI pump back, and hopefully get the car running well enough to drive. I'm really not that far away.

[Arne]

Now that the special coverage of my MFI/poor running problem has completed, we return now to our regularly scheduled programming.

After the successful resolution to the poor running problem linked above, the car now runs great. The entire mess was far from being a loss, as everything in the tuning process has been checked and verified. All that remains now is a final check of the mixture settings using an air/fuel ratio sniffer, which will happen in the next day or two. But even with just baseline bench settings, the car runs great. I could leave it as it is and be totally happy.

While all that was going on, a couple of other things were addressed. One is that I replaced the "terrible, horrible, no-good very bad" KYB shocks and inserts with a new set of Boge/Sachs units. As with the MFI fix and the engine, the new dampers transformed the ride and handling. After being off the road for 20 years, it feels and drives like a Porsche now.

I also -- way before I really need them -- bought a set of four restored Fuchs from Peter. I don't expect to put them on the car for quite some time yet, possibly not until after paint.

I also have an appointment to have the car corner balanced and aligned in a few weeks.

As of now, most everything works, and works well. The exceptions are the windshield washers, the speedometer and the rear defroster. Oh yeah, I don't think I've tested the vent fan.

But even now, before the alignment and fine-tune on the MFI, the car is great. The basics are now done, and (considering the car's history) it drives better than it has for probably 25 years.

Now, time to start working on the rest of it.

[Arne]

The MFI has been fine tuned, and - as expected - it didn't need much. The baseline calibration that Mark set up on the test bench was VERY close. I ended up going a single click richer on the part load (main rack) adjustment. That was all. And it runs really nice, couldn't hope for any better.

Then today, my wife wanted to make a trip to the nursery at the far end of town for some plants, and since the Porsche was pretty much debugged and she hadn't ridden in it yet, we went for a drive. About 30 miles or so, including some freeway. The car did great. No problems at all. Very happy with where I'm at with it now.

[Arne]

More driving, more things straightened out. Got the speedometer working now, although it glitches occasionally which makes me think I need to replace the inner cable. Not a big deal, if I can find the correct length. Maybe not too hard to shorten a too-long cable if it gets to that, I suspect.

I've felt some thumping over some larger bumps in the back, got to wondering if I was bottoming out as it did look rather low in the rear. Did some measuring, determined the rear ride height was way low, almost 2" (50mm) below factory spec. So I put it in the air and pulled it apart to check the spring plate angle. Factory spec for a '72 is 36.5-37° -- my car was at 32° on both sides. I reindexed the torsion bars to set the angle just a touch under stock spec, at 36° even. Much happier now. Car doesn't look like it's squatted in the back, and the thumping noises are gone. Still sits a bit under factory height, by about 10mm.

All good so far, continuing to pick away at things daily.

[Arne]

Racking up some miles this past week.

First a short drive on Saturday to our local PCA monthly meeting and coffee clatch. Not the oldest in attendence, definitely the rattiest looking, but was popular with the masses even so.



Then today, a real milestone, with the car's first real road trip in 20 years. About a 120 miles round trip to visit Scott Longballa and chat about paint work. Some definite possibilities there.



Overall, the car did quite well considering it still needs to be corner balanced and aligned after all the suspension disassembly and reassembly. Still need to work on the oil leak at the nose, and I think the clutch needs some adjustment too.

Testing my 370mm Abarth wheel on it, haven't decided if I want that or if I want to recover the stock leather 400mm. Decisions, decisions...

[LongRanger]

. . . Then today, a real milestone, with the car's first real road trip in 20 years. About a 120 miles round trip . . . chat about paint work . . .

Hhhh --- = too bad . . .



. . . 'cause 'at's what I call a 'no guilt' finish








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