Sold the 944

We were doing some yard work and had the garage door open when a guy stopped in front of the house and asked if the Porsche was for sale... So it went to a new temporary home of a guy who was going to fix it and turn it around for a profit. He paid me $1000 for it, not bad considering I paid $3800 and got 5 solid years of use out of it, and only put about $1000 into it over that time.
I will miss it, it's been a fun little car, but honestly, I'll never get around to fixing it before all the other cars I need to fix...and they are still cars that are able to be picked up for relatively little money, I can get another one if I want it, maybe one without the peanut butter color interior.

944 overheats and won't start

Got stuck at the nursery today when the 944 wouldn't start and then overheated.

New Starter for 944

Jim and I installed the new starter tonight, but the car still does not start. Tried charging the battery, which had in fact lost all it's charge, but that didn't work, all that happens when you try to start it is a click! whirrr... we'll be trouble shooting later in the week...

Starter in 944 and Possible Source of the Thunking in 95 Cad

Today the starter is coming out of the 944. Of course this took some doing, first we had to push the car onto the street and then push it down the hill to push start it. But the lip of the drive way to the street was too steep so we had to pull it out with another car. Then we push started it and put it up on ramps in the garage.

The bolts holding the starter on were on super tight it took a while to get them loose. But it's off now. The original plan was to put new brushes in it, but I ordered the brushes over a year ago, and can't find them now. Also, apparently we need the biggest screwdriver ever made to get to them.

After looking online, it seems the cost of a starter for the 944 has come down, so I'll be ordering a rebuilt one for $99 from Kragen.




We also looked at the Cadillac to see what fell off,  The engine compartment revealed a huge chunk of deteriorating plastic that had fallen off the firewall. After searching for a while we discovered the bushing on the sway bar near the rear drivers side wheel had lost it's fastening strap and bolts. I'll have to find one of those.

944 died on me, I'm wondering if it's the alternator. battery just died, no warning. also, somethings loose in the suspension too, it shimmies when I make a left turn on the freeway.

944 battery and oil change

I changed the oil in the 944 at 173k miles and bought a new battery - it cost $106 - ouch.

After this was all done it took a while to start the car up - it didn't want to turn over, and once it did start up, it smoked like crazy!

But after I drove it around the block, it was running well and cleanly. Now I need to take it in the get smogged and registered. The tag on the car is from Nov 08...

The extra good news is that it seems there is nothing wrong with the starter. One less thing to fix - hooray!

944 Strut assemblies in!

My brother came over to my house to help me install the assemblies, but he ended up just doing it by himself (with me looming over his shoulder). It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be just one bolt on the bottom, and four small ones on the top. So they are in now, and I need to get a new battery before I can start it up an try them out.

Thanks Doug!

Another New Battery

I had to get a new battery for the 67 eldo, there was no charging or jumping it. another $100 - when did batteries get so expensive? But as soon as the battery went in, it started right up no problems.

Also Jim and I had to push the 944 to the edge of our long(ish) driveway which is uphill by the way. We utilized the help of a firelog as a stopper under the wheel for every foot we pushed it, we threw the ebrake on and shoved the piece of wood under the wheel to make sure we didn't lose what little ground we had made. needless to say it took a while to push the car up hill the car length it needed to go.

Spider Bomb

Launched a bug bomb in the garage today to get rid of any lingering black widows. I might do a second one tomorrow just to be sure that they are not going to be dropping onto me when I go under any of the cars.

Black Widows

So bringing the 944 into the garage was a mistake, apparently it was infested with black widow spiders. I killed 6 of them today with a can of raid and an egg sac, but I think there are more... and the part that creeps me out is that I had rolled the windows down, so they may be IN the car...

944 comes back to life

The 944 has been sitting for about a year, I've started it a few times over the year, but essentially it's just been sitting. I used the trickle charger to charge the battery in the 944 it took a couple of days with it. At some point I need to get a 12 amp charger. It turned over one the first try and started a little rough misfiring a bit. I took it around the block and then gave it a bath. and tried to knock all the cobwebs off it with a broom, but there are a lot of them. I might need to take it for a longer drive to see if I can burn out any black widow that might be lingering around in the engine compartment. It's now in the garage waiting for a strut transplant and a starter rebuild.

new struts for 944

I got some used strut assemblys off of craigslist today. the claim is that they only have 100 miles on them, as they were replaced with racing struts.

I bought the assembly's instead of the strut inserts because I do not have the tools required to replace the inserts, and having it done by a mechanic would cost about $800 + parts. so buying the whole assembly that I can install myself, is totally easier and cheaper.

944 pt 2

Today I drove home from my brothers, I didn't want to stop anywhere in case the car didn't start again...and when I got home and took stuff out of the back I noticed that the wire to the hood shock is severed and corroded. Maybe there is a bigger electrical problem.

944

Today I started up the 944 (started right up!) and drove down the freeway a bit (just to make sure the battery charged up).

Then later(again, started right up) I drove it down to Redwood City for a Cadillac club board meeting. When I went to leave, the car didn't want to start. After a few trys it finally turned over, and I drove down to where my brother lives. I wonder if it is the starter that's going out...

Car problems today

(to be edited later)

Today I hooked up the trickle charger to the 944 and after about an hour, it started up. I was going to let it run for the recommended 20 minutes to charge up the battery, but the gas light was on (I forgot that I needed to fill up last time I drove it). So I went down the street to the gas station to fill up. After the tank was full, guess what, the car wouldn't start.

I, of course, had nothing with me... no phone, no jumper cables, not even my camera (two dog-in-cars went by while I was at the station). so, I bought some jumper cables and asked a few people who were filling up at the station to help me out, the first guy said he was in a rush and couldn't, the second guy said it was a company truck and he couldn't, the third guy (a young guy driving a 91 BMW) agreed, but didn't really look like he wanted to). So, we hooked the cars up and it didn't work. That guy and another guy who had just pulled up helped me push the car into a parking spot. And I walked home in my flip-flops. On the way, I was thinking about going to get a battery and swapping it out, but I decided to just call AAA. I renew in April, so I might as well use my last roadside assistance for the year now. Plus, it's such a pain to find stuff for this car, I didn't want to waste half my day looking for a battery.

I drove back to the gas station in the Cadillac, since I figured the AAA battery truck wouldn't take too long to arrive (it didn't - I pulled into the gas station and started filling up the Cadillac, and before the tank was full the AAA guy was there). The guy was really nice, we got into a conversation about cars and racing - he races a '67 Camaro. And we talked about my 944 and how cool it would be to put in some racing struts to replace to worn out struts that are in it right now (which is why I haven't been driving it).

He hooked up the jumper cables and battery to the car, and it still didn't turn over. He said he thought it was the starter, but I told him that there had not been any issues starting the car in the past, and usually a starter will give you a little warning before it gives out. So, he hooked up a second set of cables to the car. It started :-) I left the caddy at the gas station, and high-tailed it back home in the 944. I left the car running in the driveway while I pumped up the tires on my bike, hopefully it was enough time to keep the battery charged enough to start the car again.

Then I rode my bike to the gas station, put my bike in the Cadillac and came home. It can be such a pain in the ass to deal with the cars sometimes.

I'll need to bring the 944 to a Kragen or Autozone and have them test the battery to make sure it's OK.

Battery dead in 944

I haven't turned it over in a few weeks, so the battery had died.

944 spider problem

Today when I left work, the 944 didn't want to start. It seemed like a battery problem, since it just clicked, with no attempt to start. the lights and radio were working with no problems, so I thought maybe there was corrosion on the cables or a bad connection. I tried to wiggle the negative cable but it was on securly and wouldn't budge, the I lifted the cap of the positive cable, and saw a little spider buliding a cocoon type web (most likely planning to lay some eggs there) on my postive battery cable. I shooed the spider away and scraped the web off the battery, then the car started right up.

944 Passed smog!

Yay! I'm late in registering it, so it's costing me $70 instead of $54, but I'm very happy that I don't have to fork out a couple hundred for any smog-related issues...

Smog Check

I need to get a smog check done for the 944. I hope it passes! When I bought it, the guy I purchased it from did the smog check, and one of the numbers was very close to the max then. I'm hoping that stays the same, but am also fully expecting to have to get a new O2 sensor or some other smoggy part.

Changed Oil in Porsche!

Finally! I bought a couple of shorter 2-ton jackstands($20 at Kragen), and changed the oil. I was at about 5k miles since the last change (which is actually under the recommended oil change frequency for this car, but I want to keep changing the oil every 3k).

It's still difficult to change the oil even with these shorter jackstands, but at least I can get under the side of the car to reach the drain plug with the lower jacks (I did need to get Jim to help me loosen the plug - why do these guys at the shops always over-tighten everything?). I'm thinking maybe the drive-up ramp lifts might be a better way to go with this car... Also, the oil filter is angled so you lift it from the top of the engine. This makes no sense to me, there's no way to keep all the oil from spilling out over everything.

But, the drain pan I had (that had overflowed when I changed the oil in the Cadillac)worked perfectly for the 944. Just the right size for the oil pan and oil from the filter.