Amost a Decade of TheHoff

This week I celebrated nine years of owning TheHoff. I had figured it was ten... not just TheHoff whose getting on...

It’s been one interesting journey. When I read back on my own posts I surprise myself but I’m glad they’ve been useful & entertaining for others too. Sometimes I need reminding of just how much I’ve actually done to this car over the ten years in my care. And it all brings a smile to my face.

The Porsche 944 is such a great car. It’s good that finally they’re starting to get the kudos they deserve. What some guys are doing to theirs is truly inspiring.

This summer TheHoff passed another MOT uneventfully and I even got some good drives in, reminding myself that if I didn’t drive it, it should go to someone who would. i just need to take more and better pics...

The one thing that did go ‘wromg’ recently was the odometer gear stopped working. It’s a common fault - the one toothed gear shreds itself or as in my case just disintegrates.

I bought a new 20/21 gear from an eBay seller in Germany. PartsWerks or something.

It’s easy enough to follow Clark’s guide to remove the cluster and carefully separate the speedo. Then remove a few small screws to disassemble the unit to remove the gears. It’s fiddly but nothing like the nightmare of frustration I was expecting working with such tiny parts.

With it all back together back the speedo went into the cluster and back into the dash.

Then course out for a good test drive!

I took my father in law for a drive and jokingly handed him a helmet when he got in...

He loved it.

Comments

Engine out the top - Easy Peasy

After reading numerous posts, the Porsche workshop manual and Clarks Garage step-by-step engine removal guide - I felt confident enough to tackle the job. But I wanted to remove the engine from the top. As I discovered, it was pretty straight forward even for a novice! Result. I wanted to avoid removing the cross member and disturb the front suspension to do something I was convinced could be done easier from the top. Posts such as this one convinced me to give it a go at least. And I'm glad I did. In summary I was able to remove the engine from the top without needing to remove the bonnet/hood; torque tube; transaxle; bellhousing; clutch; clutch slave cylinder; cross member; front suspension; and radiator. Contrary to many so called internet experts opinions and many confusing threads this was painless and without dread. All that was necessary to remove was the starter; power steering pump and alternator (I figured to make the bottom of the engine narrower); intak...

Bellhousing & Clutch fork removal

Removing the bellhousing from the Porsche 944 engine is not as complicated as it may seem - such as in this situation with my replacement engine. When I removed the original engine I detached it from the bellhousing in the car and removed the clutch pressure plate bolts through the starter motor hole - see my other post for details . In this case I decided to remove the clutch fork pivot shaft bolt. Begin by removing the four 17mm bellhousing bolts - you'll find that the bellhousing doesn't detach completely from the engine. It'll feel like its hooking on something. That something is the clutch fork pivot shaft inside the bellhousing. The bellhousing will be loose enough to rotate - turn it 180 degrees and peek through the access port which is now on top - this is what you'll see: If the engine is still in car you'll be looking at this from underneath. The pivot shaft needs to be extracted from the clutch fork. It's held in place by a small bolt on the...

New Steering shaft bearing Nightmare removal

In my quest to tighten up the handling on the 944, I bought a new Needle Bearing from Porsche in an attempt to eliminate the fore-aft play in the steering at the top universal joint. The part number for the replacement is 477.419.059 and costs £88.86 posted from an OPC. Nothing like the effort required to actually remove the old one... I began the process by reading section 48 of Porsche Workshop manual. It appeared a simple enough process but two things bothered me: firstly, it required a chisel to remove a shear bolt (which in my limited experience never "shear"; and secondly a drill to remove two screws from the ignition lock. I was bothered because a quick look under the dashboard made it quite obvious that whoever had written the manual hadn't performed this task - well not without a dashboard in place that's for sure. I was bothered before I'd even started. Furthermore, the manual doesn't detail the replacement of this bearing at all - just the rem...

Living with a Porsche 944

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