Living with a Porsche 944

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...

It's been an interesting and somewhat confusing week with the 944. Some severe clutch slip coincided with my wife driving the car... I'm not saying that my Lovely is to blame, but there has been no sign of the clutch going up until this point. I've been hesitant to drive the last few days as the clutch may just be the most expensive part to replace besides the engine! However I was out and about today and there's no sign of clutch slip. Granted I didn't tackle the traffic on the school run as before - I used a different route avoiding the slow climb up a hill. So all seems well for now and hopefully I'll not need to fork out for that anytime soon.

Tucked away in North Devon I found this intriguing garage. A fairly tasty selection of old Porsche cars scattered about, including some in various states of restoration. How about some lovely 911s? Or an old 944 or 928? There can't be many garages like this about, but clearly these chaps have cornered the market in this neck of the English woods. Can you see the vintage 911 racer stuffed into the corner beneath the 944 getting a full rear end rebuild? Cool.

I dropped my 944 of at my friendly local garage this morning for them to adjust the rear trailing blade and fit a new wheel bearing to the NS rear wheel. Hopefully all will go well. I found this procedure on the web that shows just how the trailing arm can be adjusted to effect a 20-25mm drop on the rear of the 944 without reindexing the torsion bars - which is a major job best avoided I'm told. I had tried to have the bolts undone when I had my tyres changed recently but the impact wrench at the tyre shop couldn't budge them, and as I don't have a torch to heat them up I figure it best be left with people who do. Thankfully these chaps have a penchant for restoring classics themselves so my 944 should be in good hands. With that done I'll be ready to lower the front by fitting new springs. Not many 944 owners like the idea of lowering their car but I think with the 16" Turbo alloys slightly tucked under the arches it will be a marked improvement in the stan...

Seeing as though it was a bit cooler today I decided to fit the new radiator that's been sitting in my conservatory annoying my wife. My old radiator had developed a slow leak from the left side and with it being summer I was seeing a larger and larger pool of coolant under the car after each drive. When I fitted the new radiator fan recently I had tried to see if I could spot the leak but the only recourse was to fit another. It's a fairly straight forward job and took a little over an hour to do. I find the best way to drain the radiator is by removing the lower hose from the water pump side. The drain plug is in a fiddly position - pull that hose and it's a matter of moments and the engine is empty of coolant. Then it's just a matter of removing the other hoses and fan switch connector, loosening the two top bolts (watch out for the rubber grommits when you pull the rad out) and sliding the radiator out from under the car. Simples. I have found in the past that...

Thankfully I managed to fix the issue with my sunroof today! After reading all posts and web pages again & again, that I could find regarding the sunroof, I came to the conclusion that I'd spend the morning with my son's help fine tuning the "adjusting screw and locknut" to eliminate it from the equation, before I tried to trouble shoot relays and micro-switches. I had my son sit in the cabin, finger on the button. I backed off the adjusting screw until the motor just whirred. I then started to thread in the adjusting screw little bit by little bit until it engaged - this was less than a quarter turn at a time. Turn screw, push button, turn screw push button etc etc etc until the motor pushed the roof up. Then I turned the locknut - the first few times it the motor went back to whirring. I tightened it up and back it off until the sunroof was working as before. So as it turns out that adjusting screw & locknut need minute adjustments to set the slip cl...

Not withstanding Englands first game in the World Cup this evening, I think I will tackle my sunroof issue today. It won't go up - only down. I've had lots of advice regarding this anamoly, which only started after I'd removed the sunroof a couple of months ago to soak up the first of the summer sunshine. Don't you just hate it when things work perfectly then all of a sudden don't - without any obvious reason? Hopefully I can get to the bottom of it quickly.