The Jedi 911SC

[TeeJayHoward]

Current pic:



Through a bizarre series of events, I found myself with a 1981 911SC. I've never really been a Porschefile even though I did love my '71 Super Beetle as a teen. I won't go into the specifics of how I acquired the car, but it was a rough "driver" condition vehicle. Almost. OK, more rough than driver. But it WAS something that could move under its own power! And yes, I overpaid - Don't we all these days? Here's a pic from the day it was acquired:



I have a soft spot for problematic old cars, so a lot of love was incoming. Fair warning, the time table on this build is bizarre. Everything is laid out in chronological order (roughly), but I have a habit of hopping around, doing nothing for months, and then banging out two or three things at a time. I may or may not have ADD, so many of these tasks were left unfinished for so long that I honestly don't remember if I finished them. Additionally, this thread is a compilation of my personal notes and some info from another forum. There may be foul language. If you find any, PLEASE let me know and I'll remove it. I think I got it all, but I'm only human! At any rate, what follows are the trials and tribulations of Tim.

Chapters
Brake booster burden
Alternator anguish
Parking (brake) pain
Paint pangs
Interior investigations
Dash desires
Speedometer solution
Alternator anguish v2
Air Fuel Ratio regrets
Speedometer solution v2
Air conditioner agony
Speedometer solution v3
Upholstery is a SKILL
Fuel filler flap
Paint peril
Second key sadness
Sunroof suffering
Smuggler box hidey hole headache
Sunroof suffering
Smuggler box hidey hole headache v2
Flapper failure
Dash desires v2
Upholstery is a SKILL v2
Dash desires v3
Upholstery is a SKILL v3
Dash desires v4
Air conditioner agony v2
Dash desires v5
Heater headaches
Gauge Gloominess
Interior investigations v2
Dash desires v6
Door card distress
Dash desires v7
Carpet cataclysm
Tint tribulations
Door card distress v2
Shifter shenanigans
Carpet cataclysm v2
Blower box burden
Lower dash lamentations
Pull knob pains
Turn signal troubles
Lower dash lamentations v2
Lug nut lunacy
Tint tribulations v2
Tire trials
Lower dash lamentations v3
Lock pin letdown
Strut setback
Stereo shame
Quick disconnect difficulty
Seat sorrows
Switch and stop struggles
Electronic ennui
Belt blame
Lower dash lamentations v4
Intake irritations
Pessimistically printing port protectors
Hazard switch heartaches
Spoiler removal sympathies
Paint peril v2 - the lid saga
Carburetor catastrophe
Paint peril v3 - the lid saga continues!
Wideband wipeout
Steering hub shenanigans
Tire tantrum

[TeeJayHoward]

Chapters, continued:
Door jam jumble
AFR assault
Timing curve concernment
Linkage lube oopsie
Bumper bother


The first and most important of the issues with the vehicle is that the brakes were TERRIBLE. It felt exactly like a disconnected vacuum booster. I crawled into the frunk, pulled back the carpet, and located the booster. The car came with a used replacement, and the task didn't appear terribly daunting, so I got to it. Or rather, I started to. See, there was an odd hissing coming from the booster, and the very first nuts I sought to remove were the ones connecting the master cylinder to the booster. They were not even finger tight. They just HAPPENED to be hanging out on the stud. Well, damn, that could be the issue right there - And the fix? Free! So I tightened them down and the hissing sound disappeared.

...The car also died.

On that particular day, I had modern vehicles in my brain for some unknown reason, and my first thought was, "Oh, right. I just fixed a vacuum leak. The ECU will probably need to relearn what normal is. Lemme just unplug and replug the battery right quick." So I did. And you know what? It turns out 1981 technology isn't like modern technology. The car would idle as long as my foot was on the brake pedal, but that's it. There's gotta be something else at play.

A quick google later, and I discovered this whole "CIS" thing was way different from my expected EFI setup. It's like... A distributor for your fuel system? I had a lot of analogies running through my head, but none of them were quite right. What I did get out of the search was that there was an idle screw just like on old carburators, so that was my next thing to fiddle with. I gave it a twist, and the car died. I twisted it the other way, and the idle was still rough.

At this point, the brakes were "better", but still not good. But I had a different problem - the engine, which previously ran just fine, now wasn't working. Since this was to be a daily driver, I needed it fixed, and fast. I can always come back to the brakes. The next thing that got stuck in my head was "Maybe the alternator's bad and it was just running off the battery?" I know, I know. Diagnostically, it was a leap. But you know what?

[TeeJayHoward]

It was easy enough to test rather or not the alternator was functioning. Just get it to idle and look at the voltage. 11.59V? That ain't right. Coming from a world where anything under 13.2V was "replace it now!", seeing this tiny number gave me a case of some bad feels. Thinking about it a bit and rummaging around a lot, I noticed that the bulb was missing in the gauge for the alternator. When I added one, it lit up instantly. The output still wasn't great - 12.8V @ 3500RPM? Certainly it should be a lot higher than that. The idle was still pretty bad (*cough*someonescrewedwiththeidlescrew*cough*) but I can't have a crappy alternator interfering with my diagnostics. Let's replace it.

So a new alternator was ordered. While I waited for its arrival, I decided to tackle another problem - the parking brake, it did nothing!

[TeeJayHoward]

In a bid to learn a bit about these cars braking systems, I took this quite a bit further than needed. It turns out the old 911s have a fairly simple and standard parking brake setup. There's a hole in the rotor to allow you to tighten the parking brake, but I either felt the need to be difficult or it wasn't working right. At any rate, I took it all apart.

I started by removing the wheel:


Then I took off the caliper and backed it through the retainining... Whatever:


At that point, I had access to the gear and could tighten up the brake.


From there on, it was just a matter of putting it all back together. The parking brake worked great! For a day or two, anyway. It's currently right back where it was. A project for another day. At this point, I'm 0/3 on fixes and the car is getting worse every time I touch it. Might as well just walk around and start collecting a list of all that's gone wrong.

[TeeJayHoward]

The paint on this car is... Well, terrible is a nice word for it. It has a 964 body kit installed, and it appears that a drunken monkey was called in to work on a Sunday, stole someone's gun, and hosed black paint everywhere.

The rear bumper has paint cracks:


And fiberglass cracks:


The front fenders were bondo'd to the cowl and painted over:


Someone let a 7-year old play with body filler on the cowl itself:


The front bumper was pitted, cracked, and basically falling apart:


The leading edge of the hood had chips taken out of the paint, and the hood itself is dented like someone sat on it:


Every. Single. Rubber. Piece. on the outside of the car was painted over. Not a single one was removed or masked off before the spray job:



Yeah. It wasn't great. What about the inside?

[TeeJayHoward]

First off, the previous owner was a smoker. Everything in this car's interior is sticky. The carpets stick to your shoes. Your hand sticks to the shifter. The steering wheel is... *shudders* It's terrible. But everything that's here isn't exactly functional, either. For example, look at the heater/defrost control box:



The lever colors are wrong, and the top lever is missing. The stereo next to it? It no workie. Curious as to rather or not the lever was there, I grabbed a flashlight and... Sure enough.



I grabbed a pick and pulled the lever out:




Yay for easy fixes. Knobs ordered. Not that I can move either of the bottom two levers. They're bound up somewhere. And speaking of knobs... The A/C control knobs? They do nothing:



The dashboard must be cracked, as there's a particularly wavy plastic cover over it. It looks like it was stored outside in the sun in some desert climate or something. Not a great look.



But hey, at least the heater boxes aren't rusted!



Oh yeah, random wires were ran everywhere. This switch, for example, did nothing:



The non-functional stereo had an XM radio antenna attached to the cowling with the control box tossed into the frunk:



And tracing those wires back?

[TeeJayHoward]

(cont)
Well...



Let's just say tidyness was not a requirement for whoever installed it.



Thankfully, it's entirely possible to just remove wires that aren't actually in use, and once I pulled out the stereo I noticed that the P/O had already done me the favor of hacking off the factory harness, so... Lemme just install a Deutsch connector and label some wires instead.



Some of the wires were hacked into the harness though. I have no idea what "Door #7" does, but there's no way this is OEM. I left it alone to figure out later.



Then I vacuumed up the mess I found under the passenger carpet:



And moved on to the heat levers. I couldn't hear the fan running in the engine bay, and felt no vibrations on it. I hoped it was something simple, like the switch under the heat levers. Alas, my multimeter said otherwise.



I did notice that the seat mount was installed upside down, so I removed it:



And flipped it over, reattached, and put the passenger seat back in.



Here's some of the stuff I removed that will never again go back in.



Oh, look. My rearview mirror is in terrible shape too. Just how much UV did this plastic take!?



All in all, a fun little automotive archeology dig. Kinda. Let's just say I washed my hands a LOT that day. Oh, and remember me talking about the sticky steering wheel? It was coming apart, too. Shame, 'cause I rather like Momo.

[TeeJayHoward]

(cont)


The glovebox could use a little love, too...



The next time I went sorting through the interior, I decided to see exactly what was up with the dash:

[TeeJayHoward]

The dash in the car had a terrible coverlay on it. I wanted something fancy, like this:



But I couldn't get from A to B until I saw what I was working with. So I started by removing the cover:



It's in terrible, terrible shape.



The dash itself is cracked, like I expected. Oddly, though, it doesn't look to be too warped. I might even be able to save it! Just gotta clean that silicon off first.



I put it down to do some thinking, and started looking at other issues inside the car.

[TeeJayHoward]

My speedometer didn't function correctly. It never went above 30MPH, and seemed to slow down getting there. 60MPH might be 27MPH indicated, with 65MPH being an even 30. Somethin' 'bout it just ain't right. Maybe it's a loose wire.

So I started by removing it:



Nope, they're all pretty secure. I put it back in and moved on.



I got distracted (it happens SO easily!) by a doorbell ring. My new alternator was in!

[TeeJayHoward]

Rather than do the smart thing and look up HOW to replace an alternator, I elected to just tear into it and figure it out as I go. So... I popped the lid:



Removed the bolt holding the fan housing on:



Moved the coil out of the way:




Realized that I had forgotten to disconnect the battery:



Removed the little bolts holding the shroud to the fan housing:



And then I got stuck. I tried to remove the fan belt, but the correct tool was missing. So... I tried to improvise:



Uhh... Nope, it bent the screwdriver. OK, something tougher. How about a punch?



Nope, that was TOO tough. It was deforming the pulley. Maybe an oil wrench?



Nope, not enough grip. I COULD just jam a piece of wood in between the fan blades, but a new fan is pricy as all get-out. Ain't gonna risk damaging mine. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. Maybe I need to summon my inner Tim Taylor and just apply MOAR POWAH!

[TeeJayHoward]

(cont)
Yup. That did it!



OK, let's see here... One... Two...



Three... Four... Five...



Well, that's no good. Where's number six? Whatever. I'm sure it's not important. (Foreshadowing!) I'll just order a replacement and it'll get installed whenever it gets here. Now for those little bolts holding the inner vanes to the alternator:




And it's separated!



But these wires...



They need labelling, 'cause I ain't gonna remember what goes where. So, masking tape and a pencil:



And then off they go!



And it's out!

[TeeJayHoward]

(cont)
Wait... What's up with that fan blade? Did the P/O not care and do the wood-block "just get it off" method I was considering? Turns out there's TWO broken blades on this fan. Oh, come on...



And the engine itself is filthy. Blech. Par for the course, I suppose.



But anyway, the alternator. That's what I'm here for. Let's pop that off. Looks like just one nut left:



Pulling off the fan, you can see the other chip taken out pretty easily.



And a couple of gentle taps against the concrete, and the old alternator is out.



Oh look! A label!



And it's the same as my new one!



Let's just throw the new alt into the shroud:



And chuck it back in:



Presto!

[TeeJayHoward]

(cont)

Now add one belt:



So, does it work? Well... It works better, let's put it that way. 12.78V @ idle instead of @ 3500RPM:



Let's take it for a spin. Bad brakes, terrible idle, and all. Straight to the auto parts store for a core exchange.



And now back home. That was terrible. I have GOT to get this engine running right. Let's start with using the right tools for the job.

[TeeJayHoward]

I remember seeing an O2 sensor when I was poking around with the brakes, so I removed the rear wheel and... Sure enough, thar she be.



The narrowband wasn't even connected. I pulled it out:



Installed a wideband I had laying around:



And connected the gauge inside the car so I could see what's what. At this point, I've got the wires from the battery to the gauge running over the front of the car, and from the wideband to the gauge running through the back of the car. It's a mess. But hey... 11.4 AFR? (Sorry, LEDs + camera = missing number)



Now that I can see what I'm doing, I grabbed the appropriate hex key and twisted until the gauge read what it was supposed to:



Turns out there's TWO things to fiddle with in a CIS system - the idle screw and the AFR screw. Amazing what you can find out when you actually look it up instead of just charging in blindly! So, how'd it go?

No more decel issues.
Idles smoothly.
Doesn't die when I put my foot on the brake.
Burned my thumb taking the wideband out of the pipe.

All in all, a success! So what to next? Lord knows there's plenty to do. How about fixing that speedometer so I don't get a ticket?

[TeeJayHoward]

I previously pulled out the speedo to check and see if it was something simple like a loose wire causing my 30MPH max speed issue.



That wasn't it. So I took it completely out of the car and brought it inside to take it apart. I have no idea what I'm doing, but maybe something obvious will jump out at me.



I started by prying off the bezel:



A tiny screwdriver worked surprisingly well, with minimal damage to the bezel, all of which could be hidden.



After getting the bezel off, it was just an array of rings inside...



Followed by the glass...



And another ring, which kinda hid the part number:



I then flipped it over and started removing the rear screws:



But wait, what's this?



A soldered ground?

[TeeJayHoward]

(cont)

That's easy enough to remove.



And now we have the unit free of its casing.



I started inspecting the board:



Is that a leaky capacitor I see?



Desolder the cap...



And it's a... 47uF 16V capacitor? Standard enough.



I ordered a replacement, and moved on to the next project.

[TeeJayHoward]

You'll note that my compressor is missing. I hear tell it wasn't all that great to begin with, so I don't consider it a huge loss. But there's a lot of junk associated with it that I feel could be removed. So, I elected to do that while I wait for the capacitor to arrive. I knew from the day I bought this car that I wanted a classic retrofit A/C setup, so all of this old nonsense? It goes in the bin:



Or... Uhh... Falls on the engine. Whatever.



Remember how I said the A/C knobs did nothing? Well I don't need a non-functional fan either!



This little piece of... I tried to be nice. I really did. I wanted to see if maybe it DID work and I just had a bum switch or wiring issue or... But no, it HAD to be stubborn. Well you know what? I'm impatient. And I've got an angle grinder.



Rather cool of Porsche to keep the A/C system on its own sub harness. Made ripping it out a lot easier.



Turns out I should just remove the console. So much easier:




I don't think I'm gonna reuse it, but just in case, let's clean it up:

[TeeJayHoward]

(cont)
But why settle for just ripping out the one fan when I could rip out everything else, too!?



Hey, Tim - it's your ADD speaking. The doorbell just rang. SWITCH TOPICS!

[TeeJayHoward]

So let's see... Soldering in a capacitor is easy enough:



Then the ground:



Then some screws:



Then all the stuff on the front of the gauge:



Then the bezel. Lots of pinching there. Does the replaced capacitor fix the issue?

No. It made it worse. It flat out doesn't work at all. Oops. Oh well, I had a backup plan just in case. I had already ordered a couple of Speedhut gauges, including a GPS-based speedometer. Always wanted to see how well they work. Why not?



Well, I guess this project is on hold again until my gauges get delivered. Where was I with that dashboard?