SC Purchase Questions

[RussR]

Hello All!,
Long time reader, occasional poster. I am looking at an '81 ROW SC in Grand Prix White. basically two owners from new, full books and 206,000 kms on the odometer.

the car seems quite good for it's age. however i just have a few questions:

first off, the rear wing, i thought if you got the wing you also got driving/fog lights in the lower bumper? i thought they came together? but some cars i've seen with just the wing?

secondly, the dial in between the front seats, with a blue 0 and the word "off" in red, what does this do? is it some sort of heater control?

thirdly, i felt the car seem like it jumped out of gear when shifting from first to second gears, would this be clutch or gearbox related? it only did it once and i had just been accelerating around a corner and felt like it did it whilst i was changing gears - could this be clutch adjustment? the clutch was recently replaced

lastly - if the timing chain tensioners were done 50k kms ago, but not with carrera oil fed (they used the originals) should it be something i do straight away? or can it wait? there is no noise at all from the chains themselves (this is coming from someone with about 3 vintage mercedes-benzes that have all had stretched chains at one time)

thanks in advance, sorry for the long first post.
Russ

PS. and it has black trim peices behind the door handles, to stop scratches on the paint - are these an option from the factory or aftermarket?

[jhynesrockmtn]

I have an 83 ROW SC that's had a Carrera motor transplant. It also has a wing, not sure what it's from, probably a Carrera as well. No foglights. Many 911's have had wings added later.

The dial is the heat control. They have a form of automatic heating with a temp sensor. Make sure it's working.

I'd offer the same advice you'll get from many others. Get a PPI by a good, independant mechanic who can go over all the systems and do a leak down and compression test, look for pulled studs, etc. Very cheap insurance.

The car could have synchro issues or you could have shifted funny. Take it out again and accelerate to a shift point and then let the gas off prior to shifting with your hand off the shifter. Does it pop out of gear doing that?

The pressure fed tensioners are certainly better with with new ones you'd probably be ok for a bit. Weird they would put in new and not upgrade them.

Can't comment on the door handle things.

[Porsche_monkey]

Jumping out of gear is likely the dog teeth. It is pretty common, and not terribly difficult to fix provided you are willing to rebuild the transmission yourself.

I am not a huge fan of the oil fed tensioners, properly looked after the originals are fine. They got this car to 203,000 km.

[ROW911SC]

Hi. I'm the second owner (22 years) of a ROW '81 SC.

My car has a factory turbo tail along with the Bosch fog lights. The lights are fairly easy to get (eBay or a parts supplier).

Yes, the dial is the temp. control switch. The temp. sensor is overhead above the rear view mirror and should be checked or replaced.

I also opted to replace the chain tensioners with stock, new ones after speaking with several mechanics. The Carrera-style pressure-fed system apparently does have some problems on an SC.

The black trim pieces are NLA, but not a Porsche item. I have a set (found on eBay) that I'm going to install, but I believe the door handles (and interior panels and maybe the windows) have to come out.

Definitely spend the money for a PPI!

Good luck.