Tool and spares kit

[BobP]

I am looking for suggestions for a tool and spares kit for 914 road trips, weekend and longer. I currently carry fuses, a couple screwdrivers, an adjustable wrench, a small pair of vice grips and a AAA card.

I figure I should add some light bulbs.

Fuel filter?

It's a 75 do I need any L-jet parts? I haven't had any failures yet, other than a sticking air bleed, that would keep the car in high idle.

I am putting in a Pertronix this year, are they prone to failure should I carry a spare?

What else do people carry or suggest? It has to be somewhat reasonable as I also need to carry 2 people and luggage

[JP Noonan]

I have a Craftsmen all metric tool set. Nice case all the sockets, I also have combo wrenches, and sparkplug socket.

I have a test sparkplug thingy. It is a fake spark plug with a alligator clip on it to test for spark. I also have a injector "noid" it is a %4 tester to see if the injectors are firing. My fuel pump is new, but I have a 15' 12 ga wire that has a 30 amp fuse in-line so I can (if need be) hook the pump directly to the battery.

A mutimeter or at least a test light. Lots of fuses. Electrical tape, duct tape and bail wire, for when the muffler bracket fails.

fix-a-flat.

couple quarts of oil.

extra clutch cable and trunion, if the cable breaks you will most likely loose the trunnion too. A spare accel cable.

A jumper pack, basically a small extra battery.

A spare voltage regulator.

4 C-V joint bolts, and the tool to install them.

a kitchen sink.

[BobP]

I suppose I can use the kitchen sink to pack everything else into

Thanks for the suggestions, do the CV bolts really fail or come out?

I was actually thinking about one of those Craftsman plastic case metric toolsets, they have some fairly complete sets in a handy box.

I also was thinking a small plastic toolbox of spares.

The clutch cable is two years old, I don't expect it to break for a while.

I like the fuel pump jumper wire idea, that sounds good.

What about relays? The car seems to have quite a few, although it looks like most are interchangeable at least for testing.

[Germain]

About the only things I see that you are missing are...

Cell phone, food, water.

With those, everything else is just an added way to spend extra time on the road not really solving anything. Now I've done my share of off-road trail fixes on my Jeep, but that's only to limp it back 6-7 miles to camp. There we have real tools.

When I'm on the road with a car, there are really very few problems you can fix. It is unlikely that your 914 will break a drive shaft .

The things you can see going wrong on the road (that you should be able to fix), if you do proper maintainance and check it over before you go (so I'm excluding things like a clogged fuel filter).

1) blown tire. bring spare.
2) blown fuse. bring spare.
3) broken belt. bring spare.
4) broken wire. bring an electronics kit and simple tools to work on F.I. system.

That's about it. At least I can't think of anything else that breaks one can really fix on the road given reasonable tools and time.

[BobP]

That's the kind of thing I am thinking.

I am wondering about 914 specific parts, like the relays. I haven't had any fail, but I could see it happening and it should be an easy fix if you have the spare. What other things like that are there?

As far as fuel filters, I had bad gas ruin a trip once, I don't know what was in it, but one tank of it plugged a 1 month old fuel filter basically solid, and it isn't that hard to fix on most cars.

[JP Noonan]

Maybe I'm just lucky, but out of the 7 or so times I've had a car die (O.K. 4-5 of those times were in a 914) I've been able to fix the car and be back on the road, all but twice. Once was a blown MAF sensor in a 1990 Reatta the other was when a concrete block fell off a truck in front of me and ripped the deep sump oil pan off my 914.

1. blown fuel pump fuse, figured it out, replaced it.
2. C-V joint bolts backed out, no limited slip differential so the free wheel spun until I took bolts out of other parts of the car to limp home.
3. Fuel pump fuse blew and continued to blow. Jumpered the pump till I got home, found out later to be a bad AAR shorting out the system, but I still got home.
4. Pushed in the clutch to shift and POP. Had an extra cable and a trunion. Actually found the old trunnion a few days later on the other side of the road (happened a few blocks from a friend's house).
5. Dash gauges went crazy, engine died, smoke from the interior as I unpluged the battery. A PO used masking tape/drafting dots for electrical contacts under the passenger seat. Shorted out the ing wire which killed the electrical system. Some liberal use of electrical tape and I drove home.
6. Fuel pump on my 90 Bronco wouldn't turn off, even with the key removed. Then it wouldn't turn on, 150 mile from nowhere. Swaped out the A/C relay and it was just a hot ride home but I made it. Without a multimeter I would have towed it.

I don't recomend the spares I mentioned flipently, IT IS FROM MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE...." your results may vary "

...and yes the average time was at least a half hour to maybe two hours in nice weather, but then again when my oil pan ripped off it was thanksgiving day night and I waited 4 hours for a tow truck.



P.S. Germain.... go roll your eyes at someone else.....I didin't break a driveshaft, not on a 914 anyway. My 13 sec Lightning has a "driveshaft" safty loop for that. (front engine, rear wheel drive...drive shaft. Mid engine, transaxle.... half-shafts.)

[URY914]

Install a trailer hitch and bring along a spare 914 in running condition. If (when) one breaks, drive the other.

[Germain]

Noonan, sorry if you misuderstood (or maybe I am right now). The eye rolling bit about driveshafts is regarding the off road circut. I see broken drive shafts all the time. Just about everyone carries a spare shaft when off roading.

I'm interested about the safty loop you have on your lightning. A loop that prevents that suspension from flexing so much that the drive shaft falls out I'm assuming. I'm talking about breaking drive shafts from applying too much torque to the shaft, snapping it in to. They don't make any safty straps for that.

Oh yea, my post we ment to be everything that Noonan had said plus some water/food and cell phone.

[John Rogers]

I'd recommend a spare throttle cable and spare clutch cable. With the clutch cable have the two 7mm lock nuts and the trunion. Have wrenches, allen wrenches and screwdrivers to do the replacements of both cables. Six or eight pairs of rubber gloves are nice for keeping the hands clean. Flashlight with spare batts is handy too. Good luck.

[JP Noonan]

ah shucks I wasn't put off, I was just having some fun.

The loop is bolted to the underside of the bed (body on cars) it catches the driveshaft if the front U-joint fails during a quartermile run. If it wasn't there a steel driveshaft will dig into the ground and flip the car. Mine is an alumnium shaft so it is mainly to save the shaft if the ujoint breaks.

The axles on my truck are held in with C-clips at the point they enter the differantial carrier. If I break an axle it "spits" out the side with the whell attached. Usally dosn't go far but can cause damage to the axle housing.

BTW carring a Jeep/Dana half shaft/axle my not help much. The ones I've pulled apart at NAPA needed to be pressed out of the hubs because the splines deform.

[rdupre@houston.rr.com]

One thing that I carry that is unique to the lists above is one of those strap wrenches that Bob Vila hawks on TV for Sears.

I was at a gas station (fortunately near my house) one day and could not get the gas cap to come off despite all my grunting and groaning. I drove home and was able to take the gas cap off by using one of these wrenches. Now, one is permanently ensconced in the front trunk. Maybe it was a one time thing, but I'd hate to have this happen again too far from home...

[ovilla]

Definitely carry spare fuses and one or two relays (or use the one's from the front headlight motors - as long as your driving during the day). I also carry a fan belt and a really long screwdriver.
One time I went on a 4 hour trip and every time I stopped somewhere the 914 didn't want to start (NOTE: I have a 75 with the fuel pump under the gas tank). Anyway, I would use the long screwdriver to make contact between both studs on the starters solenoid and I was able to start the car each time. PLEASE make sure that the car is NOT in gear and that the parking brake is on when you do this. BTW, for the time being I byspassed the solenoid with a hot start relay and it starts fine each time now.
Other than that, keep in mind that most 914's are all about preventive maintenance or continual restoration. I like working on my 914 (great therapy), plus I want it to be really reliable so my motto has been to replace anything that can be unbolted or disconnected. During a 5-lug conversion the entire suspension and braking system was upgraded and I also bought a new fuse box and replaced ALL electrical relays (kept the old one's as spares). Even replaced the accelerator and clutch cable's and all cable fittings (you'll be surprised at how much smoother everything works after that).
Finally, carry a cell phone and add towing to your insurance. This way, no matter where you break down, you just call your insurance company and ask them to send a flat bed truck. Towing is only $5 extra on Allstate and they re-imburse you $50 for each time you have to use a tow truck.
Oh, when you're out on America's beautiful highways and you see another 914, ALWAYS wave back.

[maf 914]

JP,

Your clutch cable failure reminds me of mine. I was about two miles from home approaching a stop sign at a tee intersection. As I pushed in the clutch to shift into first I felt or heard a bang and the clutch pedal let go. I guessed clutch cable and it was. I pushed the car off the road and walked to a house nearby where the resident kindly allowed me to use the phone to arrange a tow with my sister's van. It didn't occur to me that the cable end and trunion had parted company. We got the car home where I replaced the broken cable with my spare cable and trunion. I drove back to the intersection, looked around and found the cable end with lock nuts and trunion lying in the road, a little pitted from being run over and ground into the pavement, but still usable.

I had a spare cable and trunion due to past experience. The first failure I experienced was a gradual failure of the original equipment trunion that came on the car. It was made from what appeared to be a nylon plastic, and the ears that mate to the clutch arm distorted until they failed, conveniently in my driveway! The car was about three years old at the time. The replacement trunion was metal as have been the ones I have bought since. I guess they wisely gave up on the plastic version.

The clutch cable, trunion and lock nuts are must-have spares, along with a throttle cable.

Mike

[SteveStromberg]

I drive my 914 more miles per week than most drive theirs in a month. I average 1K miles a week.My DD never lets me down every 3k I change the oil and Adjust the vavles then I give it the once over to make sure all the bolts are tight and all is well. I carry a small tool kit with metric wrenches and the like but I have never had to use it. I just check the oil and fill the gas then drive it. Steve