Emergency Tow Problem

rmcdonnell · 01-26-2009, 01:52 PM

Hi Folks,

Short version.
Where can I attach rope at the front to tow the car a short distance...?
What thread size is the front towing eye?
************

My car has stopped, with no gears selectable, about 1 mile from my house. To get it off the road (a rather busy two lane road) I got my boys to push it up the road and round a corner where it might be OK for a day or two, but obviously, I want to move it home as soon as possible. Sadly it's new home tonight is muddy and potholed, and way too small for tow trucks so don't give me any of that nonsense...! As the clutch has gone, there is power steering, lights and an engine, just no drive.

I have another car with a tow ball, and a tow rope with hooks. I couldn't find anything suitable in the dark to hook onto the car at the front, and now I'm back home again, I've found in the owners manual, the usefull info that in the tool kit for the car is a big threaded Towing eye, that screws into the bumper. If only I had the original tool kit! Thread size anyone? M12 or larger maybe? Maybe I can get a threaded eyelet from the local hardware store. Or nuts, bolts washers. Ideas, suggestions welcome.

regards
Rissole.

944 Ecology · 01-26-2009, 02:55 PM

The towing eye is only on the turbo and s2 cars in the usa, but might be on row cars.

The thread size is larger than M14, and is unique to the 944 cars. Your dealer might be able to help.

If that doesn't work, a couple of J hooks (tow truck operators have them) will fit under the front bumpers, on the usa cars. Don't know about the row cars.

zedsn · 01-26-2009, 03:08 PM

My 83 944 had stamped metal eyelets underneth to each side and I made a cable with a clamp on either end and used a strap to connect it to my bumper and it worked quite well.

Techno Duck · Techno Duck's Garage

Highly unlikely you will find anything locally with the thread. Its a weird one, i dont know the exact name but i think its a knuckle thread. Sort of like an Acme thread, but it is rounded out instead of angled. Ive got no idea what the thread pitch or size is though.

Your local Porsche dealer very well may stock them, they are used on everything up through recently i think and are not all that expensive. 996-721-151-00

Only some ROW n/a models have a tow hook provision in the front, as you mentioned you need to remove the right side bumper pad. If your car does not have this provision, take the bumper off (two bolts, disconnect turn signals and driving lights if equipped and pull right from the bumper mounts).

rmcdonnell · 01-26-2009, 03:32 PM

Thanks,
I keep wondering where I put that tool roll. I'd be suprised if it were a special thread, and saw someone suggest it was an M20 with 3.0mm thread pitch: has anyone got one in their tool kit they can mic up?

Nearest Porsche place is 15 miles on the wrong side of town, 30 miles round trip. The hardware store is fifty yards from where I pushed it..! And work is in completely the other direction so I'm SOL right now, and probably tommorrow.

Rope around the bumper mounts might work, but the position for working on it is pretty poor.

I wondered if the towing eyes were the same thread as any other euro cars, as there are dealers for french, german and italian cars all quite close at hand

And then it's time to find out whats really wrong with it.
I knew I shouldn'y have booked that rolling road session next week..

cheers
Rissole

rmcdonnell · 01-26-2009, 05:05 PM

Hey, I've just discovered my bank account includes free vehicle recovery

Course, the AA man will still need to pull on something.
I think tomorrow t'will be time to buy a towing eye, unless he has a better idea.

Cheers Rissole

GostRidr · 01-26-2009, 05:18 PM

Hey Rissole

What is mic? I know my kit has a towing eye (S2) are you asking for a measurement somehow? Also, maybe the owners manual speaks to the towing issue.

good luck!

Dark Skies · 05:32 PM

I've just measured one on my desk. It's an M20 bolt with 2mm wide threads and 9 threads per inch (25 mm) so at a rough and ready guess that's what? 2.8 mm pitch ? I remember that when screwing these in they're quite a sloppy fit until they're tight so you ought to have a bit of leeway. I can't think of any Euro cars that use the removable towing eye design apart from Porsche. According to PET there are a number of towing eyes but the most common throughout the range has the part number: 928 722 101 05 You can just make out the thread profile on this Ebay pic (Item number: 150323460417)

jpk · 01-26-2009, 05:39 PM

It's a strange size; the diameter is 20mm, but the thread pitch is actually a bit more than 3mm, more like 3,25mm, with a standard clockwise thread.
I know it will not fit on my Saab, that has a smaller diameter and an reverse thread.
I don't recall ever seeing the threaded reciever on the bumper of an NA car, only the turbos , S2's and 968.
The tow operator can hook on the the lower control arms to pull it up on the truck.

rmcdonnell · 01-26-2009, 05:40 PM

Thanks Dark skies,
obviously a night owl like me, and thankyou very much indeed.
I will try the local ironmongers first thing tommorrow and see if they either have a threaded eye or just a suitable machine screw or bolt, nuts washers etc.

Gostridr...
mic is to measure with a micrometer, and Dark skies has shone through.

Rissole

Dark Skies · 01-26-2009, 05:50 PM

No worries. As an insomniac endlessly prowling the house it gave me something to do.

rmcdonnell · 01-26-2009, 05:54 PM

I just checked a few metric fastener tables; looks like Techno Duck was right when he said it was weird, as M20 comes in 1.5,2 and 2.5 thread pitch variants, and this is bigger. So no visit to the hardware shop after all.

So rope, bumper mountings, or lower control arms it is then.
cheers
Rissole

Dark Skies · 01-26-2009, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmcdonnell

I just checked a few metric fastener tables; looks like Techno Duck was right when he said it was weird, as M20 comes in 1.5,2 and 2.5 thread pitch variants, and this is bigger. So no visit to the hardware shop after all.

So rope, bumper mountings, or lower control arms it is then.
cheers
Rissole

If the AA man of which you speak is the UK Automobile Association then he might have a Porsche towing eye in his tool box anyhow. It must be a fairly common obstacle he has to face.

rmcdonnell · 01-27-2009, 02:33 PM

So the AA meeting was set for 7:30pm, it being explained that the car was not a roadside repair and that I really didn't want them to send a man to look at it before getting a recovery vehicle. It was also explained that I lived nearby so any sort of tow was feasible, but that I hadn't got a Towing Eye. Many other things were also explained, involving location, location, location.

After 20 minutes in the freezing cold, I ring the garage assigned by the AA, to be told the driver of the recovery vehicle is in Cherry Hinton, a fine suburb 20 minutes away, but on his way. He has no phone, so I can't contact him, or he me. After half an hour he arrives in a small van, I flag him down. It is soon obvious that his puny van is not equipped or allowed to tow me, and yes, he was sent to look at it. We look at it.

There follows a radio conversation. "Don't worry, " he says cheerfully, as he reverses away from me. "The AA are sending a flatbed from Bar Hill. He's on his way." Bar Hill is a fine satellite development about half an hour away. He drives back again to say, "If you could stand where you were, this turning is easy to miss."

I walk down the road to the Pub, which is only open three nights a week, and tonight was not one of them. I walk up the road to a cafe then decide I haven't got time for a cup of tea, as the flatbed lorry driver is now due in 7 minutes and it took me five to walk to the cafe. I walk back and give the Porsche a gentle pat then a not so gentle kick. For a moment I consider setting fire to it but the phone rings: it's the AA.

"Hi," they say cheerfully. "We're sending a flatbed to pick your car up." "Mmmm," I mmm tight lipped. "It should be with you by 9pm!" they chuckle. I retrace my steps to the cafe which is now shut. I retrace my retraced steps towards the Porsche and am immediately overtaken by a flatbed truck which slows inadequately if at all, before turning slowly at the roundabout and carefully driving off in exactly the wrong direction.

I ring the garage and explain they have just driven past me, and headed off the wrong way. And so on. He drove past me just three more times, and when he did finally stop beside me, it was to ask if I knew were Sandy Lane was. I told him I did, as I had been standing in it for the last hour and a half, and as explained to the AA, it is unmarked with a street sign, but there is a handy white Porsche jauntily parked where people pushing it abandoned it. The retrieval begins.

I asked him to to use both control arms to winch the car on with, as I haven't got a towing eye, but a few moments later I hear a pop as the front spoiler deforms around a single cable attached to the roll bar. I explain the car rolls better uphill onto his so called flatbed if I take the handbrake off. He shrugs, as if he has heard this, oh so many times before.

30 minutes later and my car is outside on my drive again, safe and relatively undamaged, though I will have to check the roll bar now. Probably could do with new bushes anyway. And a new roll bar.

The moral is; I am definitely buying a towing eye off ebay, as it is utterly essential.

My free tow that takes three hours, with me pointlessly outside for most of it, to get a mile and a half, cost me more than thought it would.

It's good to get that off my chest.
Hey look at the time

Cheers
Rissole.

Dark Skies · 01-27-2009, 03:00 PM

I feel your pain. I had a clutch cable go on my Hensen kit car on a slip road just off the A34 outside Oxford. Some cops were unfortunate enough to be right next to me when it let go. I leapt out of my car and threw myself on their bonnet and got them (grudgingly) to push my very heavy kit car uphill for about a hundred yards. Then they rang the RAC for me. That was at 8.00 in the morning. The RAC tow truck finally shows up at four in the afternoon and drove off again.

After a few hours and the only public phone vandalized I was obliged to run over four lanes of A34 traffic in the pouring rain to get to the foot path to walk two miles into Oxford. i had to do that three times to chase them up. On the last time I left a note on the windscreen telling the guy to wait for me if I wasn't back at the car when he showed up. I saw the guy from two hundred yards get back in his truck and drive off. The really galling thing is he'd done a U turn up the road and came back past me when I'd made it to the car. He stared right at me and drove off.

I didn't actually get my tow until 5 in the evening.

It was that incident that dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century by buying a mobile phone.

BeerBurner · 01-28-2009, 04:40 AM

Just as an FYI, while there aren't a lot of options for being towed from the front, they do make tow hooks for the rear of the car which are available at a variety of places and are intended for if you have a bad day at the track. They'll mount behind the bumper and hang down.

I can post pics on the car if you want.

BB.

rmcdonnell · 01-28-2009, 04:53 AM

Sounds possibly useful.
Do they mount both sides, ie nearside and offside?

Are they stiff enough to support the weight of a couple of bicycles?
I feel a new thread coming on...

cheers
Russell

BeerBurner · 01-28-2009, 05:08 AM

You can mount them on both sides, although I only have them on one side. I'm sure they'd be strong enough to support the weight of a couple of bicycles (after all, they have to pull the weight of ther car), although I'm not sure there is really any practical way of mounting them...

I'll get you some pics in a little bit if someone doesn't beat me to it!

BB.

BeerBurner · 01-28-2009, 05:52 AM

Ok, here are some pics to give you an idea of what I'm talking about...

They mount to pre-existing points underneath the car so there is no drilling required.

BB.

rmcdonnell · 01-28-2009, 03:16 PM

Beerburner you are a star.

So there are pre-drilled tapped holes in the chassis supports allowing a stamped plate (how thick?) to be bolted to the car, ie pretty damn solidly mounted. Fantastic. It sounds as if with a bit of careful measurement, I can make a tow ball attachment suitable for a bicycle carrier.

I have to do a school run and drop children off at school with bicycles, which means I can't drive my porsche during the week, as the Focus with a tow ball is used instead. This means the poor porsche is not used enough by me, sometimes stolen by my wife when it's too cold for her to cycle to work.

I can do it when I am under the car on friday fixing the half shafts

Cheers
Rissole