Ashtray fix .

[ian c2]

My ashtray was worn , And staying open , falling apart , and generally misbehaving (as they do ... )
Allthough They only $60 for a whole new assembly , that’s $60 wasted when (not if) the new part starts misbehaving .
I figured some owners might not be in a position right now to say “only $60” and I am one of them , But considering the amount spent on car it’s not a lot in the grand scheme.

With this in mind I spent a little time yesterday taking it from car and investigating it’s faults ...

I am now of the opinion This “repair” should be done as part of preventative maintenance , especially if you’re a 964 owner as the $10 spent on materialS will already be covered to “fix” the sharkfins before they break , or if you’re unlucky to “fix” them after they broke ..

[ian c2]

After looking at the ashtray , it seems that the outer part spreads open and leaves too much gap that the ratcheting mechanism falls out of its guide .

Mine also had the hinge pin loosing its grip meaning it could fall out and make the whole assembly “explode” by simply thinking about closing the ashtray .
The hinge pin is sharp on one end to guide it through the 4 holes it needs to get through to make the hinge , and the other side is shaped like a wheel stud to press into the plastic and hold it all together .
My solution to this part of the problem was to simply insert it from the other end and use needle nose pliers to press it into the virgin plastic on that side .


Then I looked at the age old problem of ashtrays misbehaving and I came up with 2 solutions :
1 : Use epoxy that I bought to preemptively “fix” the sharkfins To hold against the hinge pin whilst the outer piece was forced closed .
2 : Add something Like a spacer to the “free moving” side to close the gap on the ratching side to stop the mechanism falling out of its guide .

In the end I went with a mixture of both solutions .

[ian c2]

First I removed and inserted the hinge pin the opposite way around , and bearing in mind my hinge pin had worked its way free from the plastic once allready I decided it would be epoxied in place .
Then I cut a section of spring from a retractable ball-point pen to act as a spacer that will tension the inner assembly up against the guides , but also have enough compression to disassemble in the future if ever needed .
(A better solution than my original plan to use a solid spacer)

Rather than rely on 2 small spots of epoxy to hold the outer section Closer to the inner section , Allthough I’m adding a non-genuine part I believe this is the better solution .

[ian c2]

Here’s the pin reversed .
You can see the sharp end sticking through the hole that the fixed end had previously worked loose from




Here’s the fixed end of the pin after being inserted into the “virgin” end and squeezed into place with needle nose pliers




And here is the pen spring From a pilot g2 ( this was free , as I stole it from Abe at work )
I ended up trimming it down to 1.5 coils so it goes in easily and holds enough tension without being coil bound should I ever need to compress it , and should the outer section open up any more it still has enough spring travel to close the gap on the ratcheting side .










Here’s the 2 ends of the hinge-pine with small blobs of epoxy to secure it in place








And here’s the epoxy that you get from amazon to fix or reinforce your shark-fins

[ian c2]

I just got it out from my work backpack and it’s still working like a charm .
I will reinstall it tommorow Evening and report back if there are any issues once it’s back in place .

I figured I better add some more pics for those who are unsure how the ashtray operates and functions .
With hindsight , I should have taken more pics while I had it apart as I am not to good at written descriptions at the best of times , and I’m now 4 beers in ...

In the pics you can see the outer part has banana shaped along its longest section and therefore the 90 degree sections at each end have opened up .

Maybe a metal reinforcement was too much , or maybe even a continual fixing point instead of the 2 clips would have helped reinforce its shape , maybe even a 3rd fixing point would have made the dash help the ashtray hold its shape ?

Whatever , I’m thinking the distortion makes the gaps between inner and outer too big and the little nipple thing on the lever then falls out of the guide .

You cannot see this part in the pics , but you can see the guide that it follows .
The kinked straight on top is its closing movement with the chicane below it being the hold in place .
The left curved straight with the 90 right bend below is the opening movement .
The chicane section is spring loaded by the cog behind the Ghg logo and pushing the ashtray lid moves it around the chicane .

The problem is it is a tiny part that sits in the guide , and as the other side opens out it simply falls out of the guide and the ashtray becomes inoperable.
I’m talking less than a millimeter .
Too close a tolerance and the whole assembly binds , to wide and it falls apart .
You can see I have now off-centered the inner section due to having a tensioning spring forcing it to the right tolerance on the guide side where it matters ,

Would be perfect if it was made out of aluminium or something that was less likely to loose its shape resulting in tolerances opening up ..










By the way ,
If anybody knows of a porsche part that uses a thin wire spring that is similar to a ball-point pen spring , it would definately put my mind at rest to Start all over and modify a genuine part rather than having a pen part installed in my car ...

[group911@aol.co]

Great. 3 more repairs I have to make. At least the 89 doesn't need it.
Thanks for the great fix.