[Monkey Wrench]

I'm a millwright so I have changed lots of bearings but Have never had my 944 apart.

so there is a tube with a couple of bearings that are internal, cant' bee seen assembled and a driveshaft between, we are trying to figure out whether that bearing is worn.

also there is a problem with the old clutches , with a rubber part that is degrading. Its not just the automatics , but manual models as well right?

I was under my car feeling the CV joints and have been considering just puling it all apart for service and to clean and coat the fuel tank. I think I'll hold off until I can do all the belts ,hoses, stuck brake callipers etc and actually try driving the car.

I found a bit of play that i could feel in the CV joints I dont expect grease will help , if it were a U joint with detectable play that I could feel like that I'd consider that U joint to be "done" so Im thinking my CV joints are "done" I did see there is a procedure to disassemble clean and re-grease but if I know they are bad this wont fix the problem of the freeplay and I suspect it will 'clunk"

I remember in a past post someone had the part number for a compatible VW van part and maybe that's cheaper, or there are aftermarket , probably Chinese parts. or the Porsche dealer parts. I might be best to not worry about re greasing and changing boots but instead just replace the axle shafts with both CV joints and new boots?

Im wondering if I will end up paying around a thousand for a new clutch, I did see some friction material and was curious if I can rivet new material on, then turn it true,
but I suppose that's not going to fix any rubber issue. can I get rid of this rubber part? why is it needed?

my car is in a tent for now, its not heated so I may wait to spring to do a lot more, I figured maybe I can remove the calipers and rebuild them in the warm cozy house to get a jump on things, Ill plan to do all the belts and some of the hoses, fuel system etc in the spring. Lying under it in the cold doesn't sound much like fun.

sounds like maybe I just need to measure the depth of the TT bearing from the end of the tube and replace them, so it's the same distance? If I can extract the bearings I can find the bearing number and obtain new bearings. I don't care if they are OEM just won't put Chinese ones in , I'd want a recognizabe brand of bearing manufacturer that isn't just selling Chinese junk bearings. most bearings are standardized and identifiable by their bearing number, Porsche doesn't make bearings anyway. If Porsche sells bearings, I think they are just acting as a re-seller anyway.

you can find bad bearings by noise, so we are doing that above, you can also sometimes see rust near to bad bearings because all the very fine particulate created by a worn bearing can hang around and look rusty in the area, but you won't see that if its inside a tube. we cant; feel for freepay easily as they are inside and captive.

another way might be if we can detect heat near the bearing, I'm not sure how to take local measurements like that, maybe with driving it then pointing one of those heat sensing detectors? I dont own one myself, anyone do that?

a bad bearing may generate some heat, maybe that's a way to tell ?

I've seen some neat videos where people stick a camera under their car and drive around, looking at how the suspension is reacting and such, I'm not sure that would tell us a lot. interesting to see them though. Heat sensing cameras might help but I dont own one, I think they are very expensive too.

I've been meaning to check the clutch wear as per the manual but if my early 85 is going to have this failed rubber problem maybe its not just the clutch wear I should concern myself with. i doubt mine suffered from aged rubber any better than any other 85. its at maybe 120K , I think. who knows, it wrapped. I dont think it has heavy wear though.

I assume that when I pull the starter to lock the ring gear to change the timing belt that this may give me some view of decomposing rubber particles.

the previous owner indicated that second gear felt a but rough, I dont know at this point if I have bad synchromesh from someone driving it that cant' change gears smoothly , perhaps.

at this point i just want to learn what i can so when i do get in there I'm not all lost with what to do. any obvious parts I should probably obtain before disassembly but i have other cars, and some advantage of not having any definite time schedule.

If I can save a bit of hard earned cash by using alternate parts sources I'm fine with that. My budget is not huge. It might be best to avoid some of the Chinese garbage especially if the parts are hard to get to. The axle shafts , for example don't seem all that hard to re and re. I don't think Id cheap out of the TT bearings, more work to change those.

I figured Id be further along by now but last summer I got a bit distracted with other more pressing car repairs. I fixed some accident damage and repainted my pushed in back bumper, at least I go that sorted out. did some polishing, figured if it looks nice Ill be more inspired to go lay under it. found a pull over tarp at Walley World, it wasn't; expensive , its helping keep it clean in its car tent. Maybe it can sleep better like that ;-)

I have about a thousand in miscellaneous parts ready to go on. I paid 2 K , probably cost 500 for all the stuff to fix and repaint my back bumper. I suspect it'll be 1000 for tires, hoping I dont get stuck needing tires I cant' obtain. It has nice fuchs mags, not the S2 ones. 14 " I guess. I think they are all the same width. I dont think I need the big brake conversion,

it has the back bumper trim like an S2, sports seats. no rust, seems like a decent project car so far. guards red, I like the color.