Restoring a 1970 911T

[kennyt]

Hi Mike
I have a similar project 911T and well , after 9 years of body work , engine rebuild etc I finally have it together and sort of running.
What are your thoughts on the wiring/ electrical bits and have you considered a complete rewire ?
My car has had an attempt at some rewiring (new generation fuse boxes mainly ) but I had to use a later car's ignition (plugs had to be retro fitted ) , new relays and holders etc and I am not happy with the condition of most of the wire - wire connectors - mixed bits of "afterthought accessories"
I am also keen on cleaning up the engine bay (plan for MSD and Petronix but have the marelli dizzy which will have to go for a bit longer )
Do you know of any after market complete wiring harness suppliers or do you think I should consider a DIY complete rewire ?
I thought I would add a pic of my 911T

[mcaterino]

Hi Kenny,

Nice looking car! Congratulations on getting your project near completion.

I don't know any suppliers of complete new harnesses. There are so many year-to-year and model-to-model differences I doubt anyone would be able to provide you an exact match in any case. And DIY?? Whew - that would be tough. The wiring with original trace colors is available as raw stock (eagle day I think), but laying it out and making sure everything fit would be a hell of a job. Beyond me! If you really felt the need for a rewire I'd look for a good used harness from a similar year and modify as needed. They do show up for sale periodically.

I was fortunate that my wiring was mostly in decent shape. I replaced nearly all connectors, but left the main harness in place and intact. I needed to retrofit a slightly later engine bay harness (I got none with the car), but that was relatively easy, as it mainly entailed removing unneeded wires (and a couple rearrangements at the 14-pin connector).

I am using the original Marelli with stock (new) points and an MSD. It works great, and is a nice simplification from the original system.

Good luck finishing up! You should perhaps start your own thread to show off your project, and get more input on your questions.

Cheers,
Mike

[kennyt]

Hey Mike
Not sure if you can answer this one but I thought I would try you before posting a new topic

Did the Marelli dizzy come with vacume advance ? (mine does not have it ?)
And do I remove the condenser when installing the MSD (it only shows the white a wire to the -ve of the distributor )
I installed the MSD 6a and Blaster coil last night and the engine is still running very rough , misfiring , not idling properly - racing up and down etc (sme as with the points/condenser setup I had (never had the original electronic ignition when I bought it )

I also had the problem where the car would keep on running after the ignition was switched off (which was identified from other posts/searches to be related to the small current flowing to the alternator warning light (disconnected the light and the engine turns off with the ignition )
Any pearls of wisdom ?
Cheers Kenny

[ddubois]

Kenny,
I have the MSD Digital 6A, high vibration blaster coil and tach adapter installed with a Marelli on my 71T (1970 build year), and it runs perfectly. My Marelli, which is original to the car, does not have a condensor or vacuum. The MSD wiring is exactly per the instructions. It's important that the ONLY wires to the blaster coil are the orange and black from the 6A and the engine ground. They are not 12V. The white wire to the distributor gets bussed together with the tach adapter and the tach (more on this below). I don't know if the tach adapter is really required, but it's installed and working. The only tricky part is wiring the tach. Depending on when they built the car in 1970 you may or may not have the cylindrical 'intermediate unit' on the electrical panel. If you do have it then you need to disconnect it and attach the output wire from it (to the tach), to the white wire bus. My car had the intermediate unit. If you don't have the intermediate unit then I assume the black/purple tach output presently attached to the distributor will instead get attached to the white wire bus (it can remain plugged into the distributor with the white wire). Since that is not my setup I can't verify, but it should work. Do not try to use the gray tach output from the 6A, it won't work. Lastly, make sure you have a solid continuous 12V and ground to the MSD. I went straight to the starter and the chassis ground.
If it was running poorly before the install then it makes sense it's not the MSD if it's installed correctly. Points gapped more or less correctly? (not critical with cap discharge system). Timing correct? Distributor mechanical advance working?(35 deg at 6,000 rpm). Spark plug wires good? I would suggest getting new ones, seriously. Carbs adjusted correctly? No vacuum leaks? The racing sounds like a carb problem. I have Zeniths and have found they are extremely sensitive, defined as perfect zero tolerance adjustment, to pressure, float height, jetting and idle adjustments.

Doug

[724doorE]

Excellent job!!very nice looking 911, just love the color!

Thanks for documenting all your hard work!

[mcaterino]

Many thanks Dennis. Still enjoying the car tremendously (though not nearly often enough!) Just about time for the 1000 mile valve adjust and service.

Miike

[Bob Ashlock]

Mike Caterino gets my thumbs up for his excellent restoration job. He jumped right in there and tackled some pretty nasty rust issues early-on in his project and his workmanship was spectacular!

[not_hans_stuck]

Mike,

Congratulations. Fantastic project. I love when project threads start at the beginning of a project and end with a completed car.

Especially, when it's a true DIY project.

Fantastic.

Hal

[mcaterino]

I thought perhaps it was time for a brief update on the tangerine targa. Although I've been enjoying the car on lots of short drives, I have also been continuing to struggle with a small oil leak coming from the base of the oil filter console, as discussed previously. Nothing I did ever completely stopped it. Every drive would end with me having to clean up a small puddle on the sill beneath the filter, and there was always a small bit dripping down into the heat exchanger burning and stinking.

So as the time came for my 1000 mile (on the newly rebuilt engine) oil change and service, I decided it was also time to take care of this once and for all. After having changed the filter console, using a new o-ring, and some mild sealant attempting to stop the leak, the only thing that remained a suspect was the tank itself. I can only guess that there's some surface imperfection, a small scratch or bulge maybe, that has kept the console from sitting flat. So I posted a WTB ad for a new tank, and had lined up a nice one within a day (Pelicans are the greatest!) I haven't received it yet, but it should get here early next week, and looks from photos not to need much more than a cleaning and shot of exterior paint.

In the meantime I'm preparing the car and doing everything else one might at 1000 miles: valve adjust, checking torque on CV bolts, head studs, suspension fasteners, etc... I think I'll pull a couple spark plugs and see what I can see about running conditions. I have the carbs adjusted on the rich side, but it does seem to run stronger there. I'm not an experienced spark plug reader myself, but the forum wisdom might be able to help assess how things are working.

After this I hope to feel confident taking this thing on some longer trips, and maybe entering my first autocross. I've been very eager to push it a bit and see what it's capable of.

Mike

[ratpiper71T]

Awesome still! Thanks for the update. I've heard the spark plugs are a tough read with the ethanol formulations of today though others can probably provide more info on that. I wonder if the gas exhaust anilyzers can help you get to a confident state of tune.

[mcaterino]

Following up on my earlier post, I got the oil tank out, and found pretty good evidence to support my idea that the sealing surface of the tank itself might not be perfectly flat. You can see a small dimple which would be at 6:00 as installed, right about where the sealing ring would sit. It isn't deep, but the o-ring might not press down into it too far. Seems like a good explanation.



Even though I've got another tank coming, I'm halfway tempted to rough that surface up and fill it with some JB weld or something that could be sanded flat, if only to test my theory. Probably not worth the hassle, but it would be interesting... We'll see how the incoming tank looks first.

Mike

PS - the exhaust gas analyzer is a good idea. I'm thinking my next project will be a carb re-jetting, and possibly looking at larger venturis, to help this thing breathe a little better. The Zeniths are still jetted for a standard 2.2T engine (whereas I'm at 2.4, high compression, and running E cams.) Then a serious exhaust analysis could help dial things in.

[mcaterino]

Transitioning from being a 911 restorer to being a 911 owner, I've gotten more interested in whatever I can find out about the car's history. Almost nothing at all was known or transmitted by the previous owner, and he indicated that the previous, previous owner hadn't cared much for the car either. So the trail was pretty cold.

I decided to take the plunge and order a Certificiate of Authenticity. As this was originally an ROW car, I wasn't optimistic that Porsche North America would be able to dig up much. And I admit that this is not that satisfying in some respects, lacking several details, and showing that this was a pretty bare-bones T. But much more important than that it confirms that my car's engine is original. Since the engine was out and disassembled when I got it, I was a little doubtful. But I can at least be thankful that the previous caretakers managed to keep everything together. And given that, even though it's not confirmed by the CoA, I think it's pretty safe to assume that the transmission is original also.



So I'm pleased to announce that I am now the proud owner of a numbers matching 1970 T targa!

Cheers,
Mike

[al lkosmal]

Mike,
Congrats..............numbers matching is a good thing. 1st..it's amazing that after 42 years, all of the big chunks are still together. 2nd.... the value of the car just increased. 3rd...you can say..."why yes..it's numbers matching".

When I restored my 71E, I originally bought it as a roller....to build a hot rod. The fact that an engine and tranny showed up in a separate box was a bonus. To later find out that they were numbers matching.....huge bonus and sent me down the resto vs. hot rod path..............

Your 911 turned out right.

regards,
al

[pureham]

Awsome work. It's nice to see you finally enjoy it after all that hard work. I have a question, what did you use on the wheel wells? I'm looking to redo mine and I really like the satin look. Thanks

[mcaterino]

The wheel wells got Eastwood's rust encapsulator on the metal, 3M rubberized undercoating (black), and a light coat or Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black (which I think they have in either satin or gloss finish) over the undercoating, mainly just for the finished look.

Mike

[mcaterino]

The 1000 mile service is done, and I got the car back together. In addition to the basic service tasks listed in a previous post, this included the replacement of the oil tank, in hopes of taking care of a filter console leak that I've had since day one.

While I was in there, Grady recommended checking the rocker shafts. The man must be omniscient. The number 1 exhaust rocker shaft was a fair ways from centered on the rocker, far too deep in the thin flange in the bore. Being number 1 it was nearly impossible to get to. But I did manage to get the bolt and collars out, drive it to where it needed to be, and got it tightened back up. To be honest, whether this shaft walked on its own, or if this was a build error, I can't say for certain. I don't have enough pictures to see it immediately after the rebuild. (You can never have too many pictures!) In any case I was very glad to have caught it, and will have to keep an eye on it periodically.

But the oil tank is the main story. I managed to source a tank, apparently a '68, through a WTB ad, and it was in remarkably good shape. Before ordering it I was simply planning to send it to Pacific Oil Cooler for cleaning. But once I took it apart and got a good look at the inside, I saw no point. It took very little washing and rinsing to make it near perfect. Below are a few pictures of the car partly disassembled and the new tank after cleaning before painting, and after a little undercoating and paint. New seals and a good cleaning of the internals, and it was ready to go.

I am overjoyed to report that after a good long check-out drive the car is absolutely leak-free. Time to start planning a trip!









Thanks all, Youri (tank supplier) and Grady especially!

Mike

[RSTarga]

wiring harnesses
YnZs Yesterdays Parts | Auto Wiring Harness | (909)798-1498

[mcaterino]

Six months after moving from Santa Barbara to South Carolina, I do miss California very much. Still, living in a relatively unregulated state has its advantages. Readily available ethanol-free premium is a nice perk!



911s are few and far between around here. Any Upstate Pelicans out there?

Cheers,
Mike

[Trackrash]

We just drove through Santa Barbara. What a paradise. I imagine that SC can't be too bad. At least you will have seasons.

Love the tangerine color, BTW.

[jrsully]

Hey Mike, great thread, just spent a half hour going through the entire story, Doing a 71 Targa now and the tips are great. Question for you (and any other experts out there) I was told that Gold rear decklid emblems (911T and PORSCHE) were available as an option on the T, but the TARGA emblems on the stainless side bands were always silver, no matter T, E or S.? Any confirms out there.? Any orig cars with this set up.? Any help is appreciated. Thx JIM