my low budget dream car build

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by chrisbalich

I don't hate those graphics, but they're not really my style. If I go with any sort of graphic, it'll be big flat black (satin?) meatballs. Even that may be more than I can stand. I'm a 'less is more' sort of fella.

Good.

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by 73 911

this thing is amazing, well done, just impressive, may have to this with my as found barn find, since it has so many rust holes, all I can say is that, its lost a lot of weight over the years.. my wheels are turning, so thank you!!! Stay safe!! congrats on the future kiddo!!!

Thank you for the kind words.
Cars that are rough are just blank canvases. Sort the rust and then the world is your oyster.

No kiddos over here.

Originally Posted by Zeke

Good.

**tips hat**

[Focker]

Originally Posted by chrisbalich

No kiddos over here.

When you find out you're going to be a dad from the internet....

JK!

[chrisbalich]

I stayed up too late last night and I'm paying for it today.

One of the guys I work with is going to Iceland next week. He bought a fancy new camera ahead of his trip and wanted to take some pics of my car to get in some practice. I even [finally] cleaned the windows since I figured his pics would have enough resolution to pick up the soapy streaks from me installing the windows a few weeks ago.

Turns out Kevin wanted to shoot some rolling shots. So we went for a little cruise and he took about 100 shots. Of those, I think <5 came out decently. You gotta start somewhere, right? No worries. He can take as many pics of my jalopy as he wants.



After work, I reassembled my lift, backed in the LBDC, and did this.


I don't remember if I've discussed this prior, but I didn't take out the motor because I just like recycling oil.
When I got the trans back from being upgraded, it had developed a new noise. The noise was intermittent and inconsistent. It only happened in 1-4 gears while driving, and it happened once (maybe twice) while pushing the car in neutral.
It never happened in 5th or reverse.
The noise would be worse when the gearbox was cold and would mostly subside when warm/hot.

A couple weeks ago, I pulled the diff just to be sure and everything checked out. The fluid was a little sparkly and I found a couple small shards stuck to the magnetic drain plug. I put it back together and continued to drive it. The noise hasn't gotten worse or better and it's occupied a lot of my brain-power over the last couple months. Like it's been a constant worry, but it hasn't felt like a dire emergency. So I've picked a lot of brains, scoured the interwebs for pics and anecdotes and tales of woe, and mulled over the inner working of the 915 in my mind's eye.

A couple days ago, I was able to put together that if the noise occured in every gear but fifth and reverse, and fifth and reverse are next to each other in the gearbox, the problem is likely in the 5/R fork. In 1-4 & N, the 5/R fork is also in neutral. That's when the noise happens. But as soon as fifth or reverse are selected, the noise goes away and cannot be replicated. That would indicate that the fork is either out of alignment, was made poorly, or there is some other forkery affecting it.

Armed with this newfound enlightenment, I ordered a 915 gasket kit from Pelican and paid extra for 2-day shipping to have it by tomorrow and planned to pull the engine & gearbox and open up the 5/R housing. Last night, I got the housing off and despite the countless hours of research and discussion, it still took me a minute to figure out exactly what I was looking at.
(what I was looking at)


If you look closely at the reverse idler...and specifically its proximity to reverse...you'll see that the clearance is a bit lacking.
*enhance*


Sonofabush, the kid was right.
I could turn the output flanges (input still firmly attached to the engine) and spin the reverse gear. When I turned down the music, I could just make out an occasional *tink tink tink* as the gears touched. At this time, I did another round of googling and then phoned a friend. I spent an hour on FaceTime with Tony (shooooo32) and he agreed that I hadn't lost the plot. So I loosened the lone 6mm allen screw securing the 5/R fork and slid it over ~3mm.
*result*


It's worth noting that I'd also been texting the gent who did the work on the trans. He just hadn't gotten back to me yet. By the time he saw I'd blown his phone up, it was already fixed. He agreed that I was correct, apologized profusely for the oversight, and was generally relieved that I'd figured it out. I do not hold anything but respect and appreciation for him. It was the tiniest of mistakes and yielded no significant bad result save me needing to recycle a bit more oil. He had offered to take it back and figure it out, but that wasn't super tenable (to me) because of the distance and lack of severity. No hard feelings at all.

So I'm waiting for my gasket kit to arrive tomorrow so I can pluck the one gasket I need, seal the box back up, fill it with fresh sauce, and shove it all back in the car. I expect I'll still be painting the bumper and valance this weekend and driving it to work on Monday.

As for tonight, I'm likely to take two melatonin and try to get a full 8 hours of sleep.

[AG81]

3 damn mm..... that is a bunch of work for about 1/8".

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by AG81

3 damn mm..... that is a bunch of work for about 1/8".

A fair bit of work and ~$300 worth of fluids and gaskets. :facepalm:

[ADDvanced]

Wow. Awesome you diagnosed it before pulling it apart, killer detective work. I gotta ask tho.. with the interference being that minimal, do you think it would have... ehhh.... "self clearanced" if you drove it a bit more?

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by ADDvanced

Wow. Awesome you diagnosed it before pulling it apart, killer detective work. I gotta ask tho.. with the interference being that minimal, do you think it would have... ehhh.... "self clearanced" if you drove it a bit more?

Given the nominal contact and constant wash of heavy oil, even with the ~10k miles a year I drive, it would have taken ages for it to self-clearance.

Self-clearancing steel gear teeth sounds like a terrible idea on all counts. Would make it very difficult to engage reverse and fill the gearbox with steel shards.

When it didn't self-correct/self-clearance in the first 200 miles, I knew it was an actual problem and would need disassembly to sort. I'm super glad it was a reverse problem and not a synchronized gear. That would have gotten expensive in a hurry.

[TxGerman]

Great outcome....and they say it's a game of inches, well you proved it's a game of thousandths of an inch!

[LJ851]

Solid work, Chris.

I would probably do 1 or a couple budget transmission fluid changes on my next two drives to work if I was you. Then fresh long term oil.

I’m sure you are glad to have that noise identified!

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by TxGerman

Great outcome....and they say it's a game of inches, well you proved it's a game of thousandths of an inch!

For real. LOL.
I feel like my life's motto has become, "Incremental progress is still progress." My life has become focused on the smallest of increments.

Originally Posted by LJ851

Solid work, Chris.

I would probably do 1 or a couple budget transmission fluid changes on my next two drives to work if I was you. Then fresh long term oil.

I’m sure you are glad to have that noise identified!

This is my plan. I'm going to squish it full of 'budget' gear oil once or twice to flush out any detritus and then I'll load it up with SWEPCO. If I play my cards right, and stay disciplined to my plan, I can run cheap oil for a week twice and load it with good stuff before I leave for the Tail of the Dragon two weeks from today.

[shoooo32]

I'm glad you got the noise concern solved, but I'm still not sold on the axle flange movement. Either the flange bolts are loose, too long (bottomed out) or the bearings were incorrectly shimmed and the whole carrier is moving.

[MikeD930]

You are fast dropping the engine and resolving your gearbox issues. Just wow. Thanks for explaining about the speed holes.

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by shoooo32

I'm glad you got the noise concern solved, but I'm still not sold on the axle flange movement. Either the flange bolts are loose, too long (bottomed out) or the bearings were incorrectly shimmed and the whole carrier is moving.

I hear you on the flange movement.
I can assure you the bolts are tight and not bottomed out. I cannot get the carrier to rock at all. And if you move one flange, it does not affect the other side. All the play is inside the Kaaz. Nothing was changed that's in direct contact with the diff. No bearings, not the diff cover, not the diff itself, not the R&P, not the speedo reluctor. It was dropped out to clean the case, the R/P engagement was checked, and it was stuffed back in its hole. I think it's just a Kaaz thing. If it frags, then I guess it's time to transfer everythign else over to a mag case and save some lbs.

Originally Posted by MikeD930

You are fast dropping the engine and resolving your gearbox issues. Just wow. Thanks for explaining about the speed holes.

Always glad to share.

[shoooo32]

hahahaha send it

[chrisbalich]

When I last left off, I'd adjusted the 5/R fork and was ready to button up the trans and shove the car back together.
That all went without much ado, save me poorly placing the engine/trans on the lift table. The table was too far towards the trans. This didn't prove to be a big deal until I tried to lift the engine/trans into the car. Then my blunder was obvious. As much as I like my MaxJax, I don't particularly trust it to move the car up and down while I'm under it. So I had to figure out a way to lift the engine up higher than my table could on its own. Here's the absolute forkery I devised to do just that.


That's a floorjack lifting two wheel stands lifting the engine by the Weltmeister jack-point/tow-hook combo piece. At twice the price, that thing is worth the money.
That got the engine in pretty quickly and I was able to test drive it that night. (last Friday, as I recall) That test drive confirmed that the noise was vanquished and the relief I felt continues nearly a week later. So glad it was easy to sort, even if I took a bit too long to figure it out and then remedy it.

Here's the entirety of tools required to remove and install my engine, save the MaxJax and the lift table. (to illustrate how not hard it is)

I could make do with less, but there's little reason to do so.

The next morning, I drove the 911 to breakfast with the raw bumper for the last time.


I spent that day working on a different project for the house. ***SPOILER ALERT*** I shouldn't have, but sometimes I get excited to do something at the same time I dread doing something else.

SUNDAY
We went to breakfast and then I set my sights on sanding the bumper smooth. The worn flap-disc I used to clean up the bumper after welding left scratches so deep that I exhausted my supply of 400 grit sandpaper and my patience. Here you can see what the bumper looked like halfway through sanding. (right side sanded, left side not)


Learning from painting the car, I opted to throw a skim of filler on the bumper just to fill in any deep scratches or waves. While I was doing that, Bryan and his fam dropped in. They were doing a college visit for his daughter so they popped in to hang out for a bit.

This gave the filler a couple hours to dry/cure. It sanded down nicely and I was ready for primer.

Primer


Painted and mocked up the next morning


It's worth noting that I hated it at this point. I felt it looked like a mkIII VW from the mid-90s when everything that could be was unbolted from a car and color-matched to the paint. *vomit then - vomit now* I sent this pic to some friends expressing that sentiment and they unanimously (and separately) advised I was out of my mind.

Last night, I assembled the bumper correctly and the result was much better.



Pretty good, right? I reckon I'd get a, "That'll do, pig," if James Cromwell happened by. But as has so often been the story, my successes aren't without some minor setbacks. I got a great finish off the gun. There's almost no orange peel and the bumper is very shiny and looks good. But I didn't let the filler cure long enough. So it ghosted through 3 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint. Just looks like a reflection or evaporating frost from a couple feet away. But when it's absolutely the filler showing through. #derp


That's a wrap on my 5' paintjob. I still have to remove and refinish the door window trims. But I'm waiting until I can afford to replace the felts since the dang thing has to come out to do those anyway. So it's going to have to be good enough like it is for a while. Frankly, I'm a-ok with it.

[MikeD930]

Your latest paint job is looking good. I'd be more than a-ok with with it. Thumbs up.

[Joesmallwood]

Lookin' good!

How's the tuning going?

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by MikeD930

Your latest paint job is looking good. I'd be more than a-ok with with it. Thumbs up.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Joesmallwood

Lookin' good!

How's the tuning going?

Thanks, Joe!
The car is running very well. There are a couple little bits I'm looking to improve. All-in, I'd be 100% comfortable driving it as-is anywhere. I'm at the point (still?) of chasing the smallest of improvements. One of these days I'll get it on a dyno. But I'm not in a hurry to do so.

[TMo]

I read trough a bunch of this, and one day I'll read the rest... but I really like the project. I assume the 'budget' part of the build has kind of gone out the window?