What should I do/acceptable Towing Procedure for my situation?

phoenix_iii · 12-18-2007, 05:03 AM

85.5 944 NA 5spd.

I removed the rear calipers and rotors. The car is on jackstands. It needs to be towed 90 miles now. I took off the fill bolt for the manual trans fluid, fluid came out (not on 100% level jackstands from to back).

Is it safe to have a tow truck carry from the front and tow with the rear wheels on the ground? I'd hate to waste the mileage on my nice new tires... Obviously Car in Neutral...

Or, do I just have to suck it up and pay whatever to get a flat bed with a winch? How/where do I attach the winch to get it pulled to the truck? Winch because with no rear calipers, once you hit the brakes, all fluid for clutch and brakes will shoot out.

What should I do? Needs to go 90 miles. Technically I still have the old calipers and they didn't leak, could put back on but do not want to spend a lot of time wrenching in hostile territory. =\

p3

Jsilverman · 12-18-2007, 06:09 AM

Flat bed would be the best choice. If youre towing with the rear wheels on the ground generally you want to disconnect the driveshaft. In this case Youd want to remove the axles. You could also tow with the front wheels on the ground but if youre car is lowered thats not an option. If you go with the flat bed option you can hook the winch up to the factory tie down points in the front. Just get under the car and youll see them.

phoenix_iii · 12-18-2007, 08:07 AM

So I thought... any other input?

Going to pay to tow 90 miles. =)

hpservertech · 12-18-2007, 08:24 AM

Ok a few things here. you do NOT need to disconnect the drivetrain, AT ALL or the axle.

Yes you can have it towed with the back wheels up. it might mess up the front valance, but that depends on bumps & how much of an angle the guy puts it at.

Your best bet is to have them flat bed it. Be very, very careful though if you use the holes under the doors. These are not tow points. The NA actually doesn't have any. Germany just thought that since they built the car it would never break down or get in a wreck....dont ask me, I still dont know why they expected anyone to use the glovebox door as a cup holder.

when he ties it down to the flat bed, have him tie down through the wheels using webbing not chains. If your not in a hurry you can get tow hooks from Paragon. That was the first thing I bought & installed in mine. I've had mine towed before and what we did was just push it up till it was on, but without breaks your going to need to be creative.

Just be very careful with the holes under the doors...they can be ripped out very easily if they are not careful.

944 Ecology · 12-18-2007, 08:30 AM

Get someone who knows how to flatbed a 944 car and you will have no problem.

I have towed over 150 944 cars using standard J-hooks and chains without damage to the cars.

I use the large holes in the bottom of the front bumper and use the torsion bar end caps in the rear.

968TomR · 12-18-2007, 09:24 AM

So...

How soon do you need to tow. I got a AAA membership when I needed an expensive tow for my MR2 Turbo and waited 2 days. For the $100 membership I got tows up to 100 miles.

It is important that you do not give them the impression that they are now your service shop. You must also explain to them that your owners manual requires that all towing be done on a flat bed - or they argue about sending a regular truck.

Good luck!

Tom

phoenix_iii · 12-18-2007, 11:28 AM

I have AAA Plus but the limit is only 75 miles IIRC. I need to go 87-95 depending on route.

I am going to flat bed to a friends house, and freeze my ass off and fix it up there. oo-rah. =)

I appreciate the AAA thought, it crossed my mind. =) (Also is not currently inspected, though I do have tag and reg).

ronin · 12-18-2007, 11:39 AM

I have AAA+. it covers 100 miles

phoenix_iii · 12-18-2007, 11:44 AM

I just double checked. You are right. 100 is the limit. However, car not inspected, and no brakes in the garage...

I am going to tow it to my friends... =) Will punish me for being in a bad relationship before and I'll get to work on the car.

hpservertech · 12-18-2007, 12:11 PM

What's wrong with it anyway?

phoenix_iii · 12-18-2007, 12:47 PM

I was in the middle of a full brake restoration

Rear Calipers, Rotors, and Pads, are off.

So I would have to spend the time putting those on (dragging/not good condition), bleed, then drive without inspection and a SHOT rear suspension that I know I am not comfortable driving.

p3

hpservertech · 12-18-2007, 01:35 PM

So the only thing wrong is the rear calipers are off & you have bad rear shocks? I guess I'm not understanding why you have to have it towed somewhere. Slap the calipers back on, bleed them and they are done. Replacing the shocks is easy too, only about a half hour job from start to finish. If you were closer I would help ya. I couldn't imagine this taking more then 2 hours. You can get the brakes as good as you can, then at night just drive to a brake shop (carefully) and let them bleed the brakes for you. Still cheaper then having it towed by someone who doesn't know how to tow these cars.

phoenix_iii · 12-19-2007, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpservertech

So the only thing wrong is the rear calipers are off & you have bad rear shocks? I guess I'm not understanding why you have to have it towed somewhere. Slap the calipers back on, bleed them and they are done. Replacing the shocks is easy too, only about a half hour job from start to finish. If you were closer I would help ya. I couldn't imagine this taking more then 2 hours. You can get the brakes as good as you can, then at night just drive to a brake shop (carefully) and let them bleed the brakes for you. Still cheaper then having it towed by someone who doesn't know how to tow these cars.

You are right. If I had 4 hours (I'm slow) I could have it streetable and drive it the 8 miles. However, it is in hostile territory. I won't be surprised after I do the suspension and brakes I go to start it and there is sand in the gas tank. That's what you get when you break off an engagement and the car is at her parents house...

hpservertech · 12-19-2007, 10:57 AM

Ouch! Ok, now it all makes sense. Although you might want to just have it towed the 8 miles to the shop. might be quicker & cheaper then a tow. If you have never bled brakes before you might end up with it at the shop anyway.

Scuba Steve · 12-19-2007, 07:15 PM

I was able to flatbed the car by using straps to hold the car in place through the front wheels and around the rear trailing arms. Worked great, my tow was about 60 miles (when I bought the car it was dead / abandoned for 3 years). I was a little nervous about getting it up on the flatbed because the front of the car was sitting so low... it's a low car made even lower by nearly flat tires on all 4 wheels. I believe they pulled from the rear with the rear suspension to get it on the truck..

BrianT · 12-20-2007, 07:15 PM

You must be careful when you call for a tow. Many times you will get a driver that his training was, here is the truck and here is the keys. Most of the trucks are equipped with a winch and a chain and that's it. A good towing company will tow using wheel straps made of nylon that secure each wheel to the deck or bed. They will also have ramps for lower cars, They will not hook to any suspension component of the car to secure it to the deck of the truck. It must be secured on all four corners. While I was restoring my 83 944 I towed it several times with both wheel lift and flat bed. You had your car towed 60 miles, this needs a flat bed, just short tows you could use a wheel lift but it must be a manual and not a auto loader. The car sets too low for a auto loader, you will hit the A/C tensioner. (this I speak from experience). Also the auto loader cannot sench up on the wheels enough and the under carriage will rest on the cross bar of the wheel lift. Also these cars have a aluminium oil pan and if the wheel lift hits this it will put a hole in it. By the way I own a towing and recovery company, we tow exocits all the time without any damage.
Motorclubs are not a good way of towing, they pay there contractors very low in most cases. You get most of the time what you pay for. Get towing on your insurance, this will allow you to call a tow company that you trust and then you turn the tow in on your insurance. Many people have towing on there insurance and don't know it. Also the towing you get with your cellular phone will only cover 50.00, with the price of fuel and rising insurance 50.00 does not get you much now days.

phoenix_iii · 12-21-2007, 05:34 AM

All done. The guy took his time, used wheel straps, and the front valence didn't touch anything, ever. I helped a bit, just tring to keep my mouth shut. =)

Thanks all for the input.

Ozark Lee · 12-21-2007, 04:50 PM

I can tell you how to not to tow it!

So my daughter takes the car to her auto tech class to get graded on an oil change. I handed her a Mahle filter, a crush washer, 5 quarts of Castrol Syntec and the filter wrench.

She proudly pulls the 944 into the shop but the lift won't fit under the car.

At this point the morons in her class all grabbed floor jacks and started to jack the car up. The only problem was that one of them was jacking it up on the radiator.

When all of the coolant started to spill onto the floor I think she actually cried.

Long story short the school agreed to buy a new radiator and I actually saved them a ton buying one on eBay. Radiators for an automatic 944 are:

a) Rare

and

b) Expensive

I found a brand new OEM radiator for US $332 shipped.

The radiator got in yesterday but it was just as my daughter was out of school for Christmas break. My only real option was to get the car towed home and I chose to do it myself behind the Suburban (it is only a couple of miles) rather than have some bozo tow guy rip the front valence off pulling it up onto the truck.

IMPORTANT WORDS

Never tow a 944 by the front sway bar.

I changed out the radiator this afternoon and happened to take a look back towards the rear of the car . I noticed the end bushing for the sway bar on the drivers side with nothing hooked up to it - expanding my field of vision I saw that the sway bar mount was canted at about a 45° angle toward the front of the car and the sway bar itself was just sorta hanging in midair against the steering knuckle.

I figured that might be a problem but I was running out of daylight in a hurry so I simply removed the sway bar so that it can't impede the steering. I'll bend the bracket back and re-install the sway bar later. I had decent weather today but 2" to 4" of snow is the forecast for the morning.

Oh ya - I had just finished the radiator change and taken a shower. The neighbor knocked on the door and one of his guests accidentally backed into the car and caved in the rear quarter panel.

At least she didn't back into the front and ruin the radiator.

...Lee

BrianT · 12-21-2007, 07:05 PM

Man that sucks, what a run of bad luck. Hope it gets better. On the other hand if you would have called a good tower you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble, just finding one is getting harder and harder. I had a guy ask the price for a tow to a shop I normaly tow to, I gave him the price (he was in the next county) He thought the price was too high and told me he would tow it himself. I was at that shop a few days later and the shop owner told me the story about the truck. The owner rented a tow dollie and put his ford f150 on it front ways leaving the drive wheels on the ground. On his 40 some mile jerney he went through McDonalds and cut the corner too close and the truck jumped off one side of the dollie, breaking the strap and crushed the quarter pannel. While he was working with that he unpluged the tow lights. Well he got back under way and a cop stopped him and gave him a ticket. When he got to the shop and tried to unload the truck the transmission was fried and they had to push it off the dollie. So not allways you save money tring to tow it yourself. I have also cleaned up several accidents where cars have come off dollies or people use a small vehicle to tow a larger vehicle and things go bad.

Eldorado · 12-21-2007, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ozark Lee

The radiator got in yesterday but it was just as my daughter was out of school for Christmas break. My only real option was to get the car towed home and I chose to do it myself behind the Suburban (it is only a couple of miles) rather than have some bozo tow guy rip the front valence off pulling it up onto the truck.

only a couple miles?
i would have driven it..