1987 Porsche 944S - Wheel repair!

Long time no update!

A few weeks onward from my last post, I managed to source a matching throttle position sensor. Porsche wanted 400€ for a new one. A new Bosch one would've been about 200€, but they were out of stock everywhere. After a bit of research I found out that the TPS from a Audi 100 is exactly the same one I needed and found one through Audio Tradition for 60€. It's a Bosch piece as well...



When I tried to install it, I learned about the wonders of the 944 S. All 944 models have the throttle body at the front of the engine. Only the 944 S with the 2.5 16 valve has got it at the back between the engine and the firewall. To remove it, you need to remove the intake manifold as well.

I figured when I'd remove that, I'd also replace all the rubber hoses and the Idle Control Valve and a few gaskets and cleaned the throttle body while I was at it.

The idle control valve was a similar story to the throttle position switch. Porsche wants 400, a Bosch one would've been 200 but out of stock everywhere. Finally managed to find one from a little known aftermarket company called 'Löwe'. Made in china, but a few 944 guys in Germany have had good experiences with these parts and it was only like 60€.

Life got in the way and the car sat until this April when I could finally start to work on it.









Finally got to drive it again!







But the clutch was about dead. It was nearly dead when I got the car, but it was finally time to replace it. A major job, with the transmission in the rear and the clutch in the front, connected by a torque tube. Luckily I had my father to help me - he was a mechanic by trade 30 years ago before he switched professions and still knows a lot about car mechanicals and he's who taught me all I know about wrenching.



First the exhaust needs to come off:



Disconnecting of two sensors that need to come out for the clutch housing to be removed...



Next we disconnected the drive shafts



And some time later, with a lot of cussing and cursing, the transmission was finally out



A view under the car now, where you can see the bell housing at the end of the torque tube:



The torque tube has to be moved towards the back of the car to make enough room in the front to get the clutch out. To do this, you need to turn the whole tube clockwise and then push it towards the rear. A bit tricky if you don't know what you're doing like we did... but we managed in the end!

With the tube slid out of the clutch:



Clutch housing off, finally starting to get to the core of things!



The old clutch was dead. Porsche fitted a clutch with a rubber part to potentially soften gear changes. This rubber block was completely ripped off, so the clutch was basically 'flopping around' when you changed gears. You can imagine how THAT felt.





What all had to be removed to get to this point:






While I had the clutch off, I also changed the pilot bearing (in which the torque tube runs) and the crankshaft oil seal. To get the oil seal in, I 3d printed a tool to hammer it in... it did not survive. But the seal is sitting perfectly.





Slowly getting things back together.



Torque tube mounted up



Starter mounted




Then I got around to cleaning the transmission.



And drained the oil and filled it up with fresh transaxle oil.



Ready to re-install the transmission



Aaaaand it's in.



First test drive was a success, everything worked flawlessly and the new clutch completely transformed the car.




Then I finally got to enjoy the car for a short while and took some pretty photos






































The car decided to give me some more headaches though, as the generator died. I'm currently waiting on a new one.

Wow, just love the way this thing looks- nice job. Now that the clutch is done, I'm sure it's a hell of a lot of fun to drive too!

Had a dodgy temperature sender on mine, (no not the one that just controls the gauge, the one that tells the ECU what's going on, or not in my case) that would intermittently shut the engine down.

Phoned up my local European car guy here, more out of optimism than expectation, and within the day had a replacement sender, a BMW part, for pennies. Result!

Dr.AK does the new clutch have all that rubber as well?

Still haven't heard anything back from the place I sent my generator to be overhauled. Sigh. They supposedly do very good work and came highly recommended but they are quite uncommunicative. I'll give them a call tomorrow to see where we're at.

In the meantime, I bought a 944 S press kit on eBay a while back and figured I might share some photos of that as it's an interesting bit of kit.

Most of the 944S press cars I've seen (I've also got a bunch of old magazines with tests of the car from back in the 80s kicking around) were on the 7-slot wheels pictured in the Porsche press kit. The 15 inch teledials I have on mine were the base spec and the 7 slots could be ordered as an option. I do quite like them, and am planning of replacing my 15 inches with some 16 inch wheels in the future, but I'll probably source a set of 16 inch teledials from a late model Turbo. Would be nice to own all the late model 944 16 inch wheels tho.

I broke one of these (as far as i can assertain, virtually identical model, 944s 16v) up a couple of years back (actually belonged to a coleague but was terminally rusty) but his had slightly a slightly different front valence, and an additional rear splitter, all of which i understand were original to the car. I know he ran 16" teledials on the back, and 15" on the front which apparently optimised the handling..... I don't pretend to know if thats correct, but in the day he was quite involved in it, so he obviously changed them for a reason!!

As it runs again, I took the Porsche today to run some errands and to pick some non-car stuff up that I bought on eBay 40kms away. Gave it a good run through some back roads. It drives pretty well, although I still have some nagging issues. Mainly that it sometimes is hesitant to accept throttle when in low revs and sometimes dies when clutching in to come to a stop at a light. Think it might be that I did not adjust the throttle position switch properly. I'll have to have a look at that soon.

Gave it a quick wash on the way back home.







Then hit some more backroads and took some proper photos as I figured it was time to use my new-to-me camera on the Porsche. Recently made the switch from Canon to a Fuji and I couldn't be happier.


























God, I love this thing.

Man you have a hell of an eye- those photos are fantastic. Sorry to hear about the unnecessary generator swap, but as you said it definitely won't hurt to have refreshed it.

Really nice car man I will keep an eye out for it when I am out and about.

The event at Spa was the Porsche GT track day from Manthey Racing.

The MG BGT is, in terms of purpos and configuration, an ancestor of the 924/44/68: useful sports car with hatch.

Great thread, I always enjoy it.

John