My love of difficult (i.e., German) cars

Alrighty, so had a decently productive day. Installed my new battery and got my amp/sub installed and the wires hidden. I still need to install my air intake, but being the genius I amp, I misplaced one of the rubber reducers. I'll have to buy a new one; it's a generic part so it shouldn't be too hard. But, I think I see a place to improve upon this system.

First, I pulled my new XTRONS stereo back out and connected the wiring for the amp. Not too hard, but I had to remove the glove box to find a place to route the wiring.

Not the most fun, not the least. Pretty simple for a Porsche, I suppose. But, I finally got it all attached, the stereo installed, and routed the wires along the side door sill and around to the back.

Then, I went to change the battery. Porsche decided to put it beneath the driver's seat, so getting it out is a bit more in-depth than a regular car, but overall not too bad.

So, the stock battery (H8 size) weighed 46lbs. Honestly, that's less than I thought and less than I had read. Makes this a pretty expensive mod for not a ton of weight saved, but weight is weight. Here's the Antigravity battery, for comparison. Also, 1800 CCA! Not bad. 19.6 pounds, so a 26.4lb savings. $1000 is a lot to pay for 26lbs, but eh, mods for this car are hard so I'll take it.

Plus it says it lasts longer as well, so I'll have years before I need to consider replacing this one. I need to scroll through this thread and see what my weight savings is up to now.

44lbs wheels
24lbs secondary cat delete pipes
26.4lbs antigravity battery

So, 94.4lbs saved so far. Not bad, hoping I can get it up to 150lbs without sacrificing comfort or anything. It gets tough now, though. A carbon fiber hood is available but wouldn't save much, since my stocker is aluminum and already pretty lightweight. If I weld my own rear muffler, I believe I can save another 20lbs and pick up another few hp without getting any louder. And if I eventually switch to long tube headers that should save some. We'll see where I end up! I think the intake will save a pound or two as well; I'll weigh it once I install it. PCCBs would save 40lbs but only if I can find a better source. I'm not paying over 10 grand for brakes, no matter how long they last.

That generation GTS is the best looking Cayenne in the entire run! And the new wheels look great!

In reply to dyintorace :

I've always felt that as well. It's one of the reasons I didn't get a newer one, like a 958, which would have been lighter and faster. The 957 just looks better, especially the GTS. Now I just need to modernize and fastify it! 

Next will be the air intake, but only if I have time today. My wife is coming back early tomorrow morning after visiting her family for 10 days so I'm super antsy and can't focus.

Okay in true GRM fashion, The Wife and I are going on our honeymoon week after next and I'm picking on a set of wheels during.

We'll, I'll admit to a bit of embarassment here. I went to put the air intake on today... and somehow I've misplaced like four of the pieces. I have no clue where they are.

The good news is that nearly every air intake is just 3" pipe and rubber connectors. So, I ordered a few parts that should allow me to install it anyway. Moving up that assembly, we get to the Y pipe, the intake plenum. The GTS has an 82mm throttle body. So does the turbo S, but the turbo S I believe has a different (and hopefully larger) stock intake plenum. I'm lazily looking for one; if it does indeed look larger, I'll install it. Should be good for a couple horses. Otherwise, my option is to get an aftermarket plenum for a turbo S, which would definitely give me a few horsepower but would also cost $800.

Replaced the headlight with another one I bought, trying to fix my failed lowbeam issue. They still don't work, but I saw a ridiculous amount of corrosion on the ballast box. So, when I get back from my honeymoon I'll try ordering yet another one of those.

A friend of mine knew of a super low mileage, very well cared-for boxster that might be for sale for a great price. He checked and ultimately the guy didn't want to sell it. But, I'm kinda sorta in the market for a first gen boxster. If by some chance I can get a boxster s, even better, but I want a boxster for my wife. In about two months I think I'll start seriously looking (assuming a good deal doesn't pop up sooner)

Just wanted to say I share in the 928 misery you are going through. You might have some luck replacing the strainer gasket if the fuel tank is leaking there. The aluminum ring that it threads into also has issues with not staying in place and there's a fix sold by 928rus that takes care of that. Also, I ended up using rectorseal 5 on the threads for my fuel strainer since the rubber gasket just wouldn't do the job, even after correct torque and a new gasket. 
It's a miserable car to get right, and I've gone way too far with mine to recoup anything on it, so it's engine swap time for me. If I'm going to have to keep the car until it gets swallowed by a sinkhole, I might as well enjoy some time with it.  

IPD plenums make no additional HP.  All marketing fluff.

docwyte said:

IPD plenums make no additional HP.  All marketing fluff.

Could you expand upon that? Everyone selling them claims like 28 horsepower and the turbo guys often buy them.

throttlegrotto said:

Just wanted to say I share in the 928 misery you are going through. You might have some luck replacing the strainer gasket if the fuel tank is leaking there. The aluminum ring that it threads into also has issues with not staying in place and there's a fix sold by 928rus that takes care of that. Also, I ended up using rectorseal 5 on the threads for my fuel strainer since the rubber gasket just wouldn't do the job, even after correct torque and a new gasket. 
It's a miserable car to get right, and I've gone way too far with mine to recoup anything on it, so it's engine swap time for me. If I'm going to have to keep the car until it gets swallowed by a sinkhole, I might as well enjoy some time with it.  

Thanks for the tips! It's definitely a difficult car, and frustrating at times. Right now my plan is to fix a few things and sell it. I do like the car and I think it's just neat in so many ways, but ultimately I don't have a ton of space and I'd rather have a 911. Still, I keep looking at the 928 and thinking about how nice it would be to cruise around in it.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Been dyno tested multiple times by a rennlist member in the 996 turbo forum.  He saw no gains with it until he crested 800whp.  

Just because a company claims it, doesn't make it true and people are surprisingly dumb when buying mods for their cars...

In reply to docwyte :

That's good to know, thanks. The GTS already has the 82mm throttle body like the turbo S, so no real upgrade available there. Unfortunately there just aren't a lot of mods available for this car; the turbo has more, but even that is a bit limited. I had a really good month of sales last month, so if I keep that up I might spring for those headers and possibly a lighter muffler. That and installing my air intake and that'll be about it for this car. There just isn't more available. 

I do want to put a subwoofer in the spare tire. The factory Bose one might be an option: I'm considering getting a used one, opening it, then replacing the speaker and amp with better ones. That way I can keep all my cargo space in the back. 

Once I get my royalties I'm going to start getting the new wheels installed on the 928. I think having some cool rims on it will help me to like the car more. Still unsure what I want to do with that car, but I need to fix a few things. We'll see how that goes. The Wife has been telling me she wants a 958 for a daily driver.

Minor updates. I raised the 928 and test fitted the Etoile wheels, and the fronts were right but the rears were too far inward. The rim missed the control arm by about 1mm. Those rims are 2 piece and I've seen the face mounted both in front and behind the lip. On the wheels I bought for the 928, the faces are in front of the lip, pushing the wheel inward. This works great for the front, but it's too much for the back so I went through the drudgery of removing all 36 bolts on the rear wheels and swapping the face so that it went inside the lip. That pushed the wheel out about half an inch, which was perfect.

Getting that rear backspacing correct is important because the widest tire I can find is a 245 since they're 16 inch wheels. Well, some companies make a 255 but it's a 255/50R16 so it's too big in diameter. No one makes a 265/45R16, which would be awesome. Uhh, Hoosier makes a 275 but that's not a street tire. Anyway, I can't wait to get these wheels mounted up. It's going to change the look of the car for the better. (by the way if anyone knows where to get a 265/45R16 tire that's not a full race tire please let me know).

After some work, I finally have one working headlight on the Cayenne! This is great news. I finally just replaced the entire headlight assembly with a good used one, genuine Porsche of course (of course!). I went to install a new amazon ballast on it and saw this from the old one.

So my guess is there was some leaks in the old headlight. Well either way, my driver's side low beam now works, which is awesome. Next paycheck I'll do the passenger side. Oh but the passenger side seatbelt broke in the Cayenne, so I gotta replace that. Annoying.

Forgot to mention my honeymoon about a month ago. We went to the Finger Lakes in NY. I've been going there since about 2013 and I've loved the place since my first visit. It's been nice to see the area slowly grow up and get better, not worse. The Wife also fell in love with the place and we both want to save up and get a small vacation home there in Geneva. Hey, it's fun to dream. I should make enough money to do that, but everything is getting more and more expensive these days so who knows. But more importantly, we saw this whilst on our honeymoon. Yeah, that's a lifted Smart Car.

Also after talking with my wife and Patrick so they could enable me and watching some vintage racing videos online, I've decided to keep the 928. Ultimately I want a 911; that's the dream car. And while I'm sure I'll want to take it on a racetrack at some point or at least autocross it, I don't want to break it. When I first started autocrossing at age 18, JK Jackson told me "Never race something you can't afford to drive off a cliff." If I finally get my dream 911 and break it, I'll be sad. If I race my 928 and break it, I'll just part it out or LS swap it or something. Plus, turning it into a track car will involve removing a bunch of stuff that doesn't work, so two birds, one stone.

Now I'm curious, am I better off trying to repair the 928's gauges and getting them working, or ripping it all out and just using a VDO tach and speedo, etc? I've never installed gauges, all I know is the 928's electronics are nightmarish. I still kinda want to put a working tape deck in there but at this point I'll have to rewire the entire system, so I might just pull it all out. The car already has Corbeau seats in it (I don't have the awful stock seats, thankfully) and it's about $20K away from being a $10K car, so I think fixing a few things and making it into a track car is a good option. So, fix the leaky gas tank, get my gauges working, get new tires on my new wheels, and see how it drives. My goal is to autocross it next spring. From there my plan is a bolt-in rollbar and a set of coilovers and probably build a better exhaust. I don't really want to do a ton to that car (famous last words) just a fun weekend car that looks cool and is fun on a track/autocross course. No desire to be competitive so I don't care about making it as fast as possible. I just want to enjoy it.

   I recently had issues with my Cayenne headlights, not good.  I took the two back covers off and discovered the wire insulation had failed, it was all falling off the wiring.  Big mess, not sure how it didn't stop working long time ago.  Now they all work, but I still get a error for one high beam.

   How I repaired it; I cut a wire about 2 inch from a connector, slide a small heat shrink tube over the cut wire, then soldered a new wire to the end of the cut wire, added another heat shrink tube over that joint.  Repeat for the other end of that wire, and continue.  Three bulbs, and the high beam ballast, lots of wire, some hard to race as it was a tangled up mess.  Later I found a replacement wire harness on E-bay and on Amazon.   If you use any LED's, make sure they are "error free".  My race car trailer now has LED's, Cayenne gives errors for the trailer lights, but they all work.

    I still have the tape deck radio that I took out of the 928, let me know if you want it, free.  Just tell me where to send it.  I assume it works, but never tested it.

     To really autocross, get something really cheap, like a ford festiva.  Last time I went to a autocross, the best driver, who was also having the most fun, had a stock festiva.

There are replacement/repair headlight harnesses out there for cayennes.  

In reply to TED_fiestaHP :

I have a tape deck in awesome condition and if I decide to install it I'll be ripping out all the stock wiring and rewiring the entire stereo system in the 928. After replacing the factory tape deck with a working one (same exact blaupunkt model) and replacing the factory amp, my stereo still doesn't work except for some hiss from a single speaker. It's a E36 M3ty old system anyways, so I might just rewire everything to keep it simple.

In reply to docwyte :

From my understanding the replacement harnesses are for the 955 (please correct me if I'm wrong). And honestly I didn't want to deal with the wiring so I just got a new (to me) headlight so it was a 5 minute job instead of an hour. But thank you!

Did some more work on the 928 yesterday. Reimagining it as a casual track car has really helped me like the car more. I'm actually kinda excited to get some of this work done (except for the gas tank, I don't want to do that).

My license plate holder was poorly done; some idiot had crammed thick wood screws in there to hold the plate in, which ruined the holes. I wasn't able to get a proper metal screw in there again, but fortunately I still had my old 944 license plate holder lying around. Perfect fit, problem solved.

Since the factory stereo doesn't work, even after replacing the stereo and the factory amp with good working components, I decided to pull it all out. I do think I'll put a tape deck in this thing in the future, but it'll all have to be wired from scratch. So I pulled out the crappy old tape deck, the factory amp, this random transformer, and that box in the front which is apparently a counter for the O2 sensor reset light. 

I didn't take a picture, but I cut about 2 inches off the shift lever to lower it some. Stock, it feels kinda like shifting a truck. The factory lever isn't threaded; it's a rectagular steel bar and the shift knob just crams on there. Lopping some off the end helps a bit. 

Then I went to the hatch and decided it was finally time to remove the latch mechanism and rebuild it. It's a common failure point on 928s. Those bolts hadn't been turned in 43 years, so I broke the left one loose and removed it, then broke the right one loose and... well, and it kept turning. Whatever it threads into inside the hatch broke off so it just spins. I'll dremel it out today or tomorrow. Not to happy about that.

I also removed the rear window wiper and started removing the rear spoiler. The hardware was rusted and I'm not a big fan of the early spoiler. As soon as I began removing it, I saw the decades of gunk and rust beneath it.

Ewwwwww, gross.

There's certainly plenty of dirt, grime, and pine needles under there. There's some rust, but it's all wire wheel-fixable. Oh, and some of that awful black sticky stuff Porsche liked to use for sealant, asphalt or something. I'd rather use some silicone. That all needs to get cleaned up and I'll install the S4 spoiler that I have. I bought it cheap from Poland or some company and while it looks great, it's made from very thin fiberglass. I think I'll buy some carbon fiber and wrap it in a layer (real carbon fiber, not vinyl E36 M3) to add a bit of strength and style points. Then I'll need to get the 78-79 weatherstripping for the rear window to fill in those gaps, repaint all the bad spots, and install that spoiler. Although I'm very strongly considering replacing the rear window with a lexan version to save a good amount of weight. Rear defrost doesn't work anyways. 

I'm also partially tempted to just remove the rear latch altogether and replace it with something like these racey latches, because racecar:

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Universal-Rubber-Hood-Trunk-Lid-Hold-Down-Latch,1581.html

But I don't want to make this too rednecky. It's still a Porsche, after all. But, I can already see that dealing with the factory rear latch is going to be problematic, and it's kind of heavy. So we'll see. If I could find a fiberglass rear hatch that would solve my issues, but I haven't found one yet. Eh, probably too expensive anyway.

Okay, so after the frustration of that, I decided to be productive. Plenty of 928 folks talk about the rear muffler delete. I decided to do it, because a stock 928 sounds like a chevy truck and because I've read that rear muffler is like a boat anchor. So, out came the sawzall.

Honestly yeah, it was heavy. No reason for a muffler that size to weigh that much. Well, I bought a 2.5" diameter 18" long pipe from Autozone, slotted the end so I could fit it over what I cut off, and booger welded it on. I am not good at welding and I have Harbor Freight's cheapest welder, which is not a good welder. The combination makes for, uhhh, well let's just say I'm 90% sure the pipe will stay on. But as it turns out I needed something just slightly longer so I'll probably buy a cheap exhaust tip so the pipe exits outside of the rear bumper. You can just see the bottom edge of it peeking in this next picture, which is of my new Etoile wheels! Only on the rear ones, though. still need to buy tires for the front of the car. Rears are I believe 16X9.5, so nice and beefy. Unfortunately you can't buy wide tires for 16" wheels, so I'm just running a 245/50. Hoosier makes a 275/45 but that's a race tire. I'd love to have a street tire in that size.

It's such a huge improvement over those awful phone dial wheels. Although as I picked through the grime, I was reminded that the 928 suspension is adjustable. I need to lift the car again to deal with a gas tank leak, so I'm tempted to try to lower it about half an inch or so, both to compensate for the weight reduction I'm slowly doing and to improve handling a touch. Ultimately I'll have coilovers on it, but for now a nice free boost is a good thought. Once I get the fronts on I'll install the center caps and get some pics of it.

Question: I need to fill the holes where the side trim strips used to be. On the rear quarter panel I can use my welder to fill it with steel and grind it smooth, but what about the aluminum doors and front fenders? Can I use something like a JB Weld metal filler and sand that smooth, or should I try some form of welding with aluminum or something?

Oh and the car needs to be repainting and my plan is black again, but I'm strongly considering some Martini stripes down the center. Always loved that look.

   One way to fill a hole, fiberglass bondo, but first you have to dent the hole.  If you don't slightly dent the hole, then when you sand it flat, the filler will be gone and fall off and the hole will be there again.

     It can be a little tricky to weld fill a hole,  practice on scape metal, before welding on the car.  Welding on the car, will cause rust on the back side of the work, due to the heat, fine if you have access to the back side, can then coat with something.  Very easy to make the hole bigger...  Normally you would add a backing patch piece to make filling the hole easier.

   I assume you have a flux core welder.  For about the same cost you can now get a true MIG welder, which will allow welding stainless steel.  Also true MIG is cleaner and easier to use.  Go to amazon and look for the S-7 mig welder.  You will have to locally get a Argon gas bottle.  Also get a self darkening hood, makes things much easier.   To weld aluminum, you really need TIG welding and skill.

     Mcmaster carr is a good source for lexan material and any hardware.  You will need to add some metal (or aluminum) supports to a large lexan window, like the back window, typically seen on race cars.  Yes the Lexan will be lighter, but won't last forever, at some point it will need replacing.

I do have a self darkening hood, that helps a ton. Thanks for the tips on welding! I just need a ton of practice.

The lexan rear window is just kind of on my wish list since that rear glass is so heavy. Not sure if it'll ever happen but it's fun to think about. 

So, The Wife and I have been watching 24 hours of LeMons videos lately and she wants to do it. She finds it fascinating. Well, I found a Porsche 944 with no motor and only part of an interior for $300. Granted, I don't need to do that right now, but wow that is tempting. I think we're gonna tidy up and sell a few things, clean up and make a little space, and then casually keep an eye open for a LeMons race car. And if I had my choice, I would absolutely love a 944 as a LeMons car. Especially one without the engine! I mean, removing that removes half the problems from the car, let's be honest. I texted Patrick and we were brainstorming some motor ideas. I would want something relatively small and compact, aluminum block if possible, with 150-200 horsepower. Don't really want more, as I don't want to destroy the NA transaxle. And I got the idea of an old Honda B18! It would probably be great. A quick google didn't return any of that, but DID return plenty of results for a K20/K24 swap. Well, that's understandable. With a 924 turbo bellhousing I could do a 5 cylinder turbo Audi motor. I also read that the stock 1985 944 2.5 liter motor weighs 445 pounds from the torque tube flange onward. So in a perfect world, that weight or (preferably) less. Eh, I'm rambling here.

So, there are a few options, but for LeMons racing I think my #1 priority would be reliability. And simplicity, lets add that in there. Patrick mentioned that there are swap kits for a small block chevy, which means a 4.3 would fit. That could be an option. I don't know a ton about these things, I've never done an engine swap or wired up a motor, but my thought was get a simple old motor with a carb so there's less wiring. I dunno. I suppose I'll walk this road when/if I get a 944 for $500! I'm rambling now so I'll end this.

Wife just left for a doctor's appointment. Called me 5 minutes later and she got in a wreck. Light turned green, she hit the gas and reached over to grab her coffee, guy in front of her suddenly stopped. Uh oh. She's okay, fortunately. The Cayenne has some front end damage. Fixable, and the airbags didn't deploy. Fortunately, these things are tanks.

Went ahead and installed the S4 spoiler on the car. I still need to get the gaskets that go between the spoiler and the hatch, but overall I'm happy with how it looks. Ordered the front tires as well and put my stock wheels up for sale. If anyone wants some 15X7 Porsche 928 phone dials, just make me an offer.

Got a bit of good work done yesterday. I ordered some new tires for the front and dropped them off at a local place to get mounted on my Etoile wheels. Then I started work on some things I've been meaning to get done. The first one was super simple, installed my battery hold down. Just a factory one, and I used a stainless steel bolt because Cleveland.

It's a small thing, but still an improvement. Then I set about tackling this gas leak I have around the tank. That's been one of my real issues with this car, but one I've been a bit hesitant about, because it can come from many things. Better now than later though, so I started unbolting the shield around the gas tank that hides the filter and fuel pump.

Just two 10mm nuts. A bit rusted so I might replace them with stainless ones to stay safe. For those unaware, things rust terribly bad here in Cleveland. And even though I don't plan on driving this car in the winter, I just want to be safe.

Well, I pulled off the fuel tank shield and immediately saw my problem. Yep, that's a broken hose clamp. I was so grateful it was an easy fix. And the fuel pump and filter both look to be in excellent shape.

Replaced it with a new stainless steel hose clamp, tightened it all up, and added a spot of gas to the car. No leaks. I'll count that as a victory. Now I'm just waiting on my front wheels, which I expect today, and then I'll be able to drive this car around a bit. Granted it still has worn out suspension and the windows don't roll down and the HVAC doesn't work, nor do any gauges except the speedometer, but at least I'll be able to drive it. Small steps. Also finished removing some more A/C components, no pictures. I'm trying to take short videos so maybe I can compile them into one longer one and put it on youtube. We'll see if that happens.

Also had some help from my homie Aleister Meowley. He keeps the neighborhood free from mice, chipmunks, and birds. Yeah, this little guy is a one-cat homicide machine.

Had a few good days between me racing to finish my latest book. Actually managed to write 10,000 words yesterday to finish it a day early, but that made it so I couldn't really work on any of the cars. It was raining outside though, so that's kind of a moot point.

Where to begin? Well, The Wife's Fiat 500 suddenly died for no reason. We popped the hood and found an oil mist covering half of it, which is always a bad sign. Turn the key, lots of flashing lights, some clicking from the fuse/relay box, no attempt at starting though. I put a battery charger on it and it pulled pretty hard. After a few hours of charging (because if it was a dead battery, that would certainly fix it, right?) no improvement. So I started going through the fuses and relays, since the problem was clearly electrical. They all looked good. One of them was audibly clicking, so I tried to find it online, which was a lot harder than expected. Finally I started searching Fiat forums for this exact issue. 

It was just a dead battery. Charging it did absolutely nothing. I guess it was fully toast, because I just put a new battery in and the car is fine again. The oil mist, we have attributed to some being spilled during the last fill and just moving around a bit. We still have a lot more projects in front of this one, but at least the Fiat lives, which means we should be autocrossing soon. Although I think autocross season is pretty much over for the year, so we'll see.

Moving on to the 928. Seeing it as a track car has really helped me enjoy it more. Cutting off the rear muffler helped also, because more noise is good noise. It's on ramps right now so I can hopefully install the solid steering bushings, which are supposed to be a great mod. After that, I want to shuffle cars around in the driveway so I can drive it here and there. I still need to replace the driver's side window switch so that'll hopefully roll down. Anyway, a few things have pushed this a bit more into racecar territory. I removed the rear hatch latch to fix it and it suddenly dawned on me that if I fix it, I won't be able to open it. It opens with the key, and I only have the valet key. Getting the proper key from Porsche is about a grand. So, the rear hatch is going to get some latches installed so it won't flop around when I drive.

Took it on a trip to get some gas and then to Lowe's to pick up a few things with The Wife. The driver's side window doesn't roll down so it was kind of a toasty ride, but we made it! I even took a picture in the parking lot to prove this thing moves.

Honestly the suspension felt a lot better than I expected, too. I assumed it was all worn out since it's 43 years old, but it still feels tight.

Soooooooo, on the way back I was trying to get my shift knob to fit a bit better. The shift rod is just a rectangular piece of steel and the knob slides on, there's no set screw or anything. It wasn't all the way down so I pushed, then whacked it a couple times with the heel of my hand until it fully settled. That got the shift knob on, but suddenly it wouldn't go in gear and the gearshift selected felt loose. I managed to get it over to the left, so I had reverse and first and nothing else. The best part? I had just pulled onto the highway. So I put my flashers on and drove slowly along the shoulder, which suddenly narrowed and went to almost nothing. Lots of cars coming, too. I kept pushed and pulling on the knob and FINALLY managed to get it into second gear. Fortunately our exit was only a mile away, so I just cruised at about 30mph in second gear the entire way. Made it home safe and sound and now I have to figure out what I did. Perhaps one of those shifter bushings I've heard about.

The rennlist fellas tell me it's a shift lever bushing, rear coupler bushing, and/or front shifter ball cup. Went ahead and bought replacements for those, and upgraded the front shifter ball cup to a full steel adjustable one from 928 Motorsports that's adjustable and will never brake. And bought some stainless brake lines while I was at it.

Driving this car a few miles was really fun. I really need to get the rest of the gauges working and more of the car sorted so I can enjoy it more. My plan was to weld the sunroof shut and remove the bulky sunroof stuff and headliner, and I realized today that I kinda have to do that otherwise I won't fit in there with a helmet. And I'm not a particularly tall guy, so I found that weird. Probably the Corbeau seats in there. Oh, and I bought 5mm spacers for the rear, but now that I look at it I can fit so much more. I may even try my 1 inch spacers just to see if they fit. Also I need to carefully roll the front fenders. Yeah, it's a laundry list of stuff, but I'm slowly getting it working and that's what's important.

   As I recall, it should do about 50 MPH in first gear...   In top gear, it should do almost 150...  No I never drove mine that fast.

      The rear shift coupling had plastic bearings, and those might have failed, broke and pieces fell out.

      On my first 928, many years ago, I replaced the rear coupling with  OEM part.

      On my current 928, I found some brass replacement bearings, that are used with the old coupling.  That seemed to work pretty good.  The OEM coupling had some designed in "wear" , I think it made shifting easier, but I prefer the current set up, which is very tight.  Shifter has almost no movement while in gear.

 The front ball coupling is less fun to replace, might want to start at the back.