Check with 928 International, as I recall they helped me out with my first 928, with the rear hatch lock. They re-keyed a replacement lock assembly to match my key.
Check with 928 International, as I recall they helped me out with my first 928, with the rear hatch lock. They re-keyed a replacement lock assembly to match my key.
Welding the sunroof; I will have to check with a magnet, the sunroof might be aluminum and the roof might be steel. The body is steel and most of the other parts; doors, fenders are aluminum. If you don't care to much about how it looks, could make a new piece slightly larger and rivet it down. Welding it will cause lots of distortion, heat shrink. Could require lots of body work after welding.
Hey Ted, glad to see you commenting. You always have so much helpful stuff to offer. Thanks for the insight on all this stuff.
This car is definitely geared pretty steep. My tach doesn't work so I have no clue what engine speeds I'm at, but second gear and 40mph was no problem. I need to get the gauge pod off so I can tackle the wiring issues back there, maybe next week I'll try again. Hopefully I can figure out why it's sticking and refusing to come off. I'm almost to the point where I want zero stock gauges and just want an aluminum dash with some VDO gauges wired in, but I have no clue how I'd do that. Although that reminds me, I do need to start pulling out some of the stock wiring that's no longer needed. I know there's going to be a lot of it.
I still need to remove the center console thingy so I can replace the window switch for the driver's side window. Unfortunately that requires removing some screws on the center console, and my Corbeau seats are in the way so I have to unbolt both front seats to get to that. I think when I get to that point I'll go ahead and pull some other stuff out as well. Maybe try working on the sunroof while I'm at it. I'm hoping the switch will get my window working again. If not, time to take the door panel off and check that stuff. Although that'll happen anyway, since I'd like to replace both door panels with just a sheet of carbon fiber. Lightweight and simple.
Window switches: Pry off the top off the switch, you are replacing it anyhow, feel free to break it. With the cover off and the new switch in hand, you can see the "spring clip that holds it in place". Use a small screw driver to pry the clip into the switch hole, and the switch will lift out. I have found it easier to get the new switch in with the cover off, just have to be careful about not ruining the new switch. Seems about the time the picture on the switch is worn off, the switch will be unreliable.
Normally the switch is the window problem. What is odd, everything comes with a long cable, so have to take things apart to find the far end of the cable. As I recall, a rear fender light came with a long cable, had to remove more than I wanted to, not sure why they did that.
If you don't care about the rear hatch having a lock, could remove the hatch lock assembly and add a pair of latches. Look up Pegasus racing, and do a search for latch, they are installed with rivets, so that would be easy. If you are ok with drilling some holes and having some latches on the car, race car look.
Removing the gauge pod, shouldn't be to difficult. Remove the two allen head bolts, little difficult to find both, the first time, don't remove the hex head bolts.
The rear shift coupling is fairly easy. Need a 4 mm allen wrench, little had to see the screw for that, easier if you have another coupling in hand. Or pictures of the coupling part.
I recall using the brakes to merge into traffic, after going "slightly" faster than the traffic going down the on ramp. Great car. Once when I did that, found a car had stopped at the end of the on ramp, found out just how good the brakes are.
Not sure how ideal a 928 is for autocross, but would be great to drive at Watkins Glen. But based on some of my experience, I would rather have a safety cage and a hans device while on track. Things can happen...
The key for that 928 is nothing special, any locksmith should be able to cut one for practically nothing. In no way is that a $1000 key. Even my Cayenne key's with the special fob and programming are $500 from the dealer.
docwyte said:The key for that 928 is nothing special, any locksmith should be able to cut one for practically nothing. In no way is that a $1000 key. Even my Cayenne key's with the special fob and programming are $500 from the dealer.
I only have the valet key. To get full functionality, I need the regular key (not sure what it's called) which is a bit longer. To the best of my knowledge, the only way to get that is to go to Porsche and order it. For that I've heard a pretty wide range, 500-1500 bucks, usually waiting a couple months.
Now, if it's a racecar, I only need the valet key. I don't care about locking the glove box or the rear hatch and my door locks don't work anyway. So, silver lining?
In reply to TED_fiestaHP :
Yeah rear latches are on my short list. Gotta fill in some holes and do a lot of sanding and priming back there, too. Thanks for the tips on the window switch. For me the issue is removing that center console, that requires removing two screws and my seats block the screws due to high bolster.
Also I went outside and checked mine after your sunroof comment. Fortunately (ha!) I have some paint chips on the sunroof and the metal beneath has a bit of surface rust, so I think I can confirm the sunroof is steel.
My issue with the gauge pod, when I remove the screws and start pulling, it's stuck on something near the ignition switch. I hesitate to pull any hard, but it's not budging.
Window switches, there really is no need to remove the center console. There is a side panel on each side, that is fairly easy to remove, with those off, you should have access to the cable. You can pop out the shifter boot, can help with switch and cable access. They pop out UP. Do you have a new switch? On the new switch, you should be able to see how it clips in.
Not sure why the ignition switch would trap the gauge pod, the round switches and the ignition switch are mounted to a frame separate from the pod, so have to wiggle it off. Do need to take the steering wheel off, and the switch assembly under the steering wheel. Want to pull those allen head bolts out, fully remove.
Welding the sunroof, thin metal, lots of distortion, weld/heat causing shrink and warping. Best way, several small welds, skip around to reduce heat build up. Don't need a full weld, can fill any gaps left after enough welding. Glass bondo. End up with lots of body work and repaint, but if the sunroof has rust, no real harm in doing something. Each weld only about 1/4 long.
A good project car, is one you feel you can't make worse.
There is a metal "spring" at the front and back of the switch, that holds it in the hole. Pry the cover off, then you can carefully pry the spring to pull the switch up out of the console. Should be able to get the switch out and new one in, without removing the console. The first one is difficult but after that you will see better how to do it.
In reply to TED_fiestaHP :
Awesome, thanks! Yeah those side panels that you have to remove, I can't access the required screw because my Corbeau seats have really high bolsters and block it. Thanks for the tip on the sunroof. The car needs a whole respray anyway and lots of basic bodywork so we'll just add this to the list. I'm grabbing two latches from pegasus racing, it says they're the latches used on the Porsche 911 RSR so that's cool. I'm gonna give that switch a try later today and see if I can just pry it up with some simple tools, thanks for the tips!
Alrighty, got a bit of work done today. I decided to go and try the window switch after the tips Ted gave me. So, I used a prying tool and popped the old one right out, no problem. Then I set myself to unscrewing all the crap that holds the center console in place. It's not much, but my seats are kinda in the way. But after smooshing the bolsters a bit, I got it. There's a ton of wiring in the center console that I'll eventually have to clean up, once I trace and tag each wire so I know I'm not removing anything important.
Finally got it out, then had to splice my new switch into the old plug. Wasn't that hard, although I did manage to cut the tip of my pinky finger. Yay.
Got it all wired up, turned the car on, and still no window. I've checked fuses and relays and those are good, so my next step is to pull off the door panel and check back there. I also started removing the headliner, since that's gotta come off. I ordered some of those welding magnets to hold the sunroof in place and next week I'll start sanding everything down to bare metal and tacking it into place.
I also took a good look at my shifter lever. I can see some little tab with a loop that looks like it's supposed to be connected to something. I tried to highlight it in this photo.
It looks like it's supposed to connect to something. Right now the shift lever moves waaayyyy too much back and forth, and it's stuck in second gear. I'm wondering if this thing is the culprit.
Not sure what your seeing with the shifter, the rod going forward, goes to the ball cup, on top of the drive shaft tube. The one going to the rear, connects to the shifter coupling. The coupling has old plastic bushings, those might have broke and pieces fell out. Removing the coupling at the rear is far easier than doing anything with the ball cup thing at the front. It's also possible the ball cup came off the ball, if that is the case, could try snapping it back on, but it might need replacing. As I recall I cut a wrench in half to undo the nut securing the ball socket onto the shift rod, not much room to work. The forward rod shouldn't move, if it moves when you move the shifter, then the ball socket came off.
The repair kit I used, used bass bushings to replace the plastic bushings in the coupling, bits of plastic fell out as I removed the coupling.
When new these cars were awesome, now they are old, a lot of little things will need to be taken care of. But the end result should be worth the effort. Every rubber hose and many little bits of plastic are well aged.
Are you actually getting power the window switch? One of those wires should have power, key on.
When I bought my first 928, the windows were down, I assumed it was just the switches, on the drive home it snowed. Back then I didn't have much, and it was rather foolish decision, it was rather risky, but it turned out to be a great experience. I had to eventually get another one.
The forward rod moves quite a bit, so that needs replacing. I have a steel version coming in the mail so it won't break again.
This is the part that's no longer attached, I found it:
Discontinued so that's no good. Although it's so simple maybe I can make one out of brass or something so it won't break.
With the forward rod moving, the ball socket fell off. Not much access for that.
I have seen upgrade kits for the forward shift linkage, not sure how much that will improve the overall linkage. Some have said installing some of those, require dropping the drive tube.
Regardless of how you fix the ball socket assembly, that won't be fun. Limited room for access. Slow job, can be done, but not a quick fix. Can't see it, and very limited space to work with, should be able to find good pictures of what it looks like.
That was one of the first repairs on my first 928. I had traded in a perfectly good Ford Thunderbird turbo coupe, for a very used/tired not well taken care of 928. It snowed on the drive home, windows down, gear shift barely worked. Each time I worked on it, it had to function when done, since it was my only car, and need it to get to work.
Now I am retired and the 928 is just a extra toy, no rush or pressure to get it ready for reliable road trips. Ideally I will buy fresh tires come spring and start to enjoy driving it.
Yeah I've heard it's not a fun repair. From reviews, the steel part I purchased is easier to install than the factory one, so here's hoping. Just found that shift connect plate at 928classics and ordered one, so as soon as I can I'll be trying to fix all this. I need to install my front brake pads and bleed the brakes as well. I'm just glad it handled well when I drove it! I was expecting 4 blown shocks but it drove like everything was solid and functional.
I bought a mechanic's creeper but this car is so damn low I still barely fit beneath it on ramps. I need to get one of those small lifts that go beneath the car one of these days. For now I'll put it on jack stands as high as possible and get to wrenching. I haven't checked my ball joints but I'm assuming I still have the original aluminum ones so I need to upgrade those to the steel ones. Or control arm ends, or whatever that part is called, you know what I'm talking about. We'll add that to the list haha.
Alright, I put the car as high as possible on jack stands today and got to work. I want to build a new exhaust system anyway, so this was my excuse to remove the stock one. Also that greatly helps with access to the front shifter ball cup thingie. Took a while as some of the bolts were bent. I basically snapped half of them, but I got the exhaust and the exhaust shield out.
Sorry for the blurry pic, but the place I need to stuff my hands is on the other side of this stuff. And the torque tube. Ten bolts later, the entire exhaust system was out! Now I have no choice but to replace my manifolds with the tubular steel ones from 85/86 (which are basically shorty headers) and a 3" exhaust.
The cat actually looked pretty clear and unclogged. I'll try to sell that, there's always people that'll buy cats.
Anyway, I decided to move on to the interior to see if I could figure out that shifter a bit. I found that part that was only halfway installed, and I think I realized why.
First off, this shifter mechanism is the most ridiculously over-complicated shifter I've ever messed with. There is no reason for it to be like this. None. I hate it. But, after about an hour of fiddling and cutting one of those bushing springs down (it was way too stiff and I couldn't compress it to get the shifter thingie back on, ruined two hacksaw blades trying to cut a loop off, I think Porsche made it from Wolverine's bones) I finally got it all together. Of course it made no difference as I still need to fix the front ball cup thing. Well, from my understanding the stock one is a huge pain to install, but my upgraded all-steel one coming in the mail is both easier and never breaks or wears out. So, I'm looking forward to that. Just gotta wait on it to come in the mail
After that I decided to pull the driver's side door panel off so I can start diagnosing why the window doesn't roll down. Only broke two plastic clips removing the panel so I'll consider that a major victory. My plan is to replace the door panels with just flat sheets of carbon fiber. Lightweight and I can still mount the door handle there. I'll probably be a good boy and give the door frame or the rear of the carbon panel a spray of some sound-deadening foam so it's not too too loud. This will be a track car but I don't want it to be a bear to drive. The mosquitos started coming out so I called it quits once the sun got low in the sky.
Still a ton of work to do, but I'm getting there. If I can get the stupid window to move up and down I'll be a lot happier. Hell, I'll even put the door card back on for a while to appease The Wife. If I decide to put a stereo in it, I'll need to wire everything from scratch and remove all the factory wiring. That'll be a journey. There's plenty of extra wiring in the back that needs to be removed as well. I'll get there.
So now I just need to find some stock 85-86 manifolds and I'll be on my way to a nice boost in power.
Stock shifter is a piece of E36 M3 with terrible springs and bushings so I bought a short throw shifter from 928gt.com that completely eliminates that and replaces it with a solid lever and solid bushings, no springs. Really looking forward to that getting here.
So, adding stock 85-86 exhaust manifolds to my car will get me like 80% the gains of headers, and they're a factory Porsche part, and stainless steel, blah blah. Adding those will require a fairly complex curve (for me) when building the exhaust. I'm new to welding and stuff, so that's a concern. Also, those manifolds used to be cheaply available. Now they're $300-400 each. For about a hundred or two more, I can get long tube headers that will make a bit more power and will make the rest of the exhaust system easier. That's for plain steel headers, ceramic coated is $1245.
If your going to build exhaust, what I did was fairly easy, just stainless tubing and some 45 deg pieces. I used a cheap MIG welder to do all the stainless welding. Used a 3 inch high flow CAT and a couple cheap stainless mufflers. I posted some pictures, if you want to do something similar and have any questions, let me know. It did take some time and lots of welding, but nothing to difficult.
The linkage is a little more complex than needed, but when not worn out it does work. The 944 uses something simpler.
Yeah my plan is pretty similar. I think I'm going to splurge for the full headers, if nothing else to make it easier to build the part that goes from collectors to the y pipe. Then just 3 inch tubing all the way back with a resonator and some form of muffler. I might do a 100 cell cat, depending on prices.
Talked with some more Porsche guys about the suspension. Everyone agrees that I need to upgrade my aliminum ball joint thingies to steel, so that'll happen. When it comes to springs and shocks, there are some good shocks available, but as for springs my options are stock or full coilovers. There aren't really any aftermarket springs available. Mine being a 1981, the rear ride height is adjustable like a coilover, but the front is not. Fortunately I have the stiffest front springs that came on a 928, but I would like the adjustability. So I might swap to 83-84 front springs and shocks, which are roughly the same spring rate as mine but adjustable and get some new bilsteins. Another poster told me he was in the same situation and cut one loop off both front and rear springs to stiffen them up some and it performed excellently. After two years of searching he found some stiffer front springs (Weltmeister) and he couldn't tell a difference between the cut stock spring and the weltmeister.
So right now my suspension plan is as follows: Upgrade to steel front ball joints, lop a loop off my front and rear springs, upgrade all bushings to poly, get new endlinks for my front and rear sway bars. My shocks still seem to be fine, but after a bit I'll upgrade to some new adjustable bilsteins. I'm looking into upgrading to the 83-86 928 S front brakes since they're an upgrade but I don't need to swap over all the stuff as I would for the GTS brake swap. Once I drive it for a while, if this suspension is deemed too mild, I'll eventually get some coilovers, but I think these simple mods will make for a great handling car that still can handle road driving pretty well.
Went to hop in the Cayenne today and remembered I needed to put a quart of oil in it, so I went to pop the hood and the latch handle wouldn't budge. Pulled as hard as I could and it wouldn't budge. Looked it up online and there's an emergency hood release latch behind the fender liner, so I dug my arm in there and found it and pulled. Nothing. I finally slipped a ratchet through the loop so I could get a better grip and braced my shoulder against the wheel opening and pulled as hard as I could and it finally opened. I sprayed plenty of lithium grease on the latch to make sure it wasn't frozen, added a quart of oil, and now the hood won't fully latch. So something is broken.
I'm really tired of the nickle and diming this car is starting to do. I especially hate it because it's a daily driver. With 176K miles on the clock, this stuff is bound to happen, and it's a sign that maybe I should look at something newer for a daily driver. I'm trying not to be too impulsive but it's getting annoying. If I can code out the hood open warning alarm, I might just do hood pins.
Alright, just ordered a PIWIS interface thingy and a 256GB external SSD so I can start coding this stupid car myself. Just finished my writing for the day and I'm a bit ahead of schedule, so I'm taking 30 minutes to play some video games because it's my 44th birthday then I'm going to try to start getting the new front ball cup thing on the 928.
Decided to go back and grab my to do list for these cars and update it. Sometimes I feel like I'm trudging along and barely getting anything done, but I've done a good bit.
2008 Cayenne GTS:
DONE Buy intake
Install intake
Make video showing how it sounds with sport muffler and secondary cat delete
Fix rear bumper trim or replace
DONE Replace rear side window
DONE Buy tires for new rims (305/40R20)
DONE Install new summer wheels
Lower another half inch or so, get stainless hardware
Fix intermittent A/C issue
DONE, IT SUCKED, GET ANOTHER Install that space-saving subwoofer
Supersprint headers
Build new lightweight exhaust? Hey, a guy can dream
ORDERED Get a weathertech cargo area liner since we have dogs.
Code out CEL after headers, tune for HP
1981 928:
DONE Replace all fuses
PARTIALLY DONE Check all relays
PARTIALLY DONE/REMOVED Remove factory stereo/amp/speakers, rewire new system in
New glove box lid/cover thing
DONE Install prototipo
New rear center console (or just remove and carpet)
DONE Find and fix fuel leak at tank
DONE put ugly stock wheels up for sale
DONE ETOILE Find better wheels
Remove piping for air pump
Get gauges working again
DONE Get S4 rear spoiler
PARTIALLY DONE/PURCHASED Install new blinker switch assembly
Intake manifold refresh and new fuel lines
Get front wipers working
DONE Go through center console and replace switches
DONE/REMOVED Get HVAC working again
Remove all the A/C stuff from engine bay
Buy a new front spoiler/build splitter
Replace all vacuum lines
Remove 1 coil from each spring
New shocks
Poly bushings
Remove headliner, replace with simple fabric
Weld sunroof shut
Upgrade sway bar end links
Roll all four fenders
Install new 928Motorsports steel front shifter ball cup
Short shifter
2012 Fiat 500
Car has been legally totaled, so get a salvage title and buy it back so it can be a proper challenge car
Install springs and shocks I have purchased
New suspension bushings
DONE Clean 13 years of dog hair out of the car
Add lightness
Weld exhaust, even just lighter muffler, The Wife wants it louder
Install intake (I have one sitting in the garage)
Take this thing autocrossing!
Porsche Boxster
Buy one for The Wife, although she loves the 928 so we'll see. His and hers 928s?
Porsche 996
Buy one for me.
Yes when you cut a spring shorter, it will increase the spring rate, making it stiffer. But hard to say exactly what the change is, or how much you really want to cut off.
I have not looked yet, but hypercoil has a rather large selection of springs, both selection of size and spring rate. Pegasus has a good listing of those. Would be good to know what the OEM spring rate was, then can decide how much to change it. Might do a similar rate change front and back.
Might be able to add a adjustable coil over kit to the current shock/spring assembly, I have not looked into this, but that could be a option.
I added some flex pipe to the Y pipe assembly. The most rear manifold stud on both sides is broken/missing. I think the Y pipe added stress and caused those studs to fail. It will want to expand a little as it warms up. The little flex pipe will take care of that. Hope the rear of the manifolds don't leak. I want to drive it some before taking the heads off, job for latter.
The exhaust was a lot of welding, nothing to difficult, just welding time.
Factory rear and front spring rates, as measured by a member on Rennlist. Moving to the factory adjustable front setup would be nice, but that would also result in a 50-70lb softer spring, which is definitely not what I want.
There is a kit that would allow me to run standard 2.5" springs on Koni shocks, so that's an option.
https://928srus.com/products/front-rear-suspension-hat-kit-sold-as-set-of-4?_pos=9&_sid=89ffab89e&_ss=r
After pricing all that out though, I could easily buy proper coilovers. So for now I'm going to focus on getting it back on the road, then I'll do bushings and sway bar end links and lop a coil off each spring if deemed necessary. If that is satisfactory, honestly I'll probably just get new shocks and enjoy that for a while. If that is problematic in any way (which I don't anticipate, another member did exactly that and said it handled very well and still had a comfortable ride) then I'll probably just upgrade to coilovers.
Did some work today. The old shifter ball cup wasn't hard to remove, and the inner bushing was certainly toast. When I went to install the solid steel one from 928Motorsports it dawned on me that it's adjustable, but the part that I would screw in to tighten the socket is also the part that screws into the shift linkage rod. In other words, installation is a paaaiiin. Here's a comparison of the old part versus the new part.
The big issue with this is the complete lack of space to work in. I tried to snap a picture of the work environment. That's a 17mm wrench on the shift linkage rod up front that you see hanging down.
I managed to get the new ball socket thing threaded on there, but I cannot tighten it with that limited space. I removed the crossmember on the right side of that photo and the frontal heat shields which helped a little, but there's still just no room. So, I have to unbolt the front of the torque tube and drop it—this is what's recommended by Roger, the guy that sells this part. I don't believe it'll be very difficult, and it'll help familiarize me with the car, which is good. But still, what a pain in the butt just for a shifter linkage. I could almost wish I had just bought a replacement stock one.
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