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Post by Doonze on Dec 27, 2015 0:14:52 GMT -6
I'm kind of a wordy person, I like to tell stories, and I'm long winded. So.... if you see a wall of text, and your not a "story reading" kind of person, feel free to skip my post of this nature. So I picked myself up a 1987 944. I had been looking at them daily for about a year, mainly for research so I could know what kind of deal I was getting. I was trying to get a feel of the current values. I had read all the forums, researched them until I had 944 coming out my ears. I had planned to buy one in Feb or March of 2016, that was my target date. However I had one fall in my lap early, so I got a 944 for Christmas! That story is else where on the board, so I'll skip that. I did get a big folder of history on the car, dating back to 98. Seems all the history before that was lost. This 944 has had something of a ruff life, lots of shop notes about "cars been sitting 4 years" "cars been sitting 3 years". It had a new head about 2001, I'm guessing someone didn't change the timing belt like they were supposed to. Some notes about cracked flywheel being welded, and CV joints replaced in 2001. Starter done in 2001, then again in 2009. Water pump and belts in 2004. Several notes about cracked manifold being welded, and several shops saying they were trying to fix the bad welding job the previous shops did. I'm not sure if it's fixed at this point or not, I'll find out when I get it running right. There were notes one shop wrote "Noise in drive-train cold, the noise turned out to be a preloaded drive hub causing the fail safe fingers to touch when cold. We have never seen this before! $150" LOL. There were at least 4 shop invoices where it said "No start issues". Lots of towing invoices. Lots of notes about weird noises. One was "Illegal modification of test pipe and glass-pack installation causing noise" so I'm not even sure if this thing HAS a cat currently, that's for down the road. The DME relay was replaced in 2009, so that's good. Distributor and wires 2009. Both A-arms were replaced in 98, about 60k ago. In 99 it got a rebuilt tranny, about 50k ago. The last invoices I have are from 2009. But it didn't run long after that because the guy I bought it from got it in 2011 and it didn't run then. So the last PO had it 4 years, he has no invoices because he had no work done in shops. Pretty much he said he found a bad vacuum hose, replaced it and got it running, and replaced a power steering hose that was leaking, and that's it under the hood. He however spent lots of time working on the inside, and had the phone dials restored to mint condition. New tires. Most of the electrical works. The drivers seat is pretty tore up, but the rest of the interior is more or less perfect. Most everything works (back hatch remote release an exception), there is no hatch carpet, but it does have new seals in the hatch. Sun roof works, even though it's a different color because the original vanished during transport, no one knows when or where or how. Two main issues currently are it's hard to start, you have to floor it to get it to catch, then keep the gas pedal moving till it warms up for about a minute, then it will idle, badly. But it will idle. And it makes a "sheet metal rattle" noise (another noise issue with this car!) when it's at idle. Once moving it goes away. Getting it starting right, and idling, is the first order of business. I started with the most common cause, vacuum lines. When I started inspecting the lines under the venturi I noticed they had black electrical tap on them, and it was coming off. I pulled it off, and the hoses are totally shot, cracked all to heck. I've pulled the air box and J boot off, and will get the throttle body and venturi off in the next few days. I've got a kit coming to replace the entire vacuum system. Also have timing belt and balancer belt coming, last record I can see is 2004 for those, way to old. So I'll get all that in and see where we're at. It does run well once moving, and it drove and handled like a dream. I can't wait to get this thing going! Wish me luck!    |
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