Wrapping up the Brake Pressure Switch

Alert readers will remember that the connectors I attached to the ends of the two brake pressure switch wires were too long to be covered nicely by the rubber cover I bought.  The key was to get some right-angle connectors, crimp them onto the wires, press the connectors onto the switch terminals, push on the rubber boot, then use high-quality tape to waterproof the whole schebang.  And here we are!

Brake Work

It's been a while since the last update, but I've been making steady progress.  I found these great single-person brake bleed nipples at PelicanParts.  Since I'm working on my own, everything that helps me do things myself gets a shot.  These have a one-way valve that allows you to bleed the brake by backing them off 1/4 of a turn, pumping the brake until the air is gone, then tightening again.

 I replaced them on all four caliper units.

I'll fill and bleed the system later.

Next I moved on to the brake pressure sensor switch.  Alert readers will remember that only one of the wires was connected to the sensor switch, the other one was dangling.  I bought a new switch from Pelican Parts and replaced it.  The new switch has two connectors, but upon removing the old one, I found it was in good shape, yet had only one connector terminal.  I can only think it was a badly-done replacement, so I put in the new switch and put new connectors on the ends of the wires, running them through a rubber shroud.  It turns out the length of the connectors prevents the shroud fitting correctly, so I'll put right-angle connectors on soon.

We're Suspended

It took the better part of 3 weekends to tear the suspension apart at each wheel, rebuild and reinstall.  The first thing I want to say is that EA's manual references the Haynes manual to take apart the front suspension.  It involves taking the brake caliper and the the hub off which exposes the wheel bearings.  If you have a deep desire to check wear on the bearings it's a good idea, but it's unnecessary.  It was much heavier to keep it all assembled, but with the aid of my floor jack it was much easier to do the work on the passenger side than the driver's side.  Anyway, let's dive in.

This is the driver's side, I removed the brake line (and didn't do a very good job of containing the brake fluid) and pulled off the previously-upgraded BMW brake caliper.  I checked the pads carefully and they looked almost new with lots of material left.

Then I took off the hub nut and pulled the brake disc and the brake disc cover.  The ball joint on both sides was in excellent condition.

When I got to this place, I noticed that the tie-rod end's rubber boot was shot, so I ordered two new ones from Pelican Parts.  Here is the old and new:

I unbolted the top of the strut from the inside of the front trunk, pulled the strut down and levered it out of the fender.

Here are the old and new struts.  The old ones were shot - you can see that when the arm is pressed down into the body, it doesn't pop back up again.  They needed to be replaced anyway.

There's a rubber bumper-stop located at the top of the strut body.  Both sides had one of the three lobes badly disintegrated.  I searched far and wide on the web for replacements, to no avail.  I stopped in at SGS Motorsports (formerly Strasse) in San Luis Obispo and asked the expert there.  He said unless the car had been lowered in the past, it's safe to just cut off the bad lobe.  It's meant as the final protector when the car completely bottoms out.  So here are the before and after:

Next I moved on to the torsion bars.  In this car, the torsion bar slides into the long tube at the bottom of the suspension A-arm.  This is different from my Nissan pickup where the torsion bars are exposed and mounted rearwards of the front suspension.  Here are the old and new, and you can see the difference in thickness, which is needed with all of the extra weight.

Here are shots of the front and the rear torsion bar mounts.

Here is the A-arm, pulled from the driver's side.  You can see the collection of tools it takes to get the job done.

Now comes the hard part.  Getting the rubber bushings out of the A-arm was a huge pain.  They've been jammed into place for 38 years and I had to use two different puller tools and a lot of lubrication.

Now I moved over to the passenger side, taking the whole suspension out without tearing the caliper, disc and bearings apart.
 

Getting the torsion bars in and out was easier on this side for some reason.

I cleaned off all of the gunk, then sanded off all of the rust down to smooth shiny metal.

And now everything is back in.  It doesn't look like much, but we've got new torsion bars, new torsion bar bearings, full lubrication, new struts, cut-down strut bumpers and new tie-rod ends.

I then polished the strut-top hardware and bolted everything back in place.

Now moving to the back the job is a lot easier.  The new shocks and springs are near total replacements, but there is some hardware that needs to be swapped over.  I can't do this job myself, as the spring has to be compressed and bolted on to the new shock, so I took it over to Morin Brothers and they got it done in less than an hour.  The new assemblies went in smoothly.

Whew!  A lot of work for no real visible improvement, but I tend to focus on infrastructure so it's rewarding to me, and now the car will support the rest of the effort.

Suspension and Brakes Result, CV bolt tool

The good news is that the brakes had been upgraded to the BMW parts by a previous owner, and no further work on brakes is needed.

The bad news is that the shocks are replacements, but they and the springs are factory spec, and definitely need to be upgraded.  Electro Automotive sells upgrades as part of the conversion package, so I will have to go ahead with that.

It turns out that Pelican Parts can no longer supply the 12-point CV joint bolt removal tool, so a quick Google search led me to MetalNerd.  They specialize in German car tools and accessories.  The order was handled very quickly and I got it in my hands in two days!  Fred's coming over on Sunday and we'll get the engine dropped.

Bumpers and Interior Removal, Brakes and Suspension Check

Yesterday I removed the front and rear bumpers.  Very straightforward, no surprises.

Today I worked on pulling the interior.   Some easy, some tricky...

First I pulled the two seats, with four bolts each.  Then I worked on pulling up all of the carpeting.  First I removed the defroster light fixture, then loosened the small setscrews holding the shift knob on, then pulled up the center hump carpet.  Then it got tricky because the steering wheel shaft goes through a hole in the carpet, so I had to unbolt the U-joint just above the carpet hole.  This was tough as the shafts that come into each side of the joint are quite long.  I ended up unbolting both sides, then prying apart the upper fitting until I was able to slide it up far enough so it came off the lower shaft.  After that the carpeting pieces came up nicely.  Then I removed the seat back panel and the aftermarket 3-point racing harness seatbelts.  All of this work led up to the gutted interior.  I found a dollar bill and about another dollar in change, so the car is trying to offset the cost of this project!

Next I moved on to the steering wheel.  I recently bought the required 27mm socket.  I quickly realized that the nut was on very, very tight and I had trouble trying to hold the wheel and undo the nut.  I finally stuck a 2x4 through the wheel spokes and jammed it down into the passenger wheel well.  When it finally let go, it was easy to get off.  Then I removed the indicator and windshield wiper controls.

With this pulled, I can see the source of two problems I was having.  First, the copper strips that conduct the signal for the horn switch are actually worn through.  So those have to be replaced.  Second, I found that the auto-return mechanism for the indicator is broken.  There were a couple of broken pieces of plastic in the area, so I'll have to see how that can be fixed.

Next I thought you'd like to view the heart of the device that is insanity that is the spare-tire-pressure-driven-windshield-washer-system.

If you zoom in on the picture, you'll see a little black tab that goes into the in-and-out fluid connectors.  When you pull on the windshield stalk, this black tab is pressed into the fluid connector, allowing the fluid to flow.  Unfortunately, it's bat-shit crazy engineering.  I have a couple of choices - I can just leave this alone or remove it and mount a push button switch on the dashboard, or I can track down a 924 windshield control stalk that has an electric switch to drive the washer pump I bought.  I'll make the decision later.

Next I checked the springs and struts.  They don't look original so I may be in luck here.  The springs are .388" thick, so I'll be able to find out what load they can handle.

I'll confirm both of these upgrades with my contact at Strasse Porsche in San Luis Obispo on Monday.