Peter Wilson
Adelaide, Australia @peterwilson_oz
Model 930 3.3 Year 1980 Acquired 2011
Now that the 930 is safely in the garage at home, I have been able to address several maintenance issues with the car. One has been wear in the throttle linkage, specifically the junction between the button on the bell crank which mounts to the transmission, and the wire loop leading to the engine compartment and throttle butterfly. The button was significantly worn through the already narrowed ‘waist’ where the wire loop wraps around.
The button is available as a spare part, and I had purchased one long ago with the intent of doing this job. It was 30 minutes’ work to remove the bell crank, grind the back off the old button, punch it out, install the new one and peen the mounting pin. A quick coat of paint to protect the bare metal and it was back in the car.
Next up was dismantling the wastegate to investigate some strange ‘whooshing’ noises that the car was producing under boost. I suspected a torn diaphragm or leaking exhaust flange but there was nothing to be seen. The wastegate has been reassembled and reinstalled and I will continue the investigation elsewhere.
The final task was to look into why the car had started pulling left under braking. My logic was that there must be a problem reducing the effectiveness of one of the right-hand brakes, such as fluid leaking onto a pad or a stuck piston. I removed each pad in turn, checked the piston seals and that each piston was moving freely. Everything looked great – almost exactly as it did when I rebuilt the brakes almost ten years ago. I’m now wondering if it could be a wheel bearing or suspension bush, causing the wheel alignment to change under braking. The latter is a real possibility as the car was strapped down for two flatbed tows during the recent Ignition Saga and this may have disturbed something. I’d be keen to hear any reader experiences with worn 911 suspension causing pulling under braking – please drop me a line via Instagram.
What about actually driving the car? We did in fact get out on a lovely spring day a couple of weeks ago. The first part of the drive was through the beautiful Adelaide Hills and was delightful, but we made the fatal error of returning home via the South Eastern Freeway. On this particular Saturday they had blocked two of the three lanes and we were in crawling traffic for over an hour. To make it worse, the uphill gradient meant endless hill starts and slipping the clutch to go slowly enough. Thankfully the clutch survived, and the engine didn’t get too hot. Next time we will stick to the side roads!