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minerva95

minerva95

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Hi All - In October I'm taking my 1979 SC for a European road trip to take part in a classic rally in Greece (pandemic permitting) covering over 3000 miles in about 10 days. I'm quite new to older air-cooled Porsche ownership, and while I'm quietly confident in the mechanical condition of the car, 41 year old electrical components do give me some concerns. I'm looking for suggestions from anyone with experience of these cars on what would be sensible (essential..?) spares to take for trip like this..?
 
We have a 911SC 1981 which we have owned since 1994. It has done 50K miles during that time. The actual failure in service items that I recall are low in number. It has had two alternators; first one bearings and the second (recent 2019) diode failure. The fuel pump has never failed but got very noisy and was replaced some years ago. Something is saying that the current one is coming to an end, noisy again. The engine bay heater electric fan seized and was changed recently. Headlamp / indicator switch disintegrated inside. Speedo odometer drive failed and was specialist repaired.
We drove to Lisbon via Calais and across Spain in the late nineties and experienced rough running at speed, sort of misfire but irregular. This turned out to be that the fuel filter had burst and the debris ended up in the fuel distributor and injectors. Several hundred pounds later it was AOK and no trouble since. I now change fuel filters about once per year. I think that the root cause was rust from the tank as the filter (cut open) metal strip was rusty and much flake rust was present. Now has new tank and always keep tank as full as possible when in garage, especially over winter.

No other in service failures that I recall. The car passed its MOT yesterday with no advisories. ??

Wishing you all the best for a good trip.

Lawrence Moss
 
Nice car, nice colour !!
In my 33 years of ownership I've only had one or two electrical problems;
Firstly the solenoid mounted on the starter motor stopped working - just a click when turning the key. I dismantled it and cleaned the circuit-breaker contacts which were very dirty; no problems since then.
I thought it might be the ignition switch so I tried another but it (obviously) made no difference.
One of my rear fog lamps stopped working - the wiring runs inside a bit of body cavity so I had to run a new wire from the working one.
The feed to the red relay (fuel pump) corroded so I had to move one wire (the relay panel inside the front nearside wing).
My temperature controller between the seats isn't working properly - must get round to having a look! I have had problems with the little connector going to the sensor above the windscreen in the past.
Spares - I'd carry a fan belt (make sure it's the right one as sizes can differ slightly), spare fuel pump, spare fuel filter plus all the lamps (obligatory if travelling through France); check your orange inflator is working; I have a scissors jack and a board for soft surfaces. Has your airbox had the "explosion-relief" modification done? Nothing else comes immediately to mind.
Good luck with the trip.

 
Had my ‘80 SC for 31 years and did many foreign trips and the only electrical issues experienced on those journeys were resolved with a relay (on one occasion) and fuse replacements. True that during ownership the fuel pump was replaced at service time having become noisy after 25+ years but not sure I would consider taking spares of that nature, otherwise you could end up with a luggage compartment full of nothing but spares. Always had European breakdown cover but never needed it.
 
Thanks Lawrence - sounds like it could be worth checking / changing the fuel filter before we go. I also need to get the odometer drive fixed - not thinking of trying myself, so will also look for a specialist, but I think that can wait till the winter.
Great news that you passed the MOT first time - with my car being a '79 model, and hence MOT Exempt now, that's not something I need to stress over any more.
 
Thanks Old and Slow - I'll definitely change the fuel filter before the trip - the old one can then become the emergency spare - my fuel pump actually looks quite new (although I have no receipts or anything that came withe the car to confirm that) but I will definitely look into a spare "just in case".
You mentioned the airbox "explosion-relief" modification - this is something new to me. Do you have any more details..? How can I tell if this has been done..?
Thanks for your help yet again.
 
Thanks DIJ - fuel filter sounds like a no-brainer, and possibly a fuel pump if not silly money - I have some spare fuses ready to go, but will add a relay to that just in case.
Thanks for the help.
 
minerva95 said:
Thanks Lawrence - sounds like it could be worth checking / changing the fuel filter before we go. I also need to get the odometer drive fixed - not thinking of trying myself, so will also look for a specialist, but I think that can wait till the winter.
Great news that you passed the MOT first time - with my car being a '79 model, and hence MOT Exempt now, that's not something I need to stress over any more.
Click to expand...
This is the company that I used for the odometer repair: http://reapautomotivedesign.com/ Repair was effective and still working OK.
 
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