Wishing all our PORSCHE friends a very Merry Christmas a happy new year!
We send to you all our best wishes for a great 2022! Don't forget to buy a new 356 calendar. The car for November might look a little familiar to you. You can buy calendars at 356calendar.com
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It's been a pleasure being able to drive Miss April. Cruising at this years West Coast Holiday in Bend we put a couple of hundred miles on the car. One thing I did notice was a small (baby) rattle coming from the shift lever. It would stop rattling if I held the shift lever and start right up with my hand off. Annoying as the rattle was, I knew I what I had to do. I needed to restore the worn soft parts in the mechanism. Once I removed the three bolts and lifted the mechanism, I found the shift rod bushing was barely in place. It had become soft and pliable. It is a man-made composite of some type, and should be firm to provide support for the shift rod yet allow smooth linear and rotational movement. Here it is compared to the nice new one. It came out in two pieces. There are people who make a diagonal slit across the outer ring of the bushing so that it can be slid into place without removing the shift rod locking piece. This is an acceptable way to do this job faster, as opposed to removing the entire shift rod and then removing the shift lock collar from the shaft. My decision was made for me though, because someone had worked on this before and removed the shift lock collar and not re-installed it! Yes, mine was missing entirely! Photo below shows the new bushing installed. Note the hole in the shift rod. That is where the split sleeve goes through to hold the shift lock collar. I was able to source a shift lock collar from another owner. I bought the retaining split sleeve from Stoddard but I could have just gone to the hardware store. It is a 6mm x 32mm split sleeve. PORSCHE part number is not shown in the parts manual, but it is 900-095-022-00. While waiting for the parts to arrive, I gave the brass shift lock a super cleaning. There are some who think the shift lock should be painted black like the rest of the base. I believe this thinking comes from looking at early T6 cars. The shift lock was an option then, and when not ordered, there was a black plug in it's place. Also, many who have restored this area paint the entire base and shift lock black. I looked at original unrestored 356 C cars and also factory photos, and I think it should be left as bare brass. I have included a photo of the shift lock from the 356 C owners manual. Hard to see in the picture, but it sure looks different than the surrounding black base. One of the fun discoveries of cleaning the shift lock was found on the bottom. A date stamp. For those of you who have not worked on the shift rod, some people call this part the "peace pipe". Photo below probably explains why. The new lock collar (695.424.206.01) and split sleeve arrived and it was time to install the parts together. It's a very tight fit. I found rather than using a hammer, it was best to push it in there with my vice. A press would be the best solution, but the vice worked fine. If you are tackling this job, make sure the orientation of the lock collar is as shown below. When I was installing the shift rod back into place, it did not want to slide back all the way. Using my scope, I saw that it was hitting a small bracket in the tunnel that holds the brake lines in place. The floor of Miss June is original, and someone had managed to put a dent upwards on the floor, right under the tunnel, bending this bracket. Once I got the bracket bent back into shape, it slid right into position.
One more bit of advice on this job is that when installing the shift assembly back to the tunnel, make sure to depress the key lock down before tightening the three bolts that hold the shift assembly to the tunnel. This centers everything so that the shift lock will actually work! No more baby rattle. Back to driving! You just gotta love this video. If an ad comes up, click on skip ads and stick with this to the end. It sometimes shows as two videos. Starts with Jay in a different car, but hang in there..... Full video is 12 minutes. 356 owners are a lucky bunch. We have a wonderful hobby and good companionship amongst the group we enjoy the cars with. Some of us are fortunate to enjoy all of this in relative good health.
On a serious note, I have changed the Home Page of this website. I think most of us who own these cars can offer some help to others who are in need. I felt it was time that I spoke out about this. I bear the cost of this website and have asked for nothing in return, but I'm now asking that you consider looking at the two foundations I have listed on the Home Page, and think about making a donation. Thanks for visiting this website, and considering helping others. As for this website, much of it is now upgraded with better links and photos. Enjoy browsing the pages even if you have visited them before. Miss April currently wears a set of Vredestein tires that are getting old, and after my research, I have decided I will move to Michelin tires. I've had Vredestein in the past and they perform well, but they now say "Classic" on the sidewall in large font. Makes it seem less original, and more like you are rolling on a classic tire remake. Just my impression and I can't shake it. So, Michelin it is, and I thought I better get my order in before inflation and trucking costs go insane. I checked around, and the price for the tire is the same at all locations (the price of the tire is controlled) but there is quite a variation on delivery costs. Next was to check stock, and oops, the 165SR x 15 XZX that I decided upon was out of stock at all of the 5 locations I checked- including Coker, who appears to be the master distributor for these particular tires.
I did find a vendor that included shipping at no charge if I was buying a full set, so that is a good savings, but of course they get their tires from Coker, and here is the amazing thing... Delivery is 4 months away! Yup, I placed my order in October, and will get them (hopefully) in February. I confirmed this with Coker and others. This is not a problem for me, the Vredestein will do fine until then, but wow, that was a surprise. Just thought I would share this and if you know someone looking for tires, you might want to let them know. I've been working a little bit on cleaning up my tool kit items, and on one piece in particular I thought I would share some notes.
The spark plug wrench is a Klein 21 and has a "tommy bar" to put through the holes in the small end so that the wrench can be turned to install/remove spark plugs on the road. Inside of the large end, there is a rubber piece that holds the spark plug to keep it from falling out of the wrench during installation and removal. I decided while cleaning the wrench that I would remove the rubber piece for better cleaning. Glad I did because the wrench was full of dirt and all kinds of crud underneath the rubber piece (deeper into the socket). Below is a shot of the cleaned up tool and I included a shot showing the rubber piece that I temporarily removed for cleaning. If you want to see more photos of the complete tool kit, check out my Tool Kit section of the website. September 19th of each year PORSCHE owners are encouraged to get their cars out and drive, in celebration of the birthday of Ferry Porsche. Seems like each year I am busy and don't get the car out, but not this year.
The day started out with nice weather, so mowed the lawn and took car of other chores. By lunchtime it was starting to sprinkle, and it turned quickly to rain, so I parked myself in front of the TV and watched the Seahawks lose a game in overtime- yuck! Streets were wet, but the rain had stopped, so I got Miss April out for her first Drive Your 356 Day! Hope others were able to do the same! Today's photo is below. Check out the Events Tab for some photos taken at the 2021 Bend event!
This last week I was able to move underneath the car to work on the sway bar bushings. I believe they were original to the car, and in horrible shape. Once I got them out, they were not only rotted, but they felt like sponge. Really soft.
The sway bar was coated in grease and when I gave it a full bath in gasoline, it cleaned up nicely. I have read opinions about the original finish on sway bars as being some type of coating over bare metal. Well, I might have to disagree. I think often people with extensive knowledge on earlier cars think that the late 356's were the same as 356A or 356B. Take a look at the photos and decide for yourself. The bushings and the black painted sway bar sure look original to me, as did all the hardware with correct Kamax bolts. The sway bar finish in black paint cleaned up nicely enough that I decided to leave it without repainting. I did repaint the other fittings, but left the sway bar alone, and re-installed it- nicks, scratches and all. Trying to leave it original as possible. I also went to try and register the vintage California license plate for my car. Nope, they were not going to let a person living in Washington display a vintage California license plate. Nope, nada, no-way. The solution was to buy a restored original Washington license plate correct for 1965. Went in with that plate and everything went smoothly. The California one will now be a wall hanger. |
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July 2023
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