Porsche 924 shite - bleeding missing brakes

[N Dentressangle]

OSR wheel removed:

There's definitely been some tinkering:

That'll need tidying up and the right pipework re-installing.

[N Dentressangle]

I have moments when I look at this and it seems overwhelming. But then I guess you have to break the jobs down and see each one as manageable. And remember there are jobs you don't have - like rebuilding the engine or gearbox, or welding up tons of rust.

So let's start with the brakes. Here she is, ready for bleeding properly:

No, the yellow paint is NOT my fault.

I also want to sort the handbrake out. Someone seems to have completely deleted it! The parts you can see above are all I have - there's a cable sticking out from under the car, a long cable, a yoke of some kind and the lever assembly. The actuators on the drums look to be AWOL:

You can see the holes at the bottom of the backplate where I think they should be.

So, what I could do with now is an idea of what I'm missing. Hmmm...

I'll start bleeding things up and have a think.

[Matty]

Walk in the park this i should imagine, compared to what we usually see you doing!

[N Dentressangle]

37 minutes ago, Matty said:

Walk in the park this i should imagine, compared to what we usually see you doing!

Not sure about that! There are a few too many unknowns... Plan is to sort the bits I can do then get the pros round the corner to help with anything complex. Didn't pay much for this bus so I should be able to find something in the kitty.

[comfortablynumb]

A mate had a LHD 924, from Upper Heyford airbase, when that was a thing. He was traumatised by parts prices too.

Them he discovered that if he cross-referenced with Audi parts, it frequently brought up the same part at a fraction of the price 

That was years ago, don't know if it still works now

[N Dentressangle]

Probably does. Vast majority of it looks like VAG parts bin stuff - loads of Mk1 Golf things I recognise from when I had one when I was 18.

Brakes are sorted. Rear wheel cylinders look newish, so the bleed nipples opened and all bled up no problem.

Front calipers were a different story. Mr Gibbon had been at them in the past:

Bollocks. HTF am I supposed to bleed that? I can see why the previous owner left tons of air in now.

However, there are some moments when weird parts hoarding pays off, and this was one of them. The car came with a spare caliper, but with an equally bolloxed nipple. With mole grips and heat it came out, and I had something to match a spare nipple to. Somewhere in my stash were two ancient Mazda Bongo calipers someone gave me once - wonder if the nipples are the same?

Yup, identical thread and all that good stuff, but with the hex in perfect* usable condition!

Took precautions before fiddling with unfamiliar nipples:

Bled the fronts up and we now have a brake pedal.

Time to sort the handbrake now. Bit more of a puzzle.

[N Dentressangle]

Couldn't be bothered to do the handbrake so fixed the wipers instead. They were sticking right in my eyeline, and wouldn't work at all.

Hmm. Fuse looked a bit careworn, so I replaced that. There was another 8A fuse lying in the footwell, so I suspected I was not the first to go down this particular pathway. Didn't bode well.

Turned the wipers on and they did a sweep and parked. However, they wouldn't repeat the trick. WTF? Then I noticed something:

That's the crank for the wipers in the middle, just above that battery that's obviously too big for the car. You know, the one that's too long so the wiper crank hits it and stops. Making it look like the wipers don't work.

FFS. Ah well, easy fix I guess. Better order the right battery!

[Stinkwheel]

You now have a Nice big spare battery at least, and soon to be working wipers

[andy18s]

1 hour ago, comfortablynumb said:

A mate had a LHD 924, from Upper Heyford airbase, when that was a thing. He was traumatised by parts prices too.

Them he discovered that if he cross-referenced with Audi parts, it frequently brought up the same part at a fraction of the price 

That was years ago, don't know if it still works now

YouTuber Matt Armstrong is rebuilding a new-ish Murcialago(?) and he loves doing the part number searches.

His latest was a set of bonnet aero latches for the rear clamshell. 

£770 from Lamborghini but found the exact same items for sale in the UK for £70. 

Lamborghini didn't even bother changing the packaging,just slapped their own barcode on it.

[comfortablynumb]

And the next time someone says " why do you hoard parts?'...👍

[inconsistant]

I know this sounds unlikely but if you have a Porsche dealership close to you it’s worth trying them for spares, most mechanical stuff isn’t eye watering, and the dealers are usually cheaper than other spares places and almost always cheaper than ebay sellers, who just buy from the dealers and add a mark-up.