Stereo fitting question and new owner update

[Sandspider]

Hi all.

Well, I've been the proud owner of a black 944 Lux for a little over a week now! (Pics will follow shortly). Just taken the beast from Bristol to Kent (drove like a dream the whole way, I absolutely love looking in the wing mirrors to see my gorgeous flared wheel arches!). I've noticed the odd little niggle like the handbrake warning light only coming on sporadically, the interior light only working from the passenger door, and the windscreen and headlight washer system squirting water out from under the bonnet! I will work on these in due time if they bother me enough. However, the more urgent question is as follows.
I'm replacing the head unit (a Grundig tape deck, so not original I'm pretty sure) with a JVC unit. All wires etc. sorted out, but I can't get the unit far enough into the cradle. The reason for this seems to be that there are two thick black metal tabs projecting from the inside of the headunit recess, and they are right in the middle of the spot where the back of the head unit should rest and about two inches too far forward for it to go in all the way. I've prodded them a bit and they're elastic, but I cannot bend them out of the way and get them to stay there. I was considering cuting them right out of the car, but before I try this drastic step I thought I'd just ask if anyone else had had this problem, and how they'd got round it? If there's a simple solution (such as "push the head unit in harder"!) that would be nice, but failing that it's out with the bolt cutters. (I've tried pushing the unit in pretty damn hard, but no luck). The unit that I took out was shorter than the replacement I'm trying to put in, but I don't think it was all that much shorter. (Don't have the units to hand at the moment...)

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Giles

 

[psi]

Hi Giles

Only had mine for 5/6 months now and they are really great cars, good choice!!!

As for the stereo issue. Just had a look in mine the other day and noticed that there looked like something had been cut away about half way down the stereo insert. So I presume what you are talking about is the things that my car is missing. My stereo fits fine (thread on here somewhere), So I presume you can just get rid of them. Bear in mind 80's car stereos were cassette and about 2" shorter than modern machines.

 

[sawood12]

Sliding in the head unit can be a bit frustrating. I can never get it in first time and usually have to spend a few minutes attempting to guide the unit into those springs you mentioned. Once you get it lined up it does slide in perfectly. You have to sort of tilt the head unit at different angles until you stumble across the right angle to allow the unit to slide in. Persevere, modern head units do fit in perfectly.

 

[Sandspider]

Hi both.

Thanks Scott - quite right. Just had to force the cage up as high as possible then force the back of the unit up as high as possible. I did have the bolt cutters waiting in the other hand, so maybe the fear did the trick!

And thanks Neil - yeah, I looked for about a year to find this car, and it does look to be a good one. Hope I still think that after the next MOT!

Right, I'm off to drive her down the valley and test out the new stereo []

Cheers all.

 

[Sandspider]

Thanks Scotty.

The drivers door switch pops out fine, but the spring and mechanism behind it are rather corroded. I'll pull it out and clean it, and see how we go from there.

And you're right, the pop up switch under the handbrake wasn't popping up properly, but that's now fixed. Cheers!

And one more question. I find when driven at quite high revs (4000 plus) there's a kind of wah-wah noise from the rear. This keeps going if I let up on the accelerator, and even with the car stationary. I assume this is the torque tube, and I read somewhere some noise is normal but if it becomes a rumble, that's bad. How do I tell the difference between the wah-wah noise and a rumble?! If it does start to rumble, does that mean the bearings of the torque tube are going, and is this expensive to fix?

Many thanks again. Very impressed by how many helpful people and answers there are here.

Cheers,

Giles

 

[Alpine]

Regarding drivers door switch, the unit earths itself so if it is corroded, a good clean up will probably sort it

 

[peanut]

welcome Giles. I see you are getting aquainted with your car. []

I would you suggest you build up the max revs slowly in case the car has been previously laid up for a while or driven infrequently. Don't want to break something expensive in the first week.
Talking of expensive don't be tempted to dump the clutch and spin the wheels too much.
The majority of 944 clutches have a rubber insert in them to cushion the drive and transmission vibration and noise. It won't take that kind of punishment especially if its a few years old . New clutches are a gearbox and tube out or an engine out job and extremly expensive. Lost count of the number of broken clutches on these forums from wheel spinning antics

 

[Sandspider]

Thanks Phil, that's what I'm hoping. It's on my (now quite long) list of things to do. Coming home from the pub on Monday night (before driving back to Bristol in the pouring rain) the car kept conking out on the flooded roads. Peered under the bonnet and found arcing from my HT leads to a Jubilee clip that holds part of the cooling system together. Out with a rag and the trusty duct tape, and problem solved. But the HT leads are old and manky, and I will be getting new ones shortly. May as well do the plugs at the same time - I think an online shop is in order. (Any suggestions for cheapest / best place to get lead and plug sets?) Will have a look at the online spare parts sources thread after writing this.

Hi Nick. Yep, I love it! She's so much fun, and so attractive. Better than my girlfriend! (Ahem. You didn't see this here, no one did, keep reading). The car was driven weekly, so has been regularly used but is still low mileage (just over 73000 now). Another priority is getting the belts done, as those were last done 4 years ago, even though it was only 20,000 miles - best to be on the safe side. So far, I've not spun the wheels even once, and barely been over 4500 revs. In fact, I'm probably being too gentle, but as you say, I def don't want to break anything expensive. Clutch was replaced at 55,000 miles so not too worried about that. Mainly concerned about the noise from the torque tube at the moment, but as I say, it's not rumbling yet, so hopefully still a few thousand miles to go.

Will keep you posted, and will take some photos when (if) the damn rain finally stops.

Cheers.

PS - I even rented a garage for her, as I'm going abroad on Thursday, and didn't really want to leave her on the street. Anyone else suffering from Porsche related paranoia? Come to think of it, does anyone else find themselves referring to their cars as her / she?! A serious case of new owner syndrome!

G