Life with a 914

There is something to always fix on an old car. The 914 is just as easy to work on any car as long as it is on jack stands. Below you will see the other repairs or modifications that have been done.

Replace torsion bar

Ever broke a torsion bar 400 miles from home and miles from the nearest Porsche dealer? If your by your self you'll hardly notice but with a passenger its hard on the tires. Have no fears though the torsion bar replacement is very easy and you could almost do it on the road.

1972 Chrome door handles and window winders

The old style chrome inside door latch and window winder are a nice touch to help dress up the door panel.

Overhaul pedal cluster

Another easy task for the do-it-your-selfer. New bushings make a huge difference if you have sticky petals. If your brake lights won't go out new pedal bushings will solve your problem.

Leaky master cylinders are a pain

Rebuilt pedal cluster

Front Caliper

Rear Caliper

Up Graded Wheels

I couldn't quite live with the original steel wheels and hub caps. So I began looking around for original rims. I like the Mahle rims, mostly because the Fuch's are so common. Plan is to restore these rims and shed the Empi's. Cost info: 2 rims for $60 in Calgary and 5 rims for $225 in Houston.

Pictures to the right show the transition of the 914, adding PORSCHE stripes and then Mahle rims and the orignal black top.

Rebuild brake calipers

Completed Rear Caliper

Install Rebuilt Front Caliper

Had trouble with the brakes sticking on. Likely caused by a bad spring on the cluster for releasing the brake or a bad brake line. All changed out now. Since I had everything apart it seemed prudent to redue the brakes. Good thing I did as all the rubber protective coverings were shot and one inside rear brake caliper was seized. Here is one all redone. Rebuilding the front calipers are much easier than the rear. Both can be easily done at home with out a need to buy a lot of fancy tools.

Practice caliper, actually in better shape than the ones on my car

Rusty calipers are a pain and almost impossible to get apart (unless you like cutting off the bolts). I had to soak mine for two days with the battery charger as described in "the Rust Removal" page. After that everything came apart nicely.

Caliper after derusted and wiped with a rag

After soaking the pins finally came out with little effort. A torx 27 did the trick to remove the caliper bolts. Overhaul kits are available and are pretty straight forward to install. I bought a spare caliper to practice on, but it wasn't really necessary.

Split rear capliper showing the inside adjuster (the tough part)

All the pieces (except other caliper half)

Here is the box of pieces for a rear brake. Overhaul wasn't to bad once you get all the parts. The hardest part to get out is the "C" clip that keeps the inside adjuster in place (you need to take this out to replace an o-ring. You need a real small set of snap ring pliers to get it out and putting it back together you need to clamp down the adjuster and still be able to get the snap ring pliers into the base of the caliper. Pelican parts and Auto Atlanta have details on the rebuild on their websites (see Technical page).

Inside adjuster removed

Inside adjuster (see o-ring)

Spring, cap and c-clip

I have always been partial the "appearance stipes" which were an original dealer installed item. I went with the positive stripes that were available in 1973.